Jon-Rae And The River Horseshoe Tavern June 29, 2007

Jon-Rae Fletcher may as well don a priest's collar when he takes to the stage, because his faith, both religious and in his music, is enough to inspire onlookers to fits of ecstasy every time he and his River play a gig. It's quite likely that there isn't a more pious man on the planet that says f*ck as much as Fletcher, but he's got enough songs about Jesus that the Lord might one day forgive his blasphemy. Not a lot of other bands dare to try and make their way by turning gospel music into rock and roll these days, but Jon-Rae And The River have managed to do just that without coming off as preachy.

It's hard to watch much that happens on the River stage, aside from Fletcher's inspired singing, but it was clear on this night that Jon-Rae and his Big Smoke River have never been tighter. They cycled through old favourites and threw in a few new tracks that had audience members salivating at the thought of a new Jon-Rae album. If the capacity crowd had their way, the band would have played encores 'til dawn. There's a reason why this local group can play a show every month and sell out each time.

(4.5/5)