I checked out a new restaurant and bar in downtown Winnipeg in the past week. There were a couple warm up acts if you want to call them that before Tim Butler and his players performed. The Modern Restaurant and Lounge at Portage and Carlton hosts a weekly parade of Blues, Rock and Folk Rock musicians from across the city. The place is small but so what. I remember visiting the Baked Potato behind the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles co-owned, I might ad, by a fellow Winnipegger in the 80’s where Don Randy played that bar. The Potato had a few school desks as tables and my heavens, he had a baby grand piano in the middle of the room, drums, a wicked bass player and a full horn section. People ate it up. The place was popular and they lined up outside. I can’t imagine lining up outside in 20 below here but summers could be cool at the Modern. Don’t wait until summer to check it out. So far. two main players in town are host musicians. Tim Butler is doing it another night while Kathy Kennedy and The Shadow Band is there on Thursday nights. Kathy is a fine blues singer and has a good band backing her. Now, she’s invited people to jam too so I’m not sure how that’s going to turn out. Judging from the other blues bars in Winnipeg we don’t suffer from musicians to fill the bill. I’ll tell you more after I’ve visited Kathy’s show later this week.
