Various - From the Ladle to the Gravy (1995)

We're going to ease ourselves into our next few posts with this, a great release from Brent Oliver's Edmonton-based Green Pepper Records. We picked this up mostly because our obsessive behaviours the couple of Calgary bands on here (Field Day and Fire Engine Red - literally, a couple of Calgary bands).

The concept is pretty straight-forward: get a bunch of Alberta-based bands to, well record a random selection of cover songs. Field Day's haphazard dash through the Beatles' "Help" kicks things off, and Fire Engine Red show their roots with with Steve Earle's "Billy Austin." So, even judging just by our local folks, you can tell there isn't a lot of focus here.

But the highlight is from one of our favourites from Dirt City - Pal Joey's take on Channel 3's "I Didn't Know" is right on the money. And Lyle Bell helps Molly's Reach's take on "867-5309/Jenny."

Okay, so maybe good things can come from Edmonton.