Misery Mountain Boys bassist Lindsey Bueckert may not live in Prince Albert anymore, but the lessons she learned during her early years in the Gateway to the North are still with her.
Bueckert, along with frontman Steven Gevenich, clarinetist/saxophonist Sam Toms, and drummer Ethan Markwart will hit the stage at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre on Wednesday, Sept. 21. She said it’s exciting to come back and play in the City she spent the early parts of her life.
“I still have lots of family out here, and to be able to come back home and perform in town gives me great joy,” she said. “I do come back for a visit every now and again, usually when I’m heading up to my family cabin up at Emma Lake. To see how it’s grown since I’ve moved away is always a treat.”
Bueckert has a wealth of musical memories in Prince Albert. The first instrument she spent serious time on was the flute, which she began playing as a Grade 4 student at the old Prince Charles School. She also began guitar lessons in Prince Albert after receiving one as a Christmas gift from her parents.
“It was in a basement suite, I can’t remember what the instructor’s name was anymore, but I still remember how to play the G chord, thankfully,” she said. “My grandparents, Verna and Cliff Scott, had a keyboard in their house that I would spend hours with headphones on, just playing around with all the different sound settings and plinking away.”
Wednesday’s performance in Prince Albert doesn’t just mark the Misery Mountain Boys’ first trip to Saskatchewan as a musical group. It’s also the first chance to get out and play some new music.
The group got back in the studio during the COVID shutdowns and recorded their first album since 2021. They released the album’s first single, ‘Maybe I could Change your Mind’, on Thursday.
“It’s just very exciting,” lead singer Steven Gevenich said when asked about the new release. “The last time (we released new music) in 2019, we didn’t really know what was coming in terms of the whole pandemic and everything, so it feels good to finally be on the other side of that and moving forward.”
Full Moon Shuffle features 10 songs, including ‘Maybe I could Change your Mind’. The band’s website describes their music as something you’d hear from behind a rotating bookcase at a 1930s speakeasy.
Gevenich said they’ve always loved quick-tempo, rhythmically driven dance music, and that’s what they try to bring to each performance.
“I like the instrumentation and musicianship in this style of early jazz—like 1930s New Orleans and hot club jazz,” he said. “It just always spoke to me.”
The Misery Mountain Boys toured through British Columbia and Alberta over the summer, playing numerous music festivals in both provinces. Gevenich said it was exciting to get back on the road after months of cancellations, delays and postponements due to COVID-19.
“It’s been amazing,” he said. “You can really tell a lot of the audiences were just as starved for music as we were. To be out there, especially on the beautiful summer nights, enjoying the live music with friends, there’s really nothing better than that.”
The Misery Mountain Boys perform on Wednesday, Sept. 21 at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre. Showtime is 7 p.m. For tickets, visit the E.A. Rawlinson box office, or them online at www.earc.ca.