You’ve got to love a man whose promo photo for his weekly songwriters’ event at Calgary’s King Eddy captures him wearing a severely un-trendy Alberta Industrial Steam Cleaning (Red Deer) ballcap as he stares out at the camera with, “I’ve survived it; see if you can survive it, too,” eyes. The photo and the terse description of Carter Felker’s music give notice that there will be no bullshit here, only real. Real feelings. Real songs. Real stories. And real deals when you realize that you can savour brunch at the King Eddy on Sunday mornings at 11:30 a.m. and enjoy Felker and friends’ music alongside that with no cover charge.
Anchoring a weekly event like the brunch, where the menu features everything from breakfast staples of eggs, bacon and biscuits to breakfast poutine, tortillas, vegetarian options and even the Eddy’s coveted burger (Felker’s personal go-to is the buttermilk fried chicken sandwich), has fulfilled a long-harboured wish for the songwriter extraordinaire.
“There’s guys like Tom Phillips that have their regular gig, and I’ve always been, ‘Man, I envy that!’ I also envy that he’s got a fanbase that shows up and allows him to have that regular gig, which is great,” Felker says in a phone call from his Calgary home.
“Then you go see Tom and it’s, ‘Oh my God these songs are so good!’ You’re waiting for that one song, or he brings out a deep cut – you know that song, ‘There’s crosses on the highway’ (Lack of Rain, from Phillips’ and the Men of Constant Sorrow’s 2004 old Ironwood live album). If he does that, whoa, my whole next month is gonna be a good month.”
Apart from snagging the Eddy gig and having a new album in the can (watch for pre-sales coming soon), Felker, too, will no doubt have fans leaning forward waiting for “that one song.”
A likely candidate is Everyday Life, the title track from his 2016 album, which was covered by Del Barber (albeit with the beautiful pathos stripped away for some inexplicable reason) on his 2019 album, Easy Keeper. Or maybe it will be Drink the Water, which earned cash in a songwriting contest so Felker could record Everyday Life in the first place. Another great candidate is Good Woman; a stunning version of this song appears on Shaela Miller’s 2021 album Big Hair Small City. Winnipeg’s Micah Erenberg has even worked up a “Flamin’ Groovies kind of version” of Felker’s Refuse to Dance.
But Felker is not just relying on his own prodigious talents. To date, he’s invited Skinny Dyck, up-and-comer Heather May, and his fiancée Amy Nelson to join him onstage.
Look for Luke Colborne of Lucky Sonne on the 12th, and Mint Records-veteran John Guliak of Edmonton to appear alongside Carter on Sept. 19.
And while Felker’s goal is simple – to work up new songs and swap good ones – at first, the idea of a brunch gig seemed, well, a bit out to lunch.
“I was like, 11:30? That’s pretty Goddamn early. So I showed up and I thought, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of people here!’
“I’m just happy to be able to help musicians with a little bit of cash when they’ve been on the road, too.”
And, one more cool thing is happening.
“Now I’m at the King Eddy and I look out and there’s starting to be people I recognize. I met this one guy, Jeff, and he’s been there with a family like three weeks in a row, and I’m like, ‘Holy crap!’ I’m starting to get the regulars who come in almost every Saturday or Sunday.
“One fan at a time is fine by me.”
Carter Felker plays Sundays at 11:30 a.m. at the King Eddy. For information, go to https://kingeddy.ca/
