If straight ahead groove oriented rhythm and blues is what you need to get you through some tough times, good times or ordinary times then the new album by The Blue Mules is right up your alley.

Trent Schmiedge, Davidson raised guitarist, singer and songwriter for The Blue Mules, said the three-piece blues and funk band’s debut album, “Blues Ain’t That Bad,” came out a little over two weeks ago. He said the full-length cd was recorded over a period of a year at Earl Pereira’s Fame Machine studio in Saskatoon.

“We just recorded on and off when we had time because with his touring schedule and he’s touring all over and mine, we just kind of pieced it together,” said Schmiedge, noting Pereira is the driving force behind rock band The Steadies. “We had some fun doing it when we had the chance.”

Schmiedge said this is his first album where he has been in charge, but he has played guitar and contributed vocals on a few albums by other bands before. He said all the songs on “Blues Ain’t That Bad” are originals and he wrote the lyrics and music for the tunes.

“Most of them were just written in the studio,” he said. “There are songs that I had written a while back and never had a chance to get into a studio until last year. Some of these songs are 10 years old.”

The Blue Mules have been together for around two years, said Schmiedge, and “play now and then” for fun. He said Saskatoon’s Dale Ehman plays bass and Graham Templeman pounds the drums in the group.

Schmiedge said the band is hitting the road this fall to tour for the album. He said they would be playing clubs across Western Canada in November “after the Riders win the Grey Cup” including stops in Banff, Red Deer and Edmonton.

“That is the strategy,” he said. “Thebluemules.com is (our) website. We have dates on there and music.”

The cd can be picked up at Stedmans in Davidson and is also available on cdbaby.com for purchase and download. Schmiedge said if people are into Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Blues Ain’t That Bad” should make them as happy as it makes him.

“I’ve always wanted to put out a record like this,” he said. “I’ve played in rock bands and country bands, (but) my heart has always been in this style of music. We’re a very R&B band. That is the music I like and I wanted to try something different.”

A team of Davidson volunteers took it upon themselves earlier this summer to make a corner in the town a little easier on the eyes.

Davidson farmer Guy Sampson said the corner of Borden Street and Government Road where the old lift station is located was “an ugly little corner” in town, so he decided something needed to be done. He said the fact his daughter Kristin Sampson lives right beside the corner made the need to beautify the area that much more pressing.

“I asked Communities in Bloom if they’d be interested in doing something (and) Stuart Dougan said they were so busy with other projects, but they checked with the town and they said it would be fine to go ahead and do something,” said Sampson. “I got some volunteers and planted some trees and tried to spruce it up a bit.”

The eight volunteers including Sampson spent a few evenings in late July and early August planting the trees on the corner, then spread a bit of mulch over the problem areas and even set up a display of an old wagon in the middle of the park.

Sampson said everything involved in the project was donated to the volunteers and Communities in Bloom is now in charge of maintaining the area. He said the group has no other beautification ideas in mind, but that doesn’t mean they’re finished with the corner.

“There are a few more things we want to do to it, but right now it looks pretty good.”

After a one-year delay, construction on Highway 15 has finally begun.

Greg Brkich, MLA for Arm River–Watrous, said the repair and upgrade to 13 kilometres of Hwy. 15 east of Kenaston was pushed back a year due to a combination of factors including financial, weather conditions and a late tendering on the project, but he’s “glad” work has begun on it now. He said improvements needed to start for two reasons including the poor condition of the roadway and the necessity of a new high-clearance corridor in the province.

“We needed to make it a wide-load corridor to get some of the wide-load (trucks) off Highway 11,” said Brkich. “Highway 11 is getting busier all the time.”

Grading on the stretch of highway that spans from about 2 km to 15 km east of the junction with Hwy. 11 began May 27 and is scheduled to be completed by late fall depending on the contractor’s schedule and weather conditions. The cost of the project is $4.3 million.

Brkich said this construction is the “first stage” in a three-stage project to improve the highway. He said the total cost of the project would come to around $30 million once completed.

The second stage of the “long-range plan” for Hwy. 15 involves work closer to Highway 2 and that is slated to begin next year, said Brkich. He said the final stage in the development would focus on the intersection of Hwy 11 and 15 at Kenaston.

“That will be the last section that will be fixed,” he said. “When it’s finally completed they may change the intersection. They are looking at it (now), but nothing has been decided yet. That is a couple years away.”

The new Davidson Swimming Pool committee has a chance to win $50,000 towards the construction of the new pool if they can garner enough votes from community members.
It was announced at the Roughriders game this past Saturday that an application to fund health and wellness initiatives in their community from Swimming Pool committee members Laura Williams and Brenna Siroski has made it into the top eight and they now have the opportunity to take home one of three prizes from Richardson Pioneer Rider Nation Community Celebration. The top three finalists would be announced at the Riders’ Sept. 14 home game and be mentioned during the half-time show.
In order to make it into the top three, people have to vote for the Swimming Pool bid online at www.101greycupfestival.ca and they can cast their vote daily. The winning community would receive $50,000 and the two runner-ups will get $25,000 each.
The three winning communities will also be awarded $10,000 each to host a Grey Cup Festival party that Richardson would be bringing to the communities.
“Its up to the fans to determine who the top three (are) and eventually (who) the grand prize winner will be,” said contest volunteer committee chair Craig Fiske.
New Davidson Swimming Pool committee member Jesse Foster said they are really excited over this announcement and happy to show people how to vote if anyone has any questions. She said Davidson would be profiled on CBC, CTV, Harvard Broadcasting and in The Leader Post as part of the contest.
“However the rest is up to us,” said Foster. “The community with the most votes wins.”
The Pool committee invites everyone to visit the Grey Cup Festival website and vote for their community of choice.

A massive new wholesale outlet planned for Dundurn is one step closer to opening day after a successful trade mission to China last month by a contingent of local officials.

Fred Wilson, Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Dundurn, said 12 local representatives headed to Beijing, Chongquing and Hangzhou July 7 to 15 on an invite from the mayors of those cities to show Chinese investors the 155-acre Dundurn International Exhibition Centre is for real. He said while in China the officials met with potential investors and entrepreneurs in an effort to drum up interest in the centre.

“My understanding is it was very successful,” said Wilson, noting Dundurn Mayor Doug Narraway and Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison were part of the 12-member contingent that went to China. “The language barrier restricted our exposure considerably…but just by talking to the Brightenview staff and other people that were there, they were very pleased with the reception that we had.”

Wilson said each member of the group made a presentation when arriving in a new city to extol the virtues of doing business at the wholesale outlet that could potentially house 350 Chinese businesses and employ over 1,000 people once construction is completed in late 2014. He said the mission was “helped out quite a bit” by the participation of the Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority (SREDA) when it came to the marketing of the centre and the area.

“It’s a little bigger than Dundurn, it’s a regional thing now,” he said. “Their participation is very (much) needed.”

Narraway said the mission was “very well attended” by Chinese businesses and city representatives at all the group’s stops and everyone they met in China seemed really interested in the project. He said this should go a long way in showing potential investors the Dundurn International Exhibition Centre is a good way to develop their business.

“At the end of the day it was all a SREDA driven mission and the Chinese believe pretty firmly in titles and so on, so having the mayor and the reeve and the mayor of Saskatoon definitely showed our support of SREDA and the Brightenview project,” said Narraway. “SREDA also represents the Town of Dundurn and the RM of Dundurn, so they are the ones that are helping us to better ourselves to get the growth growing and to bring in companies to help us.”

To read more please see the Aug. 12 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The risk of infection of the West Nile virus has escalated to moderate in the Heartland and Five Hills heath regions, but the possibility of the risk increasing to severe is high.

Dr. David Torr, consulting medical health officer for Heartland Health Region, said this is the peak season for contracting the virus in the region because the migrating birds that bring in West Nile are in the area, the Culex tarsalis mosquitoes are here in high numbers and there are more people active outdoors during August. He said there have been no cases of the West Nile virus reported in humans yet, but if people do not take precautions that is going to change.

“We identified (West Nile) in the birds and the mosquitoes are around and are biting or will have bitten infected birds and that will lead to human infections,” said Torr. “As much as we haven’t seen (human cases) we are expecting them. We are hoping that if people take the appropriate precautions that we will see much less or much fewer cases.”

Torr said people need to wear protective clothing, use insect repellent containing DEET, clean and empty containers that collect water and keep screens on windows and doors in good shape. He said reducing time outdoors between dusk and dawn is also important because the Culex tarsalis mosquito that transmits the virus is an evening and morning biter.

“The Culex tarsalis requires some warmth, but it doesn’t like the mid-day heat,” he said. “It’s rare that you’ll be bitten by it in the mid-day sun although it can happen in shady areas. The other mosquitoes, the nuisance mosquitoes, come all the time (and) anytime, but they are not responsible for spreading the virus.”

To read more please see the Aug. 12 print edition of The Davidson Leader.