This Sunday rocks.
 The whole week in fact.
 But save your shekels for Sunday night as there are two huge shows happening.
 Indiana ’80s roots rocker John Mellencamp plays the Enmax Centre at 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 28. he has numerous hits including “Jack and Diane,’ Paper In Fire,” “Small Town” “R.O.CK. In the U.S.A”  and “Pink houses,” to name just a few.
Tickets are $110.50, $99.50 and $82.50.

 Across town, if you grew up in the ’90s and 2000 you’d remember the  Vancouver alt rockers Default who charted a number of hits including “Wasting My Time” and Deny.
 They play Average Joes with Age of Days at 8 p.m.

 But, before that, there are a lot of other things happening.
Chicago indie rock band Thompson Springs are at the Slice,Tuesday, Oct, 23 with Biloxi Parish.

Down the street at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Cincinnati/ Vancouver island folk duo Big Little Lions perform on Wednesday, Oct. 24.
First, ’70s folk/ country musician Murray McLauchlan visits the Yates Theatre  and is excited to present his hits and  Italian  guitar playing styled new music at the Yates Theatre on Oct. 25. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $53.50.

 As a bonus, Petunia and the Vipers play a special Thursday night show at the Slice. Tickets are $10. The show begins at 8:30 p.m.

The next night, the Louisiana Hayride hits the Yates Theatre. The Tribute to the classic country radio show features musical tributes to Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle. Tickets are $50. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

 Playgoers of Lethbridge is excited to bring the farce “ Til Beth Do us Part to Country Kitchen, Oct. 23-27.
While they have done several plays penned by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, who among other things , have written for the Golden Girls, for this production Playgoers welcomes aboard new director Lori Garner, who has  a long history working with the Raymond Playhouse.

 “The first show I did with Raymond was Anne of Green Gables about 35 years ago and I played Anne, so that shows how far I go back,” Garner chuckled, adding she is excited to work with Playgoers of Lethbridge for the first time.
“I always wanted to work with Playgoers, so I offered my services as a director to the board so myself, Linda Johnson and Rita Peterson read some scripts. I’ve seen many of their shows, so I knew what to expect. I know they like to do something lighter for their dinner theatres,” she said.

’Til Beth Does Us Part is the tale of career-driven Suzannah Hayden who needs a lot more help on the home front than she's getting from her husband, Gibby.

“Lately, nurturing his marriage of 27 years hasn't been the highest priority for Gibby, but pretty soon he'll wish it had been. Enter Beth Bailey, Suzannah's newly-hired assistant, a gregarious, highly-motivated daughter of the South. To Suzannah's delight, Beth explodes into the Hayden household and whips it into an organized, well-run machine. This couldn't have happened at a better time for Suzannah, since her boss, Celia Carmichael, the C.E.O. of Carmichael's Chocolates, is flying in soon for an important make-or-break business dinner. Gibby grows increasingly wary as Beth insinuates herself into more and more aspects of their lives. In no time, she exceeds her duties as a household assistant and interjects herself into Suzannah's career. As Suzannah's dependence on Beth grows and Gibby's dislike of the woman deepens, Suzannah gives Beth carte blanche to change anything in the household that ‘will make it run more efficiently.’ And the change Beth makes is convincing Suzannah that Gibby must go. When he realizes it's Suzannah's career Beth is really after, a newly-determined Gibby sets out to save his marriage aided by Suzannah's best friend, Margo, a wisecracking and self-deprecating divorcee and her ex-husband, Hank, who is in the midst of his own mid-life crisis. Their effort to stop Beth at any cost sets up the wildly funny climax in which things go uproariously awry just as Suzannah's boss arrives for that all-important dinner,” according to the official synopsis.
“He needs to help out more around the house. So basically Suzannah hires Beth to help out and she helps Gibby right out of the house,” Garner chuckled.

“ It’s only after he’s living in a broken down apartment with his best friend, that he realizes how important it is for him to work on his marriage and help his wife,” she continued.

“It’s been a blast. The cast are a lot of fun and it’s always exciting to work with new people,” she said.

“ It’s a little scary not having an actual theatre and only being able to get in two days before. In Raymond, we have a theatre and we can build the sets in advance. But we’ve got cast here who have done this before,” she said.

 The cast includes some familiar faces who have performed with Playgoers of Lethbridge and Hatrix Theatre including Marci Stork playing Celia Carmichael, owner of Carmichael’s chocolates and Suzannah’s boss, Shelly David playing Beth, Kirk Boehmer as Hank and Jocelyn Steinborn as Suzannah. It also includes new faces including Jack Ford as weatherman  Gibby and Christina Peterson as Celia.
 John Ford is excited to make his Playgoers of Lethbridge debut as Gibby, who wasn’t expecting  to get the lead role.

Murray McLauchlan has a pretty storied career including numerous awards dating back to 1972 including 11 Juno awards , the most recent being  Country Male Vocalist of the year in 1988 and the Order of Canada, and is a pilot to boot, but he’s not one to rest on his laurels.

 He returns to Lethbridge to perform a solo show at the Yates Theatre, Oct. 25 with upright bassist Victor Bateman.
McLauchlan has written quite a few hits dating back to the early  ’70s when  American folk singer Tom Rush Recorded “Child’s Song.”

"Honky Red" were performed by Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Bobby Neuwirth. He received early song cuts by country music star George Hamilton IV.
“It’s been a few years since I was in Lethbridge, But I’ll be back on Oct. 25,” said McLauchlan, cleaning up his cabin for winter. He is also known for “Down by The Henry Moore.”

He was last here with  Marc Jordan, Ian Thomas and  Cindy Church, aka Lunch at Allen’s, back in 2016.
 McLauchlan began writing  and performing songs in his late teens. After playing at major music festivals including The Philadelphia Folk Festival, where he appeared alongside Jim Croce and John Prine, and Mariposa where he gave up half of his concert time so Joni Mitchell could play, he attracted wider attention on the club circuit, playing such well-known rooms as The Riverboat in Toronto, The Bitter End in New York, The Main Point in Philadelphia, and the famous Earl of Old Town in Chicago.

McLauchlan has  recorded 19 albums in the past 40-some years.

 But for this show, he plans on focusing on his last two albums, particularly  the most recent, 2017’s “Love Can’t Tell Time,” which celebrates his love of learning  how to play Italian style guitar.
“I went to Italy in 2013 and was listening to a lot of jazz and classical guitar and I learned how to play it. I really loved that experience. It reminded me how much I love playing guitar,” he said.