Prime Minister Harper takes the stage at Calgary’s Cowboys nightclub

CALGARY – He was Prime Minister Harper while on stage Friday night at the Conservative Party Convention in Calgary, but on stage at the “Cowboys” nightclub he was the man in black.

Harper loosened up after his convention performance with a delegates only performance at “Cowboys.”

Backed by the band Herringbone, Harper handled keyboards and lead vocals for the half-hour set. And given the set list he and his fellow musicans were all appropriately garbed in black.

They opened with “The Hockey Song” by Stompin Tom Connors and also knocked off a version of Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash — the original man in black.

After five tunes the crowd clamoured for more and the Harper band obliged with a rocking encore performance of BTO’s Taking Care of Business.

Also on the playlist was Fast as You by Dwight Yoakam, Rock You Like a Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show and “Quand Le Soleil Dit Bonjour Aux Montagnes” (“The French Song”) by Lucille Star.

Though delegates packed the dance floor in front of the stage, they didn’t really do all that much dancing. The exception being Burlington MP Mike Wallance and Senator Nancy Greene Raine who roused the crowd dancing to Oh What a Night.