. . . VERY DEFINITELY the Canadian husband-and-wife alt.country team, Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, who came out of left field and taught us all a lesson in songcraft and unabashed rootsiness.

Both are regulars with Sara McLachlan’s touring band, both have released albums with Canada’s Six Shooter Records — although, alas, not together. (Although, I later learned, this may soon change.)

They OPENED (for Chrissake, they should have headlined!) proceedings on the Levi’s sound stage on Saturday afternoon to a handful of onlookers, but by the time their set ended they’d won the hardened and boozed-up hearts of a hundred or so of the ‘Koppi faithful.

Doucet came across like some hep rockabilly cat twanging away at his Gretsch White Falcon while McClelland banged away on her aged Martin, melting us with her sweet voice. Clever songs, too, with witty, sardonic lyrics. They closed their all-too brief set with a cover of Neil Young’s Winterlong.

The really good news is that they’re on a mini-tour of sorts with Farryl Purkiss (no slouch either, in the singer-songwriter department).

Here are the dates:

Tonight, Tuesday, August 10 — Dorpstraat, Stellenbosch

Tomorrow and Thursday, August 11 and 12 — Mercury Lounge, Cape Town

Friday, August 13 — Back to Basics, Westdene, Johannesburg

Saturday, August 14 — Alexander Theatre, Johannesburg.

Don’t miss them, trust me.

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