EDMONTON -- Is it a sin to expect Take Me to the River at Al Green's first show in Edmonton and feel crushed when he doesn't bring it? Then many of us who attended the word and music of Reverend Al on Monday night are sinners, brothers and sisters. And remember that in Al Green's neck of the woods, you pronounce sin with two syllables: "Si-yin, y'all."

There was sin and there was soul at the half-full Jubilee Auditorium on election night. After Green ended a full-on rock 'n' soul sermon that stopped just short of Vegas Elvis self-parody, the crowd was on its feet demanding an encore that never came. It went on for some time. When roadies started breaking down the gear, the cheering diehards got the idea. Al Green has left the building, Take Me to the River left unsung. Doesn't the good reverend know the showbiz commandment - Thou Shalt Do Thy Classic Song and Hold No

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OK, he did Let's Stay Together. Here's a perfect theme song for a minority government if there ever was one. A large band pumped out the funk to great effect. Green howled. The horns blew their brains out. The roof was well blown off (just in time for Jubilee Auditorium renovations, too - Green was the last concert there till fall of 2005). This was soul.

As for sin, Uncle Al seemed a little scary. And not always in a good way. He said "I love you!'' about 100 times. He was given to intense fits of grinning and hugging himself in the middle of songs, so apparently overcome he was with the music. Then he blithely spindled some of his well-known melody lines beyond recognition for nothing but the pure hell of it. It was like he was on high-speed autopilot. What balanced moments of bizarre burlesque was the undeniable power of Green's voice - a gift from God that keeps giving 34 years later. The 58-year-old legend proved to be an original soul shouter with a devastating arsenal of high notes. When he chose to use them.

Before he sang a note, the reverend Al passed out roses to women in the front row. He kissed several. Later, he told one, "I'm the best preacher you ever met, baby."

How to reconcile shameless flirting and God-praising at the same event is left to the concertgoer. The show was as much sermon as concert. Little grunts of affirmation could be heard in the crowd in response to lines like, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." Green was preaching to the choir, in some cases literally as the crowd sang along to well-known R&B standards. At the end of the Bee Gees' musical question, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? Green added his own post-script: "Only through Jesus."

It's hard to argue with that kind of conviction. So if we're all bummed out that Al Green didn't want to do his encore song in Edmonton, then that's something we'll just have to take up with a higher power - the prime minister. Remember: Let's stay together.