General Review – The Sheepdogs – Life as a photographer and loving this new life!

General Review – The Sheepdogs (who have three CD’s to date with latest CD Learn & Burn).

by Jade Sperry

Saskatchewan is a flat and sometimes barren land which is the mid-west province in Canada and is home to The Sheepdogs who live in Saskatoon. This isn’t a new band and their latest CD came out in early 2010 but I wanted to get the band’s name out there. They are just coming off a successful tour and I’ve been hearing very good things about their live shows. Guess I missed the boat on their tour.

This quartet make guitars the primary focus on Learn And Burn and many great bands of the past come to mind while I was listening to the music. Whether you like your rock in the form of sinful southern rock, classic rock or bluesy rock, it’s all right here in the fifteen songs on the CD. At present, they are doing extremely well playing festivals down in the US and Canada. Their last two dates are on July 10 playing in Downsview Park and the Nakusp Festival here in BC on Sunday July 17. You can find this info here .

The band members are as follows: Ewan Currie (lead vocals/guitar), Leot Hansen (guitar/back vocals), Ryan Gullen (bass/back vocals) and Sam Corbett (drums/back vocals) and they play as one solid unit. This bands’ music is reminiscent of artists such as The Guess Who, CCR, Santana (especially on the song “Learn And Burn”), The Allman Brothers…the list goes on and you get the idea. The music has a real 60’s/70’s classic rock sound complete with Hammond organs. The track listing on the CD:

The One You Belong To
Please Don’t Lead Me On
I Don’t Know
I Don’t Get By
Learn And Burn
Right On
You Discover
Southern Dreaming
Soldier Boy
Catfish 2 Boogalo
Rolio Tomasi
Suddenly
Baby, I Won’t Do You No Harm
We’ll Get There
I Should Know

Whimsical and quirky melodies infused with strong and solid harmonies, lyrical depth to the songs in general plus the quality of the band as one unit. That is a really good combination to have in your music and that’s what this band has. One thing of note – all of the songs speak of life, living life and what you struggle with. And anyone could relate to any of these songs.

Some of the standout songs you should check out are “I Don’t Know” which in this writer’s opinion is the best song. A really easy melody that drips with southern blues. The vocals are delivered well by Ewan as does Leot and the song is well written. “Learn And Burn” which has a Guess Who/Allman Brothers feel musically. But the guys take that sound and make it their own. This song has an easy melody, great harmonies, wonderful guitar playing, good time changes and that’s just one song folks! “Southern Dreaming” is a silly, whimsical and quirky song with a really catchy guitar hook. On the slower side you’ll want to listen to “Suddenly”. Mellow and languid this song just flows. Stunning harmonies accent this song as well as some of vocal effects. This song seamlessly flows right into the next song “Baby I Won’t Do You No Harm”. This song is intense musically, has really good time changes and guitars that are well played in harmony.

I highly recommend collecting this bands’ music if you like classic southern rock in the vein of CCR and the storytelling lyrics from Winnipeg band The Guess Who, then you need to check out the band.

You can download a copy for FREE here: Big Stand 2008

Official Video for “I Don’t Know”