Last week, the Canadian music industry was dealt a heavy blow with the sudden passing of Dallas Good. Best known for his work with The Sadies, Good was a musician’s musician and his impact on the country’s musical landscape was widespread, as seen through the outpouring of tributes from heavyweights like Randy Bachman, Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip, The Sheepdogs, Sarah Harmer and Ron Sexsmith.

A few years back, we had the privilege of meeting Dallas and his bandmates for a feature we ran in The Collection on The Sadies in advance of their 10th album, Northern Passages. As a tribute to one of our favourite musicians and local musical acts, we’d like to republish that story.

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The spirit of rock is alive and well with The Sadies

40 years ago, legendary Canadian group The Band took the stage at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom to deliver their swan song concert performance. Dubbed The Last Waltz, the concert would be famous for not only capping a celebrated career and the accompanying Martin Scorsese documentary, but for the many guests who came to say farewell, as The Band handled backing duty to some of rock’s most iconic artists. As many take the time to celebrate a moment that Neil Young called one of the great privileges of his life – there have been several tributes across Canada and the Sony Centre will feature The Last Waltz 40 Tour in January – it’s nice to know that the same spirit of showmanship, collaboration and balls-to-the-wall rock n’ roll lives on through one of the best Canadian musical acts since…well, The Band.

Though they claim no intention to emulate Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson and Co., The Sadies are cut from the same cloth. Founded in 1994, guitar playing brothers Travis and Dallas Good, bassist Sean Dean, and drummer Mike Belitsky, are master instrumentalists and gifted songwriters, well versed in a range of genres from punk to folk, possessing a fashion sense rooted in some bygone era (think Hank Williams meets the Flying Burrito Brothers), and they have a knack for supporting the music of others with the same passion and swagger to which they give their own. It would be no stretch to envision them on 1950’s Yonge Street jamming away with Ronnie Hawkins strutting his camel walk.

 

This year alone, The Sadies could be seen backing Randy Bachman, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Gordon Lightfoot, the latter with side-project The Good Family at the Mariposa Folk Festival. Two years earlier, they toured with Gord Downie in support of the raucous one-off project Gord Downie, The Sadies & The Conquering Sun. And, in 2010, they performed with Garth Hudson, Neil Young, and Mary Margret O’Hara on Hudson’s A Canadian Celebration of the Band, which featured northern-star power like Bruce Cockburn, Blue Rodeo and Great Big Sea. Additional collaborative projects of note include albums with indie star Neko Case, R&B legend Andre Williams, and punk rockers John Doe and John Langford.

For the uninitiated, Travis sums up the sound of The Sadies as “psychedelic” though that hardly does it justice, considering the word is so closely connected to the loose musical exploration of the Grateful Dead or the soaring solos of Pink Floyd. The Sadies are significantly more compact in their approach to song structure, with few tracks exceeding the four minute mark. Elaborating, Travis goes on to say, “When we do a folk song, it’s like psychedelic folk and when we do a hard rock song, it’s like psychedelic rock”. Much of that psychedelic edge comes from the interplay between the two brothers, both fierce guitarists with their own take on the instrument. Travis is a lightning fast picker, heavily influenced by Bill Munroe, who cut his teeth playing for 12 years in his father’s band, The Good Brothers. Dallas, on the other hand, blends a punk rock sensibility with a profound love for Norton Records-type musical outliers like Link Wray, to create a vast atmospheric soundscape, drenched in reverb. Needless to say, the two do not get in each other’s way and, as a bonus, the combination works surprisingly well. Bassist Sean Dean, with his unique vantage point explains. “Every choice they make is different, reflecting their own personality. It’s amazing because they’re so distinct and it creates more of a polyphonic approach. Me and Travis will be playing a country song, and then Dallas just washes it with soupy, surfy, hallucinations, which is kind of the sound that we’ve developed.”

 

Though the Goods are the front men, splitting vocal duties and creating melody, the sound of The Sadies is equally tied to its boisterous rhythm section. Dean swings and slaps away on upright bass as Belitsky, parked in front of what must be rock’s most stripped down drum kit, creates such a pronounced, driving beat that in at least one show this summer it seemed he would break through the plywood stage. After 20 years, Belitsky describes his relationship with Dean as “intuitive… I know when and where he’s going to play what,” before adding “(but) it’s not like there’s two separate things happening because I think all four of us make a singular sound.”

That singular sound has evolved significantly over 20 plus years of writing and performing. From their 1998 debut Precious Memories and the follow up Pure Diamond Gold which consist mostly of hillbilly and spaghetti western instrumentals mixed with traditional covers, the band would slowly start to emphasize songwriting. One can surmise that a burgeoning relationship with Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor, who co-wrote the title track to 2002’s Stories Often Told, provided some needed kick. 2007’s New Seasons and 2010’s, Polaris Prize nominated, Darker Circles are masterpieces, both lyrically and musically, with a cohesive vibe that permeates each album in the way Dark Side of the Moon is a complete work as opposed to a series of independent tracks.

 

Though the band shares song writing credit, Dallas is the primary lyricist, possessing such a gift for gloom he could be a Leonard Cohen love child. Though Cohen was not an influence, Dallas cannot deny his good fortune to keep the musical company he does. “We’re fortunate. Our circle of friends happen to be people we admire and respect; and, certainly the collaborations that we’ve done have brought a confidence to us, if just in the simple fact that we’re on the same playing field with these people we love so much. We worked recently with Buffy Sainte-Marie and the effect that had on me was so profound, I couldn’t even get into it….[Collaborating is] no means at the centre of what we do, but it’s been a constant throughout what we do. It’s something we don’t take for granted and we try and make as much time for as possible.”

Travis sees collaboration as critical to the bands longevity. “It keeps us busy, it keeps us together, and it gives us a break from The Sadies.” It also helps improve the product. Drawing from the Gord Downie tour, Travis relates, “I remember saying to him, ‘once in a while, after a gig, I feel like someone punched me in the stomach,’ and he said, ‘oh, I get that every time.’ What he was saying was to go hard, to sing your guts out. He connects with the crowd like no one else I’ve ever seen.”

 

This February the band releases its latest album (number 10 or 17 depending on who’s counting). Northern Passages was recorded in Travis and Dallas’ parent’s basement, and has the laid back vibe one would expect from recording in a familiar space without the time and financial restraints of a studio. In typical Sadies form it blends genres as disparate as folk, punk, and gospel with themes of longing, regret, and salvation, before coating them in that signature sauce their audience has come to expect. Fans of 2013’s Internal Sounds will no doubt see this as a worthy follow up with such standout tracks as the opening Riverview Fog with its striking harmonies, the catchy rocker It’s Easy (Like Walking) featuring Kurt Vile on vocals, and the melancholic The Good Years, which is about anything but good years.

For those unable to wait for February’s release to experience The Sadies, in what’s become a local tradition, the band will be ringing in the New Year at the Horseshoe Tavern before embarking on a tour with Blue Rodeo. If you’ve never experienced live Sadies, Dallas offers a primer: “I feel that we provide a fairly consistent environment for people who like to drink, dance, and have fun. If those aren’t things you’re looking for, it should definitely be a red flag that you might not want to come. Otherwise, lots of people say that we’re better live than on record, which I’ll take full responsibility for…I mean the part about us being bad on record.”

 

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Featured image by Jamie McCaffrey. Dallas Good – The Sadies.

Illustration by Jeremy Bruneel