The Sadies' Family Affair

These alt.country cowboys and their new disc are Canadian to the bone

It's quite likely that no other Canadian band have had their sound described as "American" more often than The Sadies.

It seems the one thing that fans, record labels and the media are able to agree on about the Toronto-based foursome is that they're the torch-
bearers of some new form of cosmic, country-fuelled Americana. Not even the quintessentially Canadian title of their 2004 disc, Favourite Colours, was able to turn the tide northward.

Sadies singer/guitarist Dallas Good, while amused with all the references to southern stars 'n' stripes country music, insists that nothing could be further from the truth.

"I would say it's entirely Canadian," the lanky musician asserts. "There's not a single American influence in our sound — none whatsoever.

"We borrow heavily from the Afro-Celtic tradition," he adds with a chuckle.

Just how Good and the other Sadies — Mike Belitsky, Sean Dean and brother Travis Good — fell into this category remains a mystery to the vocalist, but he's not the type to get angry over a misclassification.

"People associate the American flag with Johnny Cash or something. I really don't know. Basically, the job of the media is to make me sound palatable to people who might like me. That's not an easy job to do, and obviously you'll have to draw out the most common denominator in the process. I suppose that some things are deemed uniquely American when in reality they're not. It's not my job to say. I consider our sound completely, totally and uniquely Canadian."

Whether The Sadies' roots lie north or south of the border, it's much easier to argue that their amalgamation of psychedelia, country, surf, bluegrass and punk isn't something that's coming from a lot of other bands these days. It's a merger of styles that's steadily evolved over the course of their previous five studio albums, and now culminates in their latest and perhaps most confident disc, New Seasons.

But while the new record marks a progression in the band's music, the lyrics on New Seasons remain doggedly focused on the same subjects The Sadies have always been interested in.

"[There's] nothing new, if someone's been following the themes of The Sadies' career," Good says, somewhat apologetically. "My scope is fairly limited,
I guess. I'm either singing about that which I'm very comfortable talking about, or that which I find to be a total mystery… All the songs always revolve
around life and death and whatever you can figure out in between."

While many of the songs on New Seasons revolve around ending relationships and the themes of departure and change, Good is hesitant to affix the label "break-up album" to his band's latest creation.

"You can consider it a break-up of life — a complete severance of existence," he jokes. "I consider it a death record more than a break-up record. There's nothing final about a break-up."

One thing that hasn't changed with New Seasons is The Sadies' predilection for including their friends and family members on their albums. Dallas and Travis' father Bruce and uncles Brian and Larry (Canadian Country Music Hall of Famers, The Good Brothers) their mother Margaret, Big Sand's Howe Gelb and The Jayhawks' Gary Louris all make appearances on the album. Louris also recorded the disc.

"It's just fortunate that our family and our friends are intertwined with our musical career," Good explains. "Having said that, it can be a bit of a curse, too. It shows how shallow me and my immediate surroundings are. Everyone I know, including my family, are musicians and on our album. Nevertheless, we do what we do because we love to."

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Branching Out

Neko Case called The Sadies the best band of tree-like men in the world when they were backing her up for her live album, The Tigers Have Spoken. Others think so, too. Never willing to limit themselves to one gig, the foursome also lend their musical talents to the latest record from Jon Spencer's Heavy Trash, playing backing band for two-thirds of its tracks.

The following feature is from the October 2007 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue go to the Chart Shop.