The Sheepdogs

I do believe it was Greg A. who alerted me to this band.  Don't recall the clip but the question was whom did the song sound like.  It was a dead ringer for Burton Cummings/Guess Who, so I looked them up.  Damn if they weren't from Saskatoon...a favorite song by the Guess Who was "Running Back To..."  So I made a mental note to be on the lookout for them in the future... 

...which arrived two months ago and I just pulled this self-titled release from the player.  There is absolutely nothing new or ground breaking musically about this 45-minute record,

but if you are in my age demographic and this doesn't put a smile on your face then you might as well curl up and crawl back into your stale old musical cubbyhole! 

Don't know how these Canadians sound so Southern...well, partly because the album was tracked in Nashville, but there are Allman Bros. w/ Warren Haynes stylings, Skynyrd musings, Blackfoot sounds, Molly Hatchet moments and what could pass for a rewrite of ZZ Top's "Cheap Sunglasses."  Speaking of rewrites, there's a flat out rip of the Yardbirds "Shapes Of Things" and the currently obligatory Norman Greenbaum riff that morphs into a Gary Glitter-type beat.  You can hear part of it one minute into this video...



You should also hear the Los Lobos influences that I jotted down throughout the plays.  I also noted a little CCR here and there and then I discovered they had opened for John Fogerty on a recent tour, so that probably explains it. 

The Sheepdogs grows better with every spin.  I will certainly make my way to see them if they get to Orlando.