Sheepdogs are joining James North party

September ’crawl to include Sam Roberts Band and Blackie and the Rodeo Kings

The Sheepdogs are joining the party on James Street North.

Supercrawl has booked the Saskatchewan retro-rockers as the Friday night headliners for the threeday arts and music festival that will fill the streets of downtown Hamilton Sept. 8 to 10.

The Sheepdogs fill out a weekend of strong acts already announced including Saturday headliner The Sam Roberts Band and Sunday headliner Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. As well, Sheepdogs’ members Ewan and Shamus Currie will perform Saturday, Sept. 9, with their popular side project BROS.

Also joining the Friday night line up are Toronto punk rockers PUP, a three-time Juno nominated band currently on a tour of the western United States; Vancouver indierock band Belle Game; and Hamilton’s Black Collar Union with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Sheepdogs last played Hamilton as part of the pre-Juno celebrations in 2015, but will be most remembered for the giant traffic jam the band helped create for the 2011 Festival of Friends’ opening day at the Ancaster Fairgrounds. Supercrawl director Tim Potocic said that the lesson to be learned from The Sheepdog’s 2011 experience is to leave the car at home.

“Don’t drive to Supercrawl,” Potocic said. “Take the bus, ride a bike. The Sheepdogs are certainly going to amp up the volume of people on James Street.”

Potocic said he expects to have a complete Supercrawl music line up on the festival’s website supercrawl.ca by early next week.

Previously announced acts include John K. Samson, Tanya Tagaq, Basia Bulat, The Acorn, Donovan Woods, Andy Shauf, White Cowbell Oklahoma, Hamilton Children’s Choir, Steve Strongman, The Vaudevillian, Thompson Wilson, Dan Edmonds, Hamilton Youth Steel Orchestra, Hello Harvard, The Medicine Hat, Mother Tareka, Jessie Bower and Ginger St. James.