SADIES ON STAGE
Psych-country rock outfit brings show to town
Dallas Good deftly deflects credit and congratulations extended to him when it comes to Internal Sounds, the latest album from his band The Sadies.
In fact, he disregards his firsttime, solo producer credit associated with the music of the veteran psych country-rock outfit as merely being a courtesy granted him by the rest of the band for some “extra curricular activity.”
Still, when pushed, he eventually concedes, albeit with his own asterisk.
“I’ll call it my baby,” Good says, “but it’s a four-headed baby.”
And another bouncing, blissedout, garaged up, freak-out of an offspring it is from the Toronto band, centred around Good and his brother Travis, with the rhythm section of Mike Belitsky and Sean Dean bringing up the bottom end.
It fits seamlessly into The Sadies ever-expanding catalogue of, er, goodness, both of albums recorded with other artists — such as with Neko Case, Jon Langford, Andre Williams, John Doe or on a recently completed album with Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, which will be released next year — or as their own, semiindependent unit.
And perhaps that’s why Good is so reticent to claim Internal Sounds as his own thing, because even when it’s just the four members it’s not just the four members — there’s always some element of collaboration from outside entities.
This time out he points to “dear friend” Gary Louris, who lent an ear and an opinion on a couple of occasions; their touring sound man, Guillermo Subauste, who recorded things with an effort to capture The Sadies’ live sound; and longtime collaborator Peter J. Moore, who mixed and mastered.
Again, Good upsells them and the rest of the band while downplaying his role.
“We’ve always called our producer ‘the argument settler.’ And I think we’re past that now just because we’ve been making so many albums lately with different artists, everyone has been able to find their own voice or sound. So I wasn’t making many left turns, let’s just put it that way, sort of carrying on the way we always have ...,” he says.
“I guess I’ve just gotten comfortable in the role of at least trying to achieve what I hear in my head and fortunately it’s the same thing that the other guys are hearing.”
Another example of being on the same sonic wavelength is the one true and credited collaboration on Internal Sounds and that’s album closer We Are Circling, which features vocals by legendary artist Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Good calls it “a really, really crucial fantastic detail to the album,” her lending uplifting and empowering vocals and lyrics to an odd and even unsettling song, in keeping with Sainte-Marie’s early psychedelic work.
“It’s very rare that somebody would want to revisit a time in their career especially somebody who was so successful with it. We were very much inspired by Buffy and experimentation ...,” he says of We Are Circling.
“When she heard it I can’t imagine what would have went through her head. Just track after track of droning instruments, acoustic instruments for the most part, but she immediately saw where I was coming from and was able to contribute the lyrics ...
“I just consider Buffy SainteMarie to be ...,” he pauses, “... one of the greatest people of all time. Certainly one of the most important people that I’ve ever met and one of the most influential people both as a humanitarian and as a musician.”
And here, once more, is a subject that Good downplays, that of The Sadies as humanitarians in their own rights, lending their talents to numerous charitable or social causes, including helping out on a Calgary level by performing as Randy Bachman’s band during the Flood Aid benefit concert at McMahon Stadium.
Good says it was satisfying knowing that they were helping out, especially some of the area’s First Nations communities most affected by the flooding.
“To think that I could actually have a tiny, tiny role in helping out in those communities is so great,” he says.
“Not to mention I got to hang out with Loverboy.”