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MP3 The Undesirables - Doghouse Dreams
10 MP3 Songs in this album (38:12) !
Related styles: FOLK: Alternative Folk, BLUES: Acoustic Blues
People who are interested in Tom Waits Jim Croce The Band should consider this download.
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CD REVIEW
B Borzykowski
NOW Magazine| JUNE 21 - 27, 2007 | VOL. 26 NO. 42
Reviewed this week:
THE UNDESIRABLES Doghouse Dreams (independent) Rating: NNNN (OUT OF 4)
There are intimate records, and then there''s Doghouse Dreams by Georgetown, Ontario, duo the Undesirables.
Sean Cotton and Corin Raymond have since moved to Toronto, but this stripped-down disc sounds like it was recorded right on their rural Canadian porch. Combining blues, ragtime and country with touching lyrics about their hometown, this disc is a great summer cottage listen – especially the boozy opener This Town.
While the gritty, Kid Rock-like choruses and infectious harmonies are worth a listen alone, it''s the warm production – it sounds like they''re playing right in front of you – and simple arrangements that make this a memorable listen.
THE UNDESIRABLES BIO
The Undesirables came out of Georgetown, ON, in the early ''90s. An acoustic duo, Sean Cotton and Corin Raymond’s creative partnership was sealed by a mutual love of raw, unadulterated American roots music.
Beginning with the blues, the two friends began tracing lines. With frenetic excitement they absorbed old-school R&B, gospel, ragtime, country, rock ''n'' roll, and the music of New Orleans. During these years they were already writing. It was in Georgetown, 15 years ago, that they wrote ''California Wine'' – still a requested favourite. As a songwriting team they each brought an ingredient the other lacked. Sean brought the music-- a unique style of guitar playing that provided solid rhythm, rich colour, and an unexpected fullness of sound, while Corin brought the words and a workman-like attitude to writing lyrics. One goal occupied both their minds: to write good songs.
Through the 90s, The Undesirables toured constantly, booking themselves into bars and clubs throughout Ontario and Quebec, developing a very strong performance style while building a considerable audience. They released three cassettes: Live at C''est What? (1996), The Undesirables (1997) and Rejects (1998). Over this time they honed their songwriting, bringing uniquely Canadian lyrical images to the music that originally influenced them.
It wasn''t until 2003, however, when Trevor Mills (son of Paul Mills, a.k.a. Curly Boy Stubbs) happened to catch their act, that doors into the folk music community and industry began to open. Mills was so excited by what he saw in the duo that he offered to help them start making inroads. Several things happened at once: they attended the 2003 Ontario Council of Folk Festival''s annual conference; they headlined very successfully at Hugh''s Room, and they made their first CD, Summer''s Gone, produced by Trevor Mills and David Baxter and released in January of 2004.
That summer the duo were booked into their first three festivals: a showcase set at Mariposa (Orillia, ON), which led to a handful of excellent concert series gigs in Ontario and The United States; a four-song mainstage ''tweener'' at Blue Skies (near Kingston, ON), which resulted in a standing ovation, and an invitation to return the following year for a full set; and a mainstage set at The Trout Forest Festival (Ear Falls, ON), which also resulted in a standing ovation and a return engagement in 2005.
The 2005/2006 seasons held more main-stage folk festival appearances for The Undesirables. The Undesirables have been busy the last three years headlining concert series, as well as opening shows in theatres and concert venues for many top-notch acts including Prairie Oyster, Jesse Winchester, Fred Eaglesmith, The Rheostatics, Stacey Earle and Stephen Fearing.
Sean and Corin have recently had two of their songs honoured; Treasa Levasseur chose to record ''Asking Me To Give You the Blues'' on her debut album Not A Straight Line, and Rockstar: INXS contestant Suzie McNeil performed ''Up Above the Clouds'' at Massey Hall in Nov. 2005 as part of the annual Toronto Women''s Blues Revue.
In July of 2006 The Undesirables won The Toronto Blues Society''s annual Blues Talent Search. As a result, a live recording, made of The Undesirables on Oct. 6, 2006, at Hugh''s Room in Toronto, was recorded by The CBC and will be used for national broadcast when The Undesirables are featured twice this winter on Holger Peterson''s program Saturday Night Blues.
2007 finds The Undesirables busier than they''ve ever been. In addition to appearing at six Ontario festivals throughout the summer, they showcased officially in February at the Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, TN. With the release of their second CD Doghouse Dreams in Toronto on June 23rd at Hugh''s Room, comes a new mandate: to market the tradition of live music on a grass roots level using a major record label model. Launching their ''Doghouse Concert Tour'', a series of house concert dates (replete with a bonafide tour shirt!), they will promote the new CD, which will see them playing as many as fourty house concerts between Canada and Australia through the 2007-2008 season. The Undesirables will also be leaving Canada for three weeks in September 2007 to play in England.
SHOW REVIEW
The Undesirables at Hugh’s Room
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Sean Cotton and Corin Raymond are the Undesirables. Together, they have the most riveting stage presence I''ve seen in a long time. Their live show is a perfect blend of Cotton''s skilled guitar work, Raymond''s unusually musical movement and the tight vocal harmonies they share.
Together and on their own, they have been around and writing songs for years. They formed the band 10 years ago and have recently come back together after a two-year break. I for one am ecstatic that they did. I was relatively new to their sound, having seen and heard only a short set of theirs prior to this show. What I was presented with, after local singer songwriter Scott B. Sympathy''s short but satisfying opening set, was energy and passion and really original songwriting. It was a joy to experience, from beginning to end. With songs that ranged in style from blues/funk to folk to pop and beyond, the Undesirables presented something original and oh-so-sweet.
What struck me most about vocalist Corin Raymond is that he moves like music, as if he''s plugged into the guitar and the harmonies and feels every note from head to toe. His expressive voice soared through songs like "Summer''s Gone," "Fill Me Up With Sound," "Where Else Can You Go?" and "Up Above the Clouds It''s a Sunny Day."
"The Butcher Song" revealed, with a quirky sense of humour, what happens when songwriters have day jobs. A standout in this set was "Travelling Show," a metaphorical portrait of the weather as a vagabond and a wanderer. "Live With You" and "The Dog You Forgot to Let In" told tales of new love and love a year later. On "Singing Bones," they put a northern Ontario spin on an old folk tale.
Cotton and Raymond were joined on stage by Joe Phillips and his double bass for the second set, adding fullness to the sound on "Round Trip Love Song," the bluesy cautionary tale "Night Train," "Asking Me to Give You the Blues," and two of my favourites, "Overwhelmed" and "Dancing on the Faultline." Raymond entertained with stories throughout, including one about the night they were kicked out of two different establishments, memorialized in "Bars and Billiard Rooms."
When the enthusiastic crowd demanded an encore, they obliged with "California Wine," inspired by the Rolling Stones'' "Sweet Virginia," plus Leon Russell''s "Out in the Woods" and "Thursday and Friday and Saturday Night," bringing a triumphant end to a triumphant night of music. I left after the show with all kinds of lyrics swimming around in my head, a smile on my face, and one question on my mind: "When''s the next show?"
- Rambles
written by Rachel Jagt
published 6 December 2003
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