http://www.thespec.com/whatson/article/475845--sadies-record-a-band-classic-with-neil-and-garthSadies record a Band classic with ‘Neil and Garth’ Code:
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When The Sadies got the first call to record with Neil Young and The Band’s Garth Hudson, they were on tour somewhere between Chicago and Madison. It was a wintry Wisconsin spring day.
Recording with “Neil and Garth” was one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, a young band cutting a record with two rock ’n’ roll legends. Without a second thought, the Sadies cancelled their show in Wisconsin that night, then turned the van around and made the harrowing 10-hour drive to Toronto where the recording session was supposed to take place.
The Sadies reached the studio only to learn that a sore throat had forced Young to cancel. They hopped back in the van and picked up the tour the next time in Green Bay after more than 20 hours of non-stop driving.
“I guess you could say we were morally crushed even though in the back of our mind we knew that it was a long shot any how,” Dallas Good, The Sadies lead singer and guitarist, recalls. “I must say that Neil had no idea what our trials and tribulations were. It wasn’t about that. It wasn’t that he decided at the last minute to screw these guys.”
This story does have a happy ending, though. A few months later another call came. Neil was back in Toronto between tour dates. Luckily, so were The Sadies.
They met up at the MDI studio near Bloor and Ossington. Studio owner Peter Moore, a Hamilton native, was at the controls, co-producing with Hudson. The aim was to record This Wheel’s On Fire, a classic song from The Band’s 1968 debut album, Music From Big Pink, as part of an album being put together by Hudson. The album, which was released in November, is called Garth Hudson Presents A Canadian Celebration of The Band. It features an impressive array of top Canadian musicians including Bruce Cockburn, Great Big Sea, Blue Rodeo, the Cowboy Junkies, The Trews, Chantal Kreviazuk, Raine Maida and The Road Hammers.
Hudson selected the songs — all classics by The Band — and played keyboards on every track. He chose The Sadies, a respected four-piece country rock group from Toronto, to perform on three tracks. On This Wheel’s On Fire, Garth had decided to use them Neil Young’s backing band. (It proved to be an interesting choice of songs. Two weeks before the album was released, a fire started in Young’s vintage Lincoln car, burning down his garage in California.)
The Sadies had good pedigree for the task at hand. The band’s two frontmen — Dallas and his brother Travis Good — are the sons of Bruce Good and nephews of Brian and Larry Good. During the ’70s, the elder Goods performed as The Good Brothers, a multiple Juno-winning band that dominated Canadian country music for a decade. The Good Brothers toured with The Band on the fabled Festival Express tour in 1971. They also opened for Neil Young during his Canadian tour in 1980.
Still, being in a recording studio with Neil Young and Garth Hudson was a daunting experience.
“Neil’s band was all on the bus parked right outside of Peter’s place,” Dallas Good says. “Think how intimidating that was. If you do screw up, he’s got his ringers 20-feet away.”
The Sadies had little to fear. Hudson, who had performed guest spots with The Sadies several times before, was adamant about having only Canadians on the record. Besides that, The Sadies performed just fine.
“We just played it the way we would play it any other time,” Dallas says. “We did five takes, took a break and nailed it on the sixth time. We never even listened to the other five. Neil just said, ‘That’s perfect. Don’t touch it.’”
The Sadies are playing Hamilton’s Casbah club before embarking on a cross-Canada tour to promote Darker Circles.
When they return from touring, the band hopes to complete a studio album they’ve been working on in Kingston, Ont., with Tragically Hip vocalist Gord Downie.
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