Information/Write-up
49th Parallel emerged from Calgary’s 1960s music scene, but their earliest roots reached into the small farming communities south of the city, with several early members coming from around Carmangay, Alberta. The group first operated under the name the Shades of Blonde, a lineup ambitious enough to travel to New York in 1965 for early recording work before returning to Calgary, where they released the single All Your Love in 1966. The local scene offered steady gigs but limited opportunities, and the band soon reshaped itself under a new name: 49th Parallel.
By early 1967 the group had settled into a working lineup built around vocalist Dennis Abbott, guitarist Dan Lowe, guitarist Bob Carlson, organist Dave Petch, bassist Mick Woodhouse and drummer Terry Bare. They connected with Gaiety Records, the distinctive Thunder Bay– and Hollywood-based imprint operated by Don Grashey—a music veteran known for discovering Loretta Lynn—and released a run of singles through RCA.
Among these was Blue Bonnie Blue, co-written by a then–unknown Delaney Bramlett about the equally unknown Bonnie Bramlett—years before they emerged as Delaney & Bonnie. The track didn’t chart, but its later connection to the Bramletts has kept it of interest to collectors. Two different single mixes of the song are known to exist, something the reissue producers attribute to Grashey’s practice of preparing songwriter demo mixes to pitch compositions to other artists.
Lineup changes came early and frequently. Woodhouse was replaced by Dave Downey, and Petch departed soon after, succeeded by Jack Velker and later by Dennis Mundy. Through 1967 and 1968 the group toured widely across Western Canada and into the United States, recording whenever the schedule allowed. In late 1967 they issued She Says backed with Citizen Freak, a sharp early example of Prairie garage rock whose B-side would, decades later, lend its name to this website.
In 1968 the band moved to Venture Records and released several more singles, including Twilight Woman, which became a national hit—reaching number sixteen on the CHUM chart in April 1969—and also broke into some U.S. markets. Its follow-up, Now That I’m a Man, also charted nationally. With personnel continuing to shift, Venture and MGM-affiliated Maverick Records assembled a full LP in 1969 from existing singles, B-sides and unreleased studio material. Abbott left soon after the album’s release, and Dorn Beattie stepped in as the group’s new vocalist.
A final configuration of Beattie, Lowe, Mundy, Downey and Bare worked toward a second album, issuing the single I Need You in 1970, but the project was never completed. Instead, the group evolved into Painter, who scored FM radio play in the early 1970s, and later into the hard-rock unit Hammersmith. The band’s extended orbit intersected with numerous notable musicians of the era—Velker later joined the Los Angeles–based Mama Lion ensemble (with Lynn Carey, Charlie Musselwhite and Barry Goldberg), while other members moved through Canadian acts such as the Lords of London, Nucleus, the Ugly Ducklings and Bruce Cockburn’s Flying Circus.
Beattie pursued additional projects, including All The Rage in Paris, while Lowe continued with Painter’s later incarnations, 451 Degrees and Prototype. Lowe would eventually achieve international recognition as the inventor of the Q-Sound spatial imaging system, used on major global releases by artists such as Madonna and Pink Floyd.
Interest in 49th Parallel revived in the 1990s through Prairie classic-rock radio, leading Pacemaker and Lion Productions to assemble an expanded CD edition containing alternate single mixes, Shades of Blond tracks, and previously unissued Delaney Bramlett-related material such as Up To No Good. The reissue essays by Munson, Tornatore and Eder helped cement the band’s status as a key Alberta contribution to the Canadian garage-psych era.
Today the group is remembered for its determined path out of Calgary’s mid-1960s club scene, its evolving lineup of young Alberta musicians, its improbable crossings with later international figures, and its enduring catalogue of fuzz-driven garage rock, melodic psychedelia and Prairie pop.
-Robert Williston
Dennis Abbott: vocals
Dan Lowe: guitar
Bob Carlson: guitar
Dave Petch: organ
Mick Woodhouse: bass
Terry Bare: drums
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