Steel Saddle - ST

Tracks

		Track Name	Length
	1	Free in the Morning	03:16
	2	Under your Arms	03:58
	3	Travelin' Light	02:23
	4	Fix on the Tailwind	02:27
	5	Angelina	03:47
	6	Big Yellow Dog	02:10
	7	Can't be Satisfied	03:27
	8	Donny the Satanist	02:28
	9	Steel Saddle	04:15
	10	It's My Time	06:11

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Information/Write-up

released July 5, 2024
Imagine if 1960s country-rock visionaries The Flying Burrito Brothers travelled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama’s fabled FAME Studios, home to recording artists like Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, and Joe Tex, to record an album and let the studio’s characteristic R ‘n’ B sound shape the resulting tracks. What you’d have would be a unique blending of country rock instrumentation and bluegrass harmonies with a funky soul horn section. That, my friends, is the sound of Canadian rockers Steel Saddle: distinctive, well-crafted, and shit-kickin’ exciting.

The six-piece band from Montreal offer an authentic representation of the pioneering country-rock style along with a heapin’ helpin’ of Southern soul to forge a truly original Americana roots sound.

Country-rock godfather Gram Parsons’ greatest achievement was never the marriage of traditional country music with rock ‘n’ roll. The fact is he never liked rock ‘n’ roll. He was stone country. But what he did succeed in doing was bring country music together with R ‘n’ B music on tracks like “You Don’t Miss Your Water”, “Do Right Woman” and “Dark End Of The Street”. That is his greatest accomplishment, often lost in the endless retelling of his legacy.

But while Parsons never got to pursue that goal further, Steel Saddle have picked up the mantle and succeeded in merging the two music forms together. Tracks like “Angelina”, “Big Yellow Dog”, “Free in the Morning” and “Steel Saddle” pack a country soul punch while “Donny the Satanist” and “Travelin’ Light” kick ass. Somebody buy that pedal steel guitar player a drink! “Can’t Be Satisfied” and “It’s My Time” are heartbreaking ballads in the finest tear-in-your-beer country tradition. And did I mention the terrific singing and harmonies?

As someone who has written extensively on the roots of country rock, this is a superb album true to its roots but with an updated sound and direction all its own. Well done, boys.
-John Einarson

Austin Boylan: vocals, acoustic guitar
Coleman Canton: drums, percussion
Nic Power: piano, organ, vocals
Mackenzie Sawyer: electric bass
Ben Vallee: steel guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals
Charlie Zucchero: electric guitar, vocals

Additional vocals by Cassidy Johnson (tracks 3, 5, 8, 9, 10)

Horn Arrangements by Mark LeClerc
Kaven Jalbert: baritone saxophone
Andy King: trumpet
Mark LeClerc: tenor saxophone

Recorded at The Treatment Room in Montreal, Quebec
Engineered and Mixed by Gilles Castilloux
Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering

Album Artwork Design and Layout by Mirkow Gastow
Cover Photo by Rose Cormier

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