Tote Family

Canadian band originally from Sudbury, Ontario. Started as The Beasties, then The Queens Taxi, then The Taxi, before moving to Toronto in 1968 and becoming The Tote Family. With a few personnel changes, became Sea Dog in May 1971.

They recorded two singles, the first being 'Allright Mama b/w Leave Me Be' on the Apex label in 1969. This Band also did the Toronto Yorkville Scene and was also influenced by the much newer and more progressive R&B'ish style of music trend going on at that time as well as the emerging folk pop scene. The second single, released on the Yorkville label, compromised between these 2 styles of music. Described as a dynamite R&B'ish b-side filled with zigzaging progressive bluesy chord rhythms and vocals added with a nice touch of intermittent electric fuzz guitar riffs. An out of the ordinary A-Side offering an interesting sunshine folk pop flavored tune that brings you back to dixieland! The B-side recording captures a great spirit and heart of this group. Their first single charted on the RPM Canadian Content Chart for quite a substantial period from August 23, 1969 through October, 1970 and charted as high as number 6.

Tote Family were the first group produced by CHUM. 3 of their four songs were written by Fred Cacciotti.

It's not clear who were in the band, but here's the lineup for other incarnations:

Wee Beasties:
Don Reeves: lead vocals, keyboards
Martin J. Kusluski: guitar, backing vocals
Alan Higgs: bass, backing vocals

Sea Dog:
Paul Weston: guitar, vocals
John Redmond: organ, piano, vocals
Brian Kirkwood: bass, vocals
Jim Norris: drums, vocals
Doug Varty: piano, organ, vocals