Thursday, March 13   12:00 a.m.
Continental Club   (1315 S Congress Ave) Friday, March 14   6:00 p.m.
Auditorium Shores Stage (Lady Bird Lake)   (Riverside Dr & S 1st St)

  The Sadies - Anna Leigh
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TORONTO, ON: Toronto’s cosmic cowboys The Sadies, consisting of brothers Dallas and Travis Good, drummer Mike Belitsky and upright bassist Sean Dean, return with their fifth studio album, New Seasons, which was released on September 18th in Canada on Outside Records, and on October 2 on Yep Roc Records internationally. Featuring the brotherly harmonies and dazzling guitar interplay of Dallas and Travis Good, New Seasons is the band’s most confident studio album to date. The Sadies’ inspired amalgam of psychedelic country rock, surf, bluegrass and Ennio Morricone-esque inspired instrumentals has made them the preeminent torchbearers of cosmic American music.

Although 2006 saw two Sadies’ releases – their star-studded double live album, In Concert: Volume 1 and an instrumental soundtrack for the Ed “Big Daddy” Roth documentary Tales of the Rat Fink, this is the band’s first studio release since 2004’s Favourite Colours. New Seasons’ 13 all-original tracks show a greater emphasis on lyrics and narratives, and these tales often are filled with foreboding and of lessons learned the hard way.

Recorded both at Paco Loco in Spain and at the Woodshed in Toronto with friend and collaborator Gary Louris (Jayhawks, Golden Smog), New Seasons’ gorgeously layered harmonies prove that The Sadies have the vocal tracks to equal the mastery of their instrumentals. While the album features appearances by Louris and Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb contributes piano on a number, New Seasons is pure Sadies. But, as with all Sadies’ albums, it’s also a family affair: Dallas and Travis’ father and uncles, aka Canadian Country Hall of Famers The Good Brothers, as well as their mother, Margaret Good, also contribute.

The first track on the album is a taste of the band’s trademark sound: “Introduction” is exactly that – a short forty five second blast of dueling guitar picking that segues into the Gun Club-esque “The First Inquisition (Pt IV),” which takes the listener to a heightened sonic level that carries though the duration of the album. Dallas Good spits out the lyrics for with a venom, clarity and confidence that was reserved only for the band’s live shows – until now.

“What’s Left Behind” began as a sequel to Favourite Colours’ opening track and live favorite “Northumberland West,” with Travis Good’s deadly fast and accurate Clarence White-inspired picking propelling the tale of an inseparable companion who’s become more of a burden than a pleasure.

New Seasons is an instant classic, an album by a band at the peak of its creative power. The Sadies are able to assimilate all the great American musical styles with inspired taste and virtuosity. By the final track, “The Last Inquisition (Pt V)”, we find the Sadies once again riding tall in the saddle, winding us through canyons of guitar reverb accompanied Lorelei-esque vocal “ahs.” The Sadies carry on, casting their long shadows and leaving the echoes of their haunting tales reverberating long after they’ve disappeared over the horizon.