The road, it weaves through gameshows, clone contests and extravagant industry celebrations. A road where artistic diversity and integrity are a place of legend, where television is the main venue for song. Where image is the master of mind and character, where the grit of experience and the gift of song itself is suspended and replaced by the parade of high gloss puppets and their upper music industry string holders.
So then are Dave McCann and The Ten Toed Frogs lost? They seem to be patiently driving down the other road, the wrong road? Their road is long, strange & drawn out, it virtually guarantees no instant overnight musical glory. In fact it curls and climbs, falls and spills out somewhere on the outside, just a little left of the mainstream. A Good Road? Some might say.
With two internationally acclaimed studio releases, and a live recording in hiding, Dave attests that both "Woodland Tea" and "Country Medicine" offer the listener something genre bent and interesting to listen to, but still maintains the songs and songwriting are his creative priority. "I have always craved song, timeless, lost songs, ghost songs. Songs broke and unbuilt, songs that sharpen grey tongues, songs that hold on and don't let go, the ones that burn unshakably inside your head and, hopefully, I can catch a few of them thoughout my days." Cryptic-edged Alt-Country ramblings, both "Woodland Tea" and "Country Medicine" revel in a depth of craft and instrumental vision that leave songs like "Leaving this Town", "Grain Car" and "Country Medicine" ready to hold their worth for years to come. As declared by Nashville-based Performing Songwriter Magazine, "A Canadian who delivers honest hillbilly music that's more country than much of the pasteurized schlock coming out of major-label Music Row these days."
Peterborough native Dave McCann and the superlative, Calgary Alt-Country outfit "The Ten Toed Frogs" roll the good road indeed. Dave Bauer, electric guitar, will pretty near play anything with strings on it and for sure as hell tear your heart out with his Telecaster. Pete Loughlin has years buried in the Canadian road experience as a rock showboat. He's a shocking multi-instrumentalist and picks up the Bass and Harmony Vocals with unequalled ease. Tim Williams is a transplanted Vancouverite that sparks up the Kit with all the fire of the traditional heartbeat. Charlie Hase is the latest addition to the mix. Charlie kicks into the Double Neck Steel and Lap Slide with unparalleled expertise and all the country charm of a moon-eyed banshee. "I truly am in awe every time I stand on stage with these guys. I mean they're these incredible musicians, and they have this generous, patient ability to let me fall into this unhinged daze. It's like I fall into the void. I guess it's kinda like being a black out drunk , people come up to you after the ordeal and say " that was great out there" and half the time I don't know what the heck their talking about.
The
Long Standing
Ever Changing Line Up?
Dave
McCann: Spinner
of Tales, Criptic Messenger,
Singer Songwriter from Peterborough Ontario!
Acoustic Guitar, Electric
Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin,
Cree Talking Stick.
Dave
Bauer: Can
play pretty near anything with strings, Mandolin, Banjo, Bouzouki, Lap Slide,
Twelve String Stella, Broken Piano, Door Bell, Could tear your country heart
out with his Telecaster or at least drop yer boots to kick the sawdust!
Pete
Loughlin: Pete is a shocking multi instrumentalist and picks up
the Bass and Harmony Vocals with unequal ease.
Has buried a span of years in the Canadian Rock circuit as a showboat.
There is no Better Showboat!
Tim
Williams: A transplanted Vancouverite, sparks up the kit with the
fire of the traditional heartbeat.
Charlie Hase: Charlie kicks into the Double Neck Steel with unparalleled expertise and all the charm of a moon-eyed banshee.
Country
Medicine - Dave
McCann & The Ten Toed Frogs
Listen Click Here
Released 2004
Woodland
Tea
- Dave McCann & The Ten Toed Frogs
Listen
Click Here
Released 2001
Dave McCann & The Ten Toed Frogs
- Dave
McCann & The Ten Toed Frogs
Released 1999
Compilations
& Guest Shots
Coal
Dust Grins - Songs from the Mines - Released 1999
Holding Shadows
- Ian MacDonald - Released 1999
The
Short list on gear
For Recording and Live Shows....
Dave McCann
2005
Gibson Hummingbird
1971 Gibson J40 (Natural)
LR Baggs ribbon transtucers under the bridge,
1978 Gibson Les Paul Pro Deluxe (Sunburst)
1972 Telecaster Custom (Sunburst) Si reissue
1990 DeArmond M- 77T with 2Ks (Fire Orange)
1960's Customized Tube Cut Kay Twin .
1990's Fender Vibroverb (Reissue Brown Tolex)
Dave
Bauer:
1968-1972 Telecaster, (Natural,Maple Neck)
1960 -70's. Harmony H74
1960's Small Body Torrador,
cowboy, plywood flat top, with a funky faded
stencil design and a DeArmond soundhole pickup.
Gibson Les Paul Gold Top
Stan Pope Hand Built A Style Mandolin
Stan Pope Bouzouki.
No-name Lap Slide signed by David Lindley.
1990's FenderVibrolux
(Reissue Cream Tolex)
2000's
Fender Blues Junior (Reissue Cream Tolex)
Pete
Loughlin:
1978 Fender Jazz Bass Antiqua Finish
David Eden Rig, Ampeg Cab
Tim Williams:
Fiberglass Drum Kit.
Wooden Drum Kits
Double
Cowbell
Charlie Hase:
1985 Zum Steel Double Neck Pedal SteeL
1950'S National Lap
Slide
1936 Dobro (Metal)
1980 Handmade Richard
Deneve Square Neck Slide Guitar
1964 Premier Tube
Amp
1974 Web Steel Amp
Songs
from Woodland Tea
Included in the Film & TV Series
Hank Williams First Nation.
Seventy-five-year-old
Martin Fox decides abruptly
one morning that
before he dies he must visit the
grave of his long time hero Hank Williams.
With the support of his younger brother, Adelard Fox,
Martin sets out for Tennessee on a Greyhound.
Soundtrack includes
the likes of Dave McCann
& The Ten Toed Frogs, Joe Ely, Hank Williams,
Billy Joe
Shaver, Old Reliable and Others.
NEW RECORDINGS ON THE WAY!
We have more than enough
NEW songs to
fill a
few Records, but there are a few things
in waiting
right now. So
be patient....
We're still hymning and hawing
about
this NEW Recording
from up North.
Most of the Tracks
are still being mixed
and waiting to be mastered....
A New Studio Project
with the band is in
the prelimanary stages as well....
Western Canada's premier
Slide/
Pedal Steel Wizard, Charlie Hase
has also made talk about IDEAS
AND a possible acoustic based project...
Click here for Lyrics to Country Medicine & Woodland Tea
