A Conversation with Dallas Good of The Sadies (cont)

DG: I've enjoyed putting an emphasis on writing lyrics lately.

PM: Who is writing most of the words, or how did that go on Favourite Colours?

DG: Well, let's see. We all share writing responsibilities, but Mike wrote the lyrics for one song and Travis wrote the lyrics for one song, and Robin Hitchcock wrote the lyrics for one song.

PM: Who wrote "1000 Cities Falling"?

DG: Me.

PM: That's a tremendous song!

DG: Thanks a lot. Well, it was really fun for me to work on that trilogy ["1000 Cities Falling," "Song of the Chief Musician," and "Why Be So Curious?"]. I was watching Much Music, the Canadian MTV. And I turned off the sound and read the close caption for a while. Reading all the lyrics, they were so bad, it was hilarious.

PM: [laughs]

DG: And it gave me so much confidence that I just picked up a pen right away and started working. I'm happy with the way that trilogy came out.

The Sadies have always embraced the storytelling tradition. That's one thing about the traditional country songs that we've borrowed from over the years--like murder ballads have always appealed to us because it's the simple story. I really appreciate that tradition. It's something that The Sadies can embrace, and I hope we'll explore that more. We've recorded a traditional murder ballads over the years and played them live and stuff. This one--well, mine isn't exactly a murder ballad. It was more of a genocide ballad.

PM: Right. A mass murder ballad. So you're writing most of the lyrics, then, although Robin Hitchcock wrote some and--

DG: Robin wrote the last song, the lyrics for "Why Would Anybody Live Here?"

PM: And that was a very cool lyric, too.

DG: Yeah. We just sent him the music. We sent it down to Tucson where he was visiting, and he did it on his own.

PM: Wow, he did it "to order."

[laughter]

PM: Yeah, I like writing that way, music or lyrics, where I'm given a whole something, a finished half, and then I say, "Okay, you got to fit it into here." That's cool.

DG: Well, it could have gone either way. And I was fully prepared for him to reject the whole task, assuming that he wouldn't like it. But we've had a pretty good relationship up until now, and similar tastes in music, a lot of sensibilities that we've shared, so I felt pretty confident sending it off to him. And I was so happy to hear what he came up with.

PM: That is a beautiful song.

DG: It just reminds me of my favorite things about his career, too, so it was really nice that he was able to sort of bend to suit us a little, or vice versa, maybe we bent to suit him.

PM: I'm kind of ignorant--I mean, I've known his name for many years, but I don't really know his music. I'm sure it's time to look into it.

DG: The Soft Boys was his main band. Sort of punk pop band from the 70s in England. He's very prolific, he's put out so many records. Yeah, you might want to take a look at his website, because there's so much he's done that I don't even know about. I've been drawn to what I know, which was like the Soft Boys, basically, and The Egyptians. The Egyptians was his other band, in the 80s.

PM: Right. I'll check out his site. [We've since noticed that Robyn has a new CD coming out today or tomorrow on Yep Roc.]

I meant to ask this of the Rodeo Kings last night, but I didn't: what are some differences that you notice between the American and the Canadian scenes? You've gigged a lot in the States now.

DG: Yeah, we sure have. Jeez. I don't feel that there are any blanket statements that could be really indicative of the States as a whole, as a music industry. Let's see--

PM: How about this club scene versus that club scene?

DG: Okay. In the club scene, I guess there is a larger well to draw from in the U.S. It's a lot more difficult for many touring bands to piece together a Canadian tour. So in that way it's a little different. I feel that something like "a Canadian band working in the States and how they're perceived," it's totally irrelevant because it's all about the music. If you're not good enough, then you're not good enough, period. If people don't hear what you're doing, it's not because they couldn't find it, it's because they probably don't care. And for you to start going, "Well, in my country, I do well," that's just childishness. Having said that, we do better in Canada.

[laughter]

DG: That's a wrong choice of words. Canada is a smaller town, let's put it that way.

PM: Yeah. And you got known there first, so it's--

DG: Actually, not really. Our first record, of course, came out on Bloodshot Records in Chicago. So even in Canada our record was only available as an import.

PM: Was it Eric Babcock who signed you there?

DG: No. Actually, we missed the days of him. I never got to meet him. But yeah, he's cool, though.

PM: Yeah, he's a very nice cat, and so is his wife, Paige La Grone.

DG: Right. Forgive me, they're Catamount Records now, right?

PM: Right, Catamount.

I really loved the photo that Amanda Schenk took of the band with the trees in the background, the one that's on the Favourite Colours cover.

DG: That's my girl.

PM: That's your girl? Man, I have got to get a frickin' copy of that. Do you think she might sell me a copy of that?

DG: No problem. In fact, you can get a really great print of it because the resolution isn't a hundred percent on the CD or on the vinyl, whereas it was taken with a Nikon camera. It's beautiful--the actual shot is. It looked really good.

PM: Oh, yeah. And I mean as a portrait, it's ghastly ghostly good. It's tremendous!

DG: Too bad she's not within earshot right now. She also documents all of our live performances.

PM: Oh, that's cool to have a partner who is shooting every show.

DG: Totally. It's been great, because recently my brother and I sat in with Kris Kristofferson.

PM: He was telling me. Holy jeez!

DG: So I got a bunch of pictures of that, from the side stage. and pictures of Randy Bachman with the Sadies.

PM: [laughs]

DG: And pretty much all the special shows.  continue

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