Road Trip!

Ol’ Savannah are playing three shows in three nights!

Thursday, November 20 — Le Bateau de Nuit, Québec, QC

Friday, November 21 — Tête d’Allumette, Saint-André-de-Kamouraska, QC

Saturday, November 22 — Plan B, Moncton, NB

Please check the “Upcoming Shows” for more information.

Love, stomp, and whiskey…

 

WEAR A DONKEY MASK, GET IN FREE!

The Crooked Brothers are visiting Montreal on Tuesday, October 28. Their new album, “Thank you , I’m Sorry” is just out and they’re touring across Canada. We’re pleased to be sharing the bill at L’Escogriffe.

You can check out their tour dates and listen to the new tunes on their site, www.crookedbrothers.com.

Being so close to Halloween, WEAR A DONKEY MASK AND GET IN FREE!

L’ESCO:

4467 Rue Saint-Denis, Montréal, QC H2J 2L1, Canada
Phone:+1 514-842-7244

 

 

Back on the stage! September 19 at EarthDance Festival (St-Fortunat, QC)

no images were found

It’s been a long time coming since Ol’ Savannah have hit the stage. The time is nigh! Ol’ Savannah will be playing from a tree-house stage in Saint-Fortunat on Friday, September 19 at l’AgorA (http://www.ag0ra.org/ag0ra/Acceuil.html) for the 5th edition of EarthDance Festival.

Check out the following invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/538689589576785/

Ol’ Savannah plays Fringe! Friday, June 13, 9pm

no images were found

 

 

MAY SHOWS!!!

THURSDAY, MAY 15 at Divan Orange (4234 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montréal, QC H2W 1Z3 (514) 840-9090) — with The Steady Swagger and Young Running, 10PM, $10 at the door

FRIDAY, MAY 16 at Le Sous Bois (405, rue Racine E, Chicoutimi, QC 418-549-7830) — w/Les Western Stars, 10PM, $8 pre-sale, $10 at the door

SATURDAY, MAY 17 at Coureur des Bois (1551, boul. Wallberg Dolbeau-Mistassini (Québec) G8L 1H5 418 979-1197) — 10PM, $10 at the door

FRIDAY, MAY 23 at Le Baril Roulant (2434 Rue de l’Église, Val-David, QC J0T 2N0 (819) 320-0069) — 9:30PM, $10 at the door

SATURDAY, MAY 24 at L’Albion (408 Boulevard Manseau, Joliette, QC J6E 3E1 (450) 759-7482 www.brasseriealbion.com/‎) — 9:30PM, $10 at the door

Ol’ Savannah — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

no images were found

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vote for Ol’ Savannah — Best New Artist

no images were found

 

Vote for Ol’ Savannah here:  http://music.cbc.ca/#/play/artist/Ol-Savannah/Bury-Me-on-the-Mountain

Ol’ Savannah are part of CBC’s Searchlight for Canada’s best new artist.  Please vote once a day every day until April 6.  Help Ol’ Savannah make it through to the regional semi-finals!

A word from CBC:

The contest is divided into several rounds, and this round will choose the regional semi-finalists. So don’t just vote for your favourite band. Vote for all the bands you think deserve attention and radio play, in your region and across Canada.

You can always find the polls here on the Searchlight homepage in the “Vote now!” tab, the regional pages listed below, as well as links to vote for specific artists on their CBC Music artist profiles. You can find playlists of the local acts on the regional pages.

If you have questions, email us at searchlight@nullcbc.ca

 

It’s show time!

 Click photo to enlarge

 

Three shows back-to-back-to back starting Thursday in Toronto where the dance of burlesque meets the music of folk for a soirée Folklesque at Lee’s Palace.  Ol’ Savannah will be closing the night with a full set of musique originale!

Friday night at Le Troquet.  In the heart of old Hull (Gatineau), this will be the place to be! 2 full sets of musique originale!

Saturday in Montreal. It’s going to be a Cabaret, old chum! Our label Coup d’Griffe  is hosting a benefit at Katacombes to help us and fellow CDG bands get on the road and play more shows. Hours of musique originale! (and some unlikely covers too… don’t ya miss it ;0)

Please visit these facebook event pages for more info:

TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/607736899301144/
HULL: https://www.facebook.com/events/213050228889151/
MTL: https://www.facebook.com/events/571449682945169/

Pete Seeger’s “O Canada”

Came across this in Pete’s book Where Have all the Flowers Gone.  He wrote these new words once smog prevented his view of the Catskills. He writes that he could see the mountains clearly in the early 50’s while standing in his wife Toshi’s vegetable garden 45 miles away. Once the smog filled up the valley, one only sees the distant mountains when the northwest wind blows.  Here you have his new words. Please let us know what you think, whether you’re Canadian, American, or otherwise.

O Canada
At last I breathe again
All thanks to you
Also your great north wind.
No customs tax, no border guards
Could keep your clean air out
So down here in the Polluted States
We all stand up and shout.
O Canada! O Canada!
O Canada —
The words stop in my mouth,
What happens to you when the wind blows
From the south?

2013–75 shows, 2 new band members, 1 new album, and an independent record label

(click photo to enlarge)

 

By: Colton Alexander Gagnon, Montreal, QC, December 14, 2013

This past year has kept the boys of Ol’ Savannah on the road and in the studio.  The band’s third album in as many years, “Death on the Mountain” seeks to haunt and trance audiences away from the run-of-the-mill, happy-go-lucky, over-saccharrine melodies and harmonies of traditional folk music.   Speedy Johnson’s vocals mixed with the instrumentation (banjo, accordion, guitar, bass, and percussion) reveal a “threatening, sinister air…yet the beauty of the songs is never overwhelmed.”

Stream the entire album at www.olsavannah.bandcamp.com

All the songs were written by Speedy Johnson and Bartleby J. Budde, with the exception of their rendition of the Balfa Brothers’ Valse de Balfa.   Here are “two men on the same wave length with a vision of their music that is constantly evolving, drawing in new ideas that keep everything so fresh and original.”

I met up with “the boys”, who also include Kevin Labchuk, Tim van de Ven, and Ram Krishnan, in a downtown-Montreal watering hole.  A place where one orders an Irish Car Bomb only to receive a dirty look and a finger that points to Crescent Street. Appropriately, the bar is called Grumpy’s.  We raised a shot glass full of whiskey, toasted to another “shit-year”, and I began the interview.

How were all of your childhoods?

Van de Ven was the first to say, “I grew up in Ontario”.  Budde interrupted and said, “shut up. Nobody cares.”  Labchuk squeezed in a comment about the Canadian Navy and its sixteen ships.  

If you were women, how different do you think your music would be?

[I got nothing but silence save Krishnan’s grumble, then  Johnson called for another round.]

Do you worry about whether people like you for the real you?

“I think it’s like a box of cereal.  Sometimes you read the back of the box and forget all about filling the bowl,” said Johnson.

Budde added, ” That’s entirely correct.”

When do you go back in the studio?

“We got some material for the next album.  Hold on to your britches and find out.”  [I’ll refrain from naming who said this.  This was kind of a ‘dickish’ thing to say, and I’m better than that.]

Why don’t you guys play top 40 hits instead and try to make some real dough?

[I tried my best to piece together all the fragments that came hurling into the small microphone of my hand-held recorder]

“Have you no decency!?” “Like Mumfords and Son!?” “‘Nother round, [EXPLETIVE DELETED]”  “I did that once in grade 12…best 4 years of my life!” “I am cheese and this cheese gots taste!” “I’m Spartacus!”