For Love and Your Mother’s Sake by The United Steel Workers Of Montreal

SONG OF THE DAY

“For Love & Your Mother’s Sake” by The United Steel Workers Of Montreal (Three On The Tree, Weewerk Records, 2009).

LINKS

INTERESTING FACTS (a la Wikipedia)

– United Steel Workers of Montreal (or USWM) are a six-piece alternative country ensemble based in downtown Montreal.

– At present, the band consists of Gern F (vocals/acoustic guitar), Felicity Hamer (vocals/accordion), Sean “Gus” Beauchamp (vocals/acoustic guitar), Matt Watson (electric guitar), Eddie Blake (bass) and Christopher Reid (banjo/mandolin).

– The band draws on punk rock, bluegrass and country influences, and is part of a “citygrass” scene of alternative country musicians in Montreal which also includes Katie Moore and Lee Mellor and the Mudhounds.

– The band began as an informal busking collective, playing every Tuesday in Montreal’s Lucien-L’Allier metro station. After about seven or eight months, they booked a rehearsal space and began to actively record and perform as a permanent band.

– In 2007 a Montreal Mirror readers’ poll voted them the third best act in the city, behind only Arcade Fire and electronic duo Team Canada.

PRESS RELEASE (a la CDBABY)

A potent mix of blues, jazz, country and swing, The USWM’s live performances are filled out with dry wit, tall tales and some outright lies. Dancing is optional but hard to avoid.

Following in the wake of their critically acclaimed albums, Broken Trucks and Bottles and Kerosene & Coal, THREE ON THE TREE sees the band branching out from their earthy, acoustic-country-punk roots to experiment with gospel (“Jesus We Sweat”), historical ballads (“Mary Gallagher”), Spanish horn arrangements (“Glen Jones”) and thundering premonitions of death (“Three Hard Knocks”)… Huge in heart, narrative scope and emotion, THREE ON THE TREE swoops down over the industrial grimness of “Shot Tower” sashaying through the street-level social turbulence of “What a Riot” and peers into a delicate room where lead singer Felicity Hamer’s velvety vocals balance the melody of “Little Girl” like a frail tea-cup on her saucer. All of the most loved conventions of The USWM’s previous work are represented, from the stirring rallying cries of “Rise Up” and “The Line” to light hearted foot stomping romps like “Making Babies” and “Lorelei”.

THE UNITED STEEL WORKERS OF MONTREAL were voted Montreal’s #1 Folk/Roots Band and #2 Best Live Act, and have been recorded live by CBC Radio 2 and CBC Radio 3. The band has been receiving critical acclaim, playing SXSW, NXNE, CMW, Pop Montreal, Toronto International Film Festival, Festival de musique émergente, Quebec City’s 400th anniversary, Ottawa Bluesfest, Berlin’s Popkomm, Nancy France Jazz Festival and received nominations for the Quebec Independent Music Awards and the MIMIs.

RECENT PRESS QUOTES:
— Their live gigs have achieved a legendary cult-like status…they sing about you and me, and to you and me. It’s real, it’s about a good time, it’s about life. – Nightlife Magazine

— The USWM are the quintessential Montreal band…one of the best, hardest working and most loved bands in the city. Possessing a blue-collar charm that’s impossible to fake and a punk-country sound impossible to mistake – The Hour

— A fantastic band… Good people, good music. Highly recommended – CTV

— The hoot-and-holler meter went highest when the United Steel Workers of Montreal thundered through a set of urban hillbilly — or “citygrass” — music…with the fierceness of a Tom Waits-Shane MacGowan knife fight. – Globe and Mail

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