ABOUT

Indie Folk-Pop? Alt-Country Cowpunk? Barnstorm Bluegrass? Roots & Boots Trad? Back-Alley Dustabilly?  

With two albums to their name, and known for rollicking, genre-busting shows that blend authentic connection, a generous sense of community, and toe-tapping, dance-floor-shaking songs – the heart of the Ottawa-based band The Dustbowl Daddies is the old-time, inclusive spirit of using music to bring people together, lift them up, and get them moving.

Fusing lush alt-country harmonies with infectious indie-pop melodies, steel-string twang with poetic lyrical intensity, roots-rock stomp with swinging trumpet – and seasoned with a dash of catchy ska/punk energy, laughter, and progressive political spirit —The Dustbowl Daddies are what you might get if Mumford & Sons, Cake, Billy Bragg, The Strumbellas, Lucinda Williams, Spirit of the West, Taylor Swift, Eliott Brood, The Specials, Woody Guthrie, Tom Waits, REM, The Pogues and The Clash threw a kitchen party.

The Daddies have released several full length albums (Boom and Bust Economies of Love in 2021 and The Longest Day of the Year in 2015) as well as the EP More Hurricane than Rainbow (2019) – which together capture the Daddies’ special high-energy live-off-the-floor feel, their heartfelt poeticism and tongue-in-cheek irreverence, and their love and respect for a wide diversity of styles, eras, sounds and tempos. All are the result of years of collaborative writing and performing, the special live chemistry of the Little Bullhorn Studio, and the musical alchemy of producer, technical engineer/wizard and honorary Dustbowler, Dave ‘dB’ Draves. The albums have been very well received, with very favourable reviews from all over the world - and their songs have been streamed more than 50,000 times on Spotify alone.

For the Daddies, the collaborative Dustbowl spirit is also about celebrating the fact that, despite all the suffering/injustice in the world, people still join together to do incredible, generous and beautiful things. As a small way of recognizing this, the band donates most of the proceeds from their shows and over the last few years they have raised more than $5000+ for some of the amazing charitable organizations doing work around Ottawa, including the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre, Ottawa Inner City Health, Families of Sisters of Spirit, and the Ottawa Food Bank.

As for the band members themselves: following the dictum that if one is good, two must obviously be better, the band is fronted by two Pauls. Paul ‘Hank Goodfellow’ Tyler and Paul ‘The Duke’ Saurette first started writing songs together back in 2009 – before the band even existed – and have continued to share song writing, lead (and backup!) vocals, and rhythm guitar duties ever since (plus trumpet/ accordion/ melodica/ uke for Duke and mando for Hank). Rob ‘The Reverend’ Sparling soon joined them and now juggles banjo, harmonica, keys and backup vox without missing a beat. For much of the band’s life, Kevin ‘Buddy Thumper’ Grignon has kept the bass line moving while ‘Stumpy’ Lee Jacobs now wrangles cajon and percussion, as well as the odd mando and lead guitar line. The Daddies rock just a little harder when their other globetrotting members return home, with Mat ‘Fingers’ Patterson serving up jangling telecaster hooks and backup vocals and Chris ‘Black Lung Bobby’ Leite melding an impossibly sunny enthusiasm with a relentless working over of the drum kit. 

Surprising facts: band members have also published almost a dozen books on topics as varied as climate change, humiliation, poetry, corruption, populism, car culture, political rhetoric/communications, 18th century philosophy, and international relations/political economy – and can often be found commenting on current affairs in the media. And while the band is based in Ottawa, its roots run far afield – with band members hailing from (and remaining deeply connected to) Ottawa, Vancouver Island, Winnipeg, Toronto, North Bay and northern England!

Finally, to everyone who has been apart of this journey: un grand remerciement for all your help raising this metaphorical barn. Couldn’t have done it – and wouldn’t have wanted to – without you!