When: 7.30pm on Friday 5 April 2013
Where: Night & Day Cafe, 26 Oldham St, Manchester, M1 1JN

We’re excited to finally be working with a band we’ve been looking to book for a long time: Canada’s The Sheepdogs.

The Sheepdogs built their name on hard work and determination. Having funded their first three albums and early years of touring on their own, this rock and roll band’s momentum began to build exponentially with the release of the 2010 album, Learn & Burn. The band would go on to win three 2012 JUNO Awards (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy): New Group of the Year, Single of the Year and Rock Album of the Year. With a list of accolades this impressive the band is on the brink of engaging fans on a wider scale.

The Sheepdogs will do just that with the release of their new self-titled album, produced by The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney and Austin Scaggs, which will genuinely introduce them to world at large.

Hailing from the small Canadian town of Saskatoon, SK, The Sheepdogs won an international competition in 2011, securing them the cover of Rolling Stone, making the group the first unsigned band to appear on its front page. The win, decided by 1.5 million public votes, also scored them a record deal with Atlantic, which offered up a new EP from the band, Five Easy Pieces, in August 2011.

After the band were introduced to Carney at Petty Fest in New York last year, he immediately began offering ideas for The Sheepdogs next album. The hope was that Carney could actually produce the album. In January, Carney invited the band to the studio, where they culled together old material and quickly began laying down new ideas. Although the band had only spent those two and a half weeks with Carney in Nashville’s Haptown Studios, the sessions proved fruitful. From the first single, The Way It Is, a thumping, blues-tinged track to rollicking stomper Feeling Good, the album embraces a vast range of influences, pulling in various styles and genres to create a collection of raucous, unabashed rock and roll numbers.

After touring steadily since 2006 and spending the last year entirely on the road with bands like Kings of Leon, John Fogerty and Robert Randolph & the Family Band, The Sheepdogs hoped to create songs that would lend themselves to their impassioned performances. The band, who have also performed at numerous festivals including Coachella, Bonnaroo and SXSW, enlisted a keyboard player as the new album features a heavy dose of Hammond organ and Rhodes piano.

Support comes from garage-rock four-piece Grind Outs. You can expect fuzz and reverb-heavy guitars with a back beat to move to. They find themselves somewhere between and Hasil Adkins and Queens of the Stone Age. With only four shows under their belt, they are still new – but are quickly gaining a reputation for putting on a show!

Book tickets now. Tickets are available from Common (no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook | Last.fm