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Dust Poets



Last Updated: 11/3/2009

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Status: Single
City: Onanole, Winnipeg, Toronto
State: Manitoba
Country: CA
Signup Date: 3/17/2006

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Saturday, April 04, 2009 


The Dust Poets will release a new record this spring. World at Large is a collection of a dozen songs, most penned by Murray, plus a song of Sean's and a Woody Guthrie cover from Mermaid Avenue. The songs were arranged and recorded by the band over the last year. The album was recorded at Lloyd Peterson’s wonderful Wonder Dog studios, mixed by the extraordinary Shawn Pierce, and mastered at Sterling Sound. World at Large showcases Murray's trademark mix of insightful sarcasm and thoughtful reflection, accompanied by a very Dust Poets blend of musical styles ranging from bluegrass to mariachi.

World at Large will be released Canada-wide on May 26, available in stores and for download. A release concert at the Park Theatre in Winnipeg on Thursday, May 28 will be followed by shows in Brandon and Onanole MB - watch here for details. The record comes out on our own Productive Apathy label and will be distributed by Outside Music.  Check the Dust Poets myspace page to preview the first few tracks.

Hope we'll see you in May!


8:25 PM 
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009 

Category: Blogging


Northern BC is a beautiful chunk of the world, and we were sorry to only get 6 days of touring in up there. Audiences were wonderful, and it's just so damn easy to find great coffee. It was great to see old friends in Smithers, and party with lots of new friends at "post-concert receptions" [Read: decadent psychedelic rock'n'roll groupie parties] in Burns Lake, Kitimat, and Terrace. Sean still isn't sure at which of those parties he received his latest tattoo, and Gord's corduroy suitcoat is now sleeveless. The scenery was all rather spectacular, and the highlight was the entire band going skiing in Smithers. Some of us prairie types were a little terrified by skiing on an actual mountain, but no limbs were broken and we had a blast. We're more used to skiing being something you do in a ditch while being towed behind a truck with a length of bailer twine. But whatever. It was actually nice not to have to watch out for culverts when jumping the approaches.



5:04 AM 
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Monday, February 02, 2009 

Current mood:  adventurous
Category: Music
It's our first tour of Ought-Nine, and what better place to reacquaint ourselves with twisty snowcovered highways, tepid gas station coffee, and frisbee practise at roadside rest stops than - you guessed it - northern BC!  This week the Poets land in Prince George BC to begin a 6 show mini-odyssey [ED: can odysseys be miniature?) across the legendary Highway 16, ending up on the west coast in spectacular Prince Rupert.

As usual, you'll find all the salient info on our live shows page. If we're not back by Monday Feb 9, send a skidoo search team!
3:59 PM 
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Saturday, December 06, 2008 

Current mood:  excited
Category: Music
It does sound like a dream come true, doesn't it?

One of our Canada's most delicious breweries, Big Rock Beer, has announced the finalists for their Big Rock Untapped CD Vol. II. Out of over 500 submitted songs, Walk Away by the Dust Poets made the cut and will be included along with 14 other tunes by unsigned Canadian artists on this compilation CD which will be distributed in 30000 specially marked cases of Big Rock beer beginning in February 2009. 

Members of the Dust Poets were pleased when they heard the news of this illustrious kudo from one of their most revered breweries, but were absolutely beside themselves when they heard that Big Rock would be giving the band 30 complimentary cases of their prize-winning craft brewed beer.  In an odd twist to the feel good story, bassist and self-described "beernissuer" Gord Mowat, the only Poet living in Toronto, was reportedly crestfallen when he heard that the free sample of delicious and tantalizing Big Rock would be delivered to an address in Winnipeg where band members Sean McManus and Karla Ferguson reside. "I don't see why they couldn't have dropped a couple twelves at my place", said Mowat, dejectedly kicking at a frozen dog turd in front of his row house. "I live in downtown Toronto for gods sake. Do I seriously have to go all the way to Winnipeg to get my free Trad? They could just send me a bloody LCBO voucher or something..." he muttered.

So friends, watch for your copy of Big Rock Untapped Vol II at Canadian beer stores near you starting sometime in February.  Click here to read the press release or visit www.bigrockuntapped.com for more info. And if you want to mooch free beer off Sean and Karla, we suggest you do it SOON.

12:24 AM 
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008 

Current mood:  rockin
Category: Music
Greetings amigos. No doubt you're wondering just where in the hell those godforsaken nutjobs also known as the Dust Poets have been for the past few months. 

Well...

Mostly we've been recording. That's right kids, we've been hard at it all summer/fall in a suburban Winnipeg studio, laying down the tunes and slathering them with audio love. Murray had a busy year of writing, and when we stopped to catch our breath and see what had happened, we were quite pleased to discover we'd recorded 13 new songs!  A nice tidy, lucky, baker's dozen of folky-poppy-rocky-ballady ear candy, just for you.

I've even added three of the new tunes to our myspace player so you can have a taste of the fresh sonic newness.

In other news, Gord got married. No really. For real this time. We were all there and saw it with our own eyes. Ladies, leave him alone for god's sake. I know how you can be. 

You'll also be happy to hear that Sean's web design business, which he used to run out the back of an unmarked van parked under a bridge, is all official now, what with the bank account and promotional golf balls. You should contact him for all your web design business things. www.smackjamsmedia.com

Also we have a tour coming up in November. It's in BC which is kind of on the left side of the map and there are many bears there, apparently. Real bears and everything. We are looking forward to the awesome power of the mountains, and driving through the awesome power of mountain blizzards.

Please have a look at our Upcoming Shows for all the sweet info on those dates. It will be nice to play for humans again, and I hope that you, dear reader, are some of them. I mean humans other than ourselves, of course. We're in fact humans as well.  Generally.

We'll be keeping you posted on the release date of the new record - should be Feb-March or so of next year.

Keep in touch! Mucho gusto!
Corey [and them Poets]
www.dustpoets.com 
2:23 AM 
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Sunday, June 01, 2008 

Current mood:  ninja
my band hates me because I got tickets to see tom waits.  that's right, I'm going to a tom waits concert.  he's playing two nights in Phoenix where I live, but I couldn't get those tickets, so I'm driving to El Paso instead.  they had the tickets down there in old El Paso, yup they did.

my band hates me for now, but when I tell them how awesome the show was, I bet they'll start to liking me again.  I sure hope so anyway.  it might make things awkward in the tour van a bit.

corey
10:29 PM 
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Monday, March 03, 2008 

Category: Music
We spent a fantastic week in Tennessee Feb 21-28, enjoying a combination of great gigs, the monster party that is the Folk Alliance Conference, and a three day rehearsal binge in Memphis hosted at Nancy's Fabulous House of Music. We played gigs in Madisonville, Franklin, and Nashville and the southern hospitality and love of music hit us full force at every show. Can't wait to get back there!

After Murray, Gord, and Corey got mired in 24 hours of airline hell in Minneapolis, we all made it back to Manitoba just in time for a concert in Portage la Prairie - but the luggage didn't. Gord's bass, Murray's guitar, and Corey's black garbage bag of dirty laundry all flew to Grand Forks for some reason. So with borrowed instruments and some truly legendary BO, we kicked into the concert and were rather elated when a dazed-looking courier driver rolled up to the venue at the intermission with the errant bags. We got a roar of applause when we hit the stage in our actual concert attire at the second half!

Tonight it's a show for Sean's myriad relatives in Minnesdosa, and then we hit Saskatchewan for concerts in Forget and Prince Albert. We end up the week Alberta bound for dates in Spruce Grove, Stettler, and Brooks, where the tour winds up.

We'll take two weeks off while Corey plays a bucketload of St Patrick's Day gigs in Phoenix, that beating heart of Irish culture! Then the Poets reconvene for a 7-date tour of BC at the end of March - so we'll see you then!
7:24 PM 
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Thursday, September 06, 2007 

Current mood:  savage
Category: Music
Summer is gone, but the memories live on...and most of us need to do some dry-cleaning. We finished off August in style, playing at Summerfolk in Owen Sound before heading back to the 'Tobe for some shows in the homeland. Summerfolk was an amazing weekend - they treated us so well and we got to hang with some brilliant musicians, some who we've known for a while (Genticorum, Evelyn Parry, Modern Man) and some we'd only just met (Farewell Drifters, James Stephens). The volunteers, the food, the jam sessions were all absolutely amazing. Jim Cuddy was great to see up close, and it was a bonus that Kathleen Edwards was playing fiddle and singing backup in his band!

The aforementioned Farewell Drifters are a young 'n hungry bluegrass band from TN who are deadly pickers and great singers. It being their first trip to Canada, we naturally attempted to explain the sport of curling to them in the beer tent one afternoon. I'm not sure they got it in the end, but it was worth a shot. I got to play some tunes in a mandolin workshop early one morning, but Karla and Sean slayed 'em with their blowhard skills at a workshop called Blowin In The Wind. Murray was perfectly programmed in a songwriter jam called "Cynics and Sinners", but Gord wasn't sure why he got put in the "Little Instruments" workshop - although he assures us his manhood remains intact.

After that weekend we headed to Winnipeg and did a really fun noon hour show at the Old Market Square. That evening we were the party band for Mavis' Giant 40th Birthday Spectacular, where we got to cut loose and play all the old covers we haven't done forever. We also did a custom arranged 8 minute version of Happy Birthday.

The big closer to the summer was a concert at the hall in Wasagaming, and we played as well as we ever have for a packed house. It was an exhilarating show, which was matched only by the ferocity of the party at Murray's afterwards. In fact Karla woke up the next afternoon with a headache and a new nickname: "TeQuarla", in honour of the running duel she fought with some Cuervo. Luckily she only knocked her mother-in-law to the ground once - although that wasn't bad considering Sam Baardman fell down a rather steep cliff...

We're going to BC in a few weeks - yay!
Later - CT
3:38 PM 
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Tuesday, August 07, 2007 

Current mood:  chipper
Category: Music
Last weekend was a sweet folkie thrillride, with the Poets shaking it down at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. We had some fantastic workshop slots, including a reunion with our Canuck road mates the Glengarry Bhoys who rocked us with some pipe tunes early on Friday.  Miranda even let me jump in on "Mouth of the Tobique" which instantly made me miss New Brunswick. Later we crammed back on stage for a mass-band Beatles workshop where we pulled out our schwingy version of Helter Skelter (it's on a recording called "Here Comes the King" by DP-precurosr band the Armchair Radicals - find it here on the DP website).  The house band scared us with how well they knew absolutley every Beatles song called.

Then Sunday morning at the buttcrack of dawn (10am) we crawled back onstage with the well-dressed hipsters of Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams. We got downright circus-sy and had a great time swapping tunes and jamming along, even revisiting the Beatles action with a duelling re-remake of Lucy (Kaplansky) in the Sky with Diamonds. 

Mary Granata kept us in Heineken, while the vegan goat curry actually saved my life on Sunday. The mad Vermonters of Bread and Bones (namely Richard, Beth, and Mee-atch) hosted us at their campsite Friday night LATE for songs, stories, and Cuervo. Met up with lots of old friends from NERFA and past US travels, and made some new friends. The volunteers were fabulous, and the stage crews uber-professional. Thanks for a great time, Anne Saunders!

Ahh the Red Carpet Inn at Travel Plaza 21-B, how we'll miss you - the stench of your carpets, the smoky reek of your bedding, the roar of I-87 mere meters from my pillow. Monday morning, as the van is waiting to take us to the Hartford airport to fly home, my electronic door lock refuses to open with ANY passcard. After getting somewhat grumpy, I finally convinced the riled up 19-year old desk clerk/gas jockey/Mexican kitchen sous-chef to open my door with his foot. Splinters flew, the strike plate wound up in the sink, and I dashed in, grabbed the pile of sweaty polyester that was my luggage, and high-tailed it outta there.  Good times!  So if you're ever stuck there for the night, don't get put in 211...

Off to Summerfolk in 10 days...talk soon!
CT

1:49 AM 
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Saturday, April 14, 2007 

Current mood:  happy
Category: Music
Well, I'm writing my first blog entry (ever!) just as we begin a wee hiatus. Apparently life outside the van has been ticking along at its usual frenetic pace and it's time to peer out through the sweet-smelling fermented polyester haze and figure out where we are... literally.

In early March we finished a great run of gigs and conferencing through the north-eastern US and down into Memphis - the highlight for me might just have been playing Minor Key at an open mic at the Guthrie Center in Stockbridge, Mass (AKA the site where the events of 'Alice's Restaurant' went down) while Arlo's wife listened in over the phone. But come the end of the tour, as soon as the pay cheques were collected, everyone bolted, and bolted far. You may be curious to know what a Dust Poet does when left to his or her own devices, so I'll give you an example. On the weekend of St. Patrick's Day, Murray and Lei Anne were trekking through the markets in Bangkok (ostensibly on business!), Gord was sipping fine wines with his sweetie in Montreal, Corey was being whipped into Irish shape (that's with Guinness, not whips) on stages throughout Phoenix...

... and Sean and I? Well, it was strange for me to realize that we were closest to home that weekend, although our home was in a truck with us and we were driving it all back to the prairies. Yep, we've become Manitobans again! More specifically, Winnipeggers - Sean has taken on the post of Training Coordinator at the venerable Manitoba Audio Recording Industry Association, or simply, MARIA (check out www.manitobamusic.com), and we're about to rediscover prairie living and a steady income. We're still getting our bearings, but are looking forward to hanging with our prairie peeps (including Murray!), breathing some cleaner air, and killing lots of mosquitoes.

I am feeling a bit locationally challenged, and although that's really par for the course for a touring musician, this move has truly complicated matters. A couple of weeks ago the band reconvened in BC to play a showcase at Pacific Contact, and in the Vancouver airport I spent a full fifteen minutes standing at the Toronto baggage carousel wondering where the hell my bags were, while Sean was behind me pulling them all off the Winnipeg one!

So, as you can probably surmise, our own individual lives are taking center stage at the moment, which is not a bad thing. It's always a good opportunity for us to re-energize, to reacquaint ourselves with family and friends, and to unwind all the inside jokes and accents from our brains. It's also a good time as any to reflect on the last 7 months or so, see where we've been and where we're heading - on my count, gigs in 7 provinces and 8 states, and performances at seven industry conferences throughout the continent. It was a great run, and a great lot of work, building blocks kind of stuff  that will hopefully pay off in the months and years to come. Lots to look forward to with the boys, which is exciting - next up, the Detroit Festival of the Arts in early June. But for now, we're unpacking, Murray's drywalling, Gord's reacquainting himself with jazz, and Corey?... Corey can tell you himself!

Cheers,
Karla
1:41 AM 
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