Playing at The Dakota on tuesday night.

It’s going to be the last show in Toronto before the outfit heads back west for the summer. I’ve spent the better part of the spring here in Toronto since arriving in the middle of January. It’s been an incredible stay. We did 25 shows with Blue Rodeo, had a couple great shows at The Horseshoe Tavern and all kinds of good times both on and off the stage at The Dakota Tavern. Come to think of it, it has been a bit of a tavern tour! I guess they all are! Aside from the shows I have met and befriended so many incredibly talented musicians. For the last couple months I’ve been spending a lot of time with some of the members of Sweet Thing and Arkells. We all hooked up for the last time I had a night at The Dakota and some musical magic was created. Someone in the crowd asked who we were and someone on stage blurted out “Dwayne Gretzky” so that’s how the name came about. There was no reason for that it just happened.

Dwayne Gretzky is,
Dustin Bentall, Nick Rose, Tyler Kyte, Del Cowsill, Adam Dobres, Morgan Waters, Dan Griffin, Rich Knox, Brian Murphy, Owen Carrier…

We all spent the last weekend, well mon-wed, up at a farmhouse in the country getting ready for this show. We’re all big fans of Big Pink and The Band so we’ve been kicking it lately in that fashion. We wrote some new songs and learned up some great ones (no pun intended) for the show on tuesday. There’s a phenomenal amount of talent in this collective and it’s going to be a special night. You should come down and enjoy it with us!

Again this is going to be the last time The Dustin Bentall Outfit will play in Toronto until sometime in September. We’re heading back out west to tour BC and the prairies throughout the summer.

Thanks again to all the great people I’ve met here out east and to everyone who has helped me out. We’ve come along way in these past few short months.

Dustin

Playing at The Dakota on tuesday night.

It’s going to be the last show in Toronto before the outfit heads back west for the summer. I’ve spent the better part of the spring here in Toronto since arriving in the middle of January. It’s been an incredible stay. We did 25 shows with Blue Rodeo, had a couple great shows at The Horseshoe Tavern and all kinds of good times both on and off the stage at The Dakota Tavern. Come to think of it, it has been a bit of a tavern tour! I guess they all are! Aside from the shows I have met and befriended so many incredibly talented musicians. For the last couple months I’ve been spending a lot of time with some of the members of Sweet Thing and Arkells. We all hooked up for the last time I had a night at The Dakota and some musical magic was created. Someone in the crowd asked who we were and someone on stage blurted out “Dwayne Gretzky” so that’s how the name came about. There was no reason for that it just happened.

Dwayne Gretzky is,
Dustin Bentall, Nick Rose, Tyler Kyte, Del Cowsill, Adam Dobres, Morgan Waters, Dan Griffin, Rich Knox, Brian Murphy, Owen Carrier…

We all spent the last weekend, well mon-wed, up at a farmhouse in the country getting ready for this show. We’re all big fans of Big Pink and The Band so we’ve been kicking it lately in that fashion. We wrote some new songs and learned up some great ones (no pun intended) for the show on tuesday. There’s a phenomenal amount of talent in this collective and it’s going to be a special night. You should come down and enjoy it with us!

Again this is going to be the last time The Dustin Bentall Outfit will play in Toronto until sometime in September. We’re heading back out west to tour BC and the prairies throughout the summer.

Thanks again to all the great people I’ve met here out east and to everyone who has helped me out. We’ve come along way in these past few short months.

Dustin

Well last friday the outfit played the last of 21 shows opening for Blue Rodeo. The tour was an incredible success. There are so many more copies of our record out in eastern Canada than I ever hoped or expected to distribute throughout the tour. The fans of Blue Rodeo welcomed us with open arms night after night by getting to their seats at 7:30 eager to find out what band they brought out with them this time around. It’s a prestigious stage to perform on and I could feel the lingering presence of it’s antecedents; Matt Mays, Kathleen Edwards, The Sadies, Ron Sexmith, Justin Rutledge… What an honor!

There were so many moments that I will never forget. Far too many to mention, but I will indulge in a few of the lighter moments from the last show in Cornwall Ontario. Kendel and I took to the stage to play a song from my first record called “Blackie” only to find the cord for her fiddle fastened to her mic stand with heavy duty tape. Of course I found this hilarious until I reached for my harmonica holder and the harmonica had been elegantly wrapped with the very same tape. As we struggled to get ourselves sorted out in front of 1000 or so people in the audience we couldn’t help but notice just about every crew member side stage bent over splitting their guts. We got through that song and then I brought the rest of the band out to the stage. Over my shoulder I could hear the sound of tape tearing and laughter. It wasn’t until after Del removed the four condoms off of the tuning pegs on his bass that he then had to unfasten the strap which had been taped to the floor. Now the crew, standing in the shadows, were really laughing hard. Especially when we started playing the first song and every time Rich hit his drums the baby powder that they covered them with began forming a little towering cumulus around him. It didn’t stop there. They patched a microphone which could only be heard on stage through the monitors so that anyone who wanted to sing “harmonies” from side stage could do so. To top it off when we finished the set and got back to our dressing room they had a smoke machine in there that had been running for the past 45 minutes!!! Derek Duke Ken Lindsay Brad Tyler Lee Trevor Mark Lorne Dean Mike Kevin Ken Scott and Jamie you’re all the best kind!

And cheers to the band for having us all up to play “Lost Together” to a standing audience 21 times in the last 2 months! What more can I say, you guys are amazing!

Thank you.

Just a note to let you know that we are playing at ***5:30*** at Vancouver Live Yaletown (David Lam Park) today (Monday feb 22nd) The show was originally set for 6:30. Following us will be Jill Barber and then Colin James.

One of the best parts of the whole night happened before Blue Rodeo even took the stage. Their opening band, The Dustin Bentall Outfit, a folky-rock-country group from Vancouver, were amazing. I was so completely impressed - it is one of my greatest joys to discover new music, and it’s even better when it’s Canadian. Dustin is the son of legendary Canadian singer/songwriter Barney Bentall (didn’t know that til I Googled him this morning!), and as far as I can tell, it won’t be long before he’s taking the Canadian music scene by storm himself. Their set was such a pleasant surprise, with my personal favourites being “Emmy-Lou” and “Such a Shame”. We made sure to stop by Gate 1 to pick up their CDs (Street With No Lights and Six Shooter), as well as the CD of their guest fiddle player and vocalist, Kendle Carson (Alright Dynamite), who’s song “Baby Lie Down” was beautiful.

And what better way to end the show than with “Lost Together”? BR invited Dustin Bentall and his Outfit back on-stage to join them, and it was amazing. So many voices, so many guitars… Keelor began the song, as usual, but then gave way to Dustin for the second verse, and band member and vocalist Wayne Petti performed the third. It was then that I realized I wished the song could go on forever.

Hello out there. I haven’t checked in in a while. I don’t tweat or twat on twitter so no one really knows what I’m up to. Here’s a little update.

I’m in Toronto right now getting ready to head out to the east coast to start the tour opening for BLUE RODEO. I couldn’t be any more excited. It’s going to be an amazing couple months. All the shows are listed in the “TOUR” section of the website. I hope you see a lot of you out there. We’re going to have the A Team out for this tour. It’s going to be myself, DEL COWSILL on bass, KENDEL CARSON on fiddle, ADAM DOBRES on guitar and a first timer in “THE OUTFIT” KRIS MACFARLANE on Drums. The tour is basically a week in the maritimes, then 3 nights at  Massey Hall in Toronto, then shows in Barrie and Ottawa before we head back to Vancouver for the Olympics. We’re also going to be playing shows on our own around southern Ontario in the weeks of FEB 7-13 and MAR 14-23. I’ll post those dates as they roll in.

We’re playing 5 shows during the Olympics including a night with RIDLEY BENT & CORB LUND in Surrey. As well, VALLEYFEST on the 19th in Lynn Valley. THAT’S THE HOOD I GREW UP IN! I’m looking forward to seeing all my old teachers, principals and parents of friends I got into trouble with in High School.

If anyone has a ticket to a hockey game send me an email!

I look forward to seeing you out there.

Cheers, Dustin

As the son of one of Canada’s best loved singer-songwriters, Barney Bentall, Dustin Bentall has a lot to live up to. His songwriting skills and musical chops showed promise with his first independently-released album, Street With No Lights. With his second album, he’s surrounded himself with a top notch band, including Del Cowsill on bass and Luke Doucet on guitar, plus teaming up with Vancouver’s Cameron Latimer in co-writing several songs. The band holed up in the heritage town of Ashcroft, B.C., home to John Ellis and Leslie Alexander’s house/studio called Nashcroft Manor and have produced a remarkably mature album. The music here falls somewhere between the earnest, melodic folk-country of Fred Eaglesmith and the hard-drinking, drug-addled outlaw country of Hank Williams III. Veering not too far into either country or rock, Bentall straddles both worlds, adding some tasteful lapsteel here to spice up a song too on the rock side, and using some twisted lyrics to roughen up a country song, His take on Corin Raymond’s (of Toronto roots band The Undesirables) “Three Thousand Miles” is the best song on the album, with its tale of a stoned cross-country bus trip finding earnest truth in Dustin’s vocals. Singing “She was my heroine, now my money’s gone.” on “Pontiac” stirs up thoughts of Elvis Costello with its double entendre meaning. Given a few more albums and tours under his belt, we could be looking at the next big star in Canadian country music blossoming right here.

It was just confirmed that I will be performing at a benefit concert spearheaded by THE SARAH MCLACHLAN FOUNDATION called Summer Sessions. Co-headlining the show are megastars SARAH MCLACHLAN, SHERYL CROW and NEIL YOUNG. Yes my hero Neil Young!

The Sarah Mclachlan Foundation’s mandate is to bring music into the lives of young canadians. Primarily bringing free music programs to youth in under-served communities. Something I couldn’t agree with more. 

The show sold out with 9,000 tickets sold in 2 hours.