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.

We recorded the album Six Shooter in august 2008 in the desert town of Ashcroft, British Columbia. Ashcroft rests on the banks of the Thompson River and was a stopping point during the gold rush with a hopping saloon. The sound of trains is ever present with CP Rail running up and down the west bank and CN on its eastern bank. The sounds of these trains serendipitously bled into the recordings of songs like the lead track Railroad. The album was produced by Johnny Ellis and recorded at his studio Nashcroft Manor. The view from various tracking rooms was either of the garden, which grew the bulk of the food we would eat while up there, or the river and the desert hills. Very inspiring, especially when racing the shadow cast by the setting sun while we were recording “Arizona” with the line “oh how the sun lies down across the desert…”

One of the visions I had for this album was to have Luke Doucet dueling with my guitar player Adam Dobres. I called up Luke and he happened to be traveling from Edmonton to Colorado the week we were recording. Ashcroft may not be the geographical midway point between those two destinations but it wasn’t too far out of the way to get him for a couple days. Interestingly when I put the songs in sequence for the final product it turned out that Luke played on 5 of the 6 songs on side 2. There is a distinct side 1 and side 2 with this record. Luke got a good kick out of the “West Coast” recording process that we worked around. We would get up at noon or 1 o’clock, hang out for an hour and a half, go down into the studio, work for an hour and by then it would be 40+ degrees in the studio, too hot to work. So in the back of the pick up truck and down to the river we would go. There is a certain elbow in the river that the locals know about and that is where you go to swim. I tell you it is one of the most spectacular spots on the face of the earth. You park the truck, cross the tracks, and all of a sudden you are on the surface of the moon. This psychedelic wash of river rocks is something that you have never seen before. You walk about a quarter mile to where the river takes a right angle turn and that’s where you dive in. Now you have to understand that the Thompson River is one of British Columbia’s 5 biggest rivers, this is no creek running through the farm and the ride puts any amusement park to shame. You dive in and instantly you are racing at about 20 mph down the river. You can open your eyes underwater as you are screaming along overtop of the riverbed and you feel like a 100 year old sturgeon. Well, at least I did. It was just what we all needed to recharge. Then we’d swing by the booze shop, pick up a case of wine and get to work ‘til three o’clock in the morning. Then do it all over again.

About a year before we started working on “Six Shooter” I met and started playing with Del Cowsill. Up until then my guitar player, Adam Dobres and I had been piecing together different bands for various gigs desperately craving a solid band. A Heartbreakers or a Crazy Horse. Del’s knack for harmony singing, bass playing and being a complete encyclopedia of music from the 60’s made for the perfect fit. We managed to get Pat Steward on the road with us and played for a year as “The Outfit”. With Del coming from a more extensive musical lineage than myself I’m not going to lie, the first time someone who was introduced to him asked if he was related to Billy Cowsill I was more than happy to witness that scene from the third person.

We now had a sound. We worked on it for a year and what we recorded in those two weeks is what you’ll hear on Six Shooter. It was a pleasure working with Johnny Ellis for the second time. Steven Drake blew my mind wide open with his knowledge of sound when we mixed it in the spring. And the beautifully talented and dear friend Pharis Romero designed the cd package, which looks amazing. Of course she had some bitchin’ photos taken by Mark Maryanovich to work with.

Thanks to everyone involved.

The Dustin Bentall Outfit will be releasing the album “SIX SHOOTER” on September 1, 2009. 

The album features 11 new songs with guest appearances by Luke Doucet and Kendel Carson.