MATTHEW STEFANSON
Arts Writer

It’s rare that a Canadian group earns any sort of national exposure in the U.S. It’s rarer still for them to be an unknown group from the middle of the Canadian prairies who are being given the opportunity to grace the cover of Rolling Stone.

The Sheepdogs, a well-known Roots rock group in Saskatoon have been entered into the Choose the Cover of Rolling Stone contest.

The web-based competition, which is currently in the first of four stages, starts with 16 unsigned groups from the U.S. and Canada, the eventual winner of which will — in addition to being the first ever unsigned group ever to grace the cover of the magazine — be awarded a recording contract with Atlantic Records.

The Sheepdogs’ bassist, Ryan Gullen is excited at the prospect of sharing a label with such past luminaries as Ray Charles and Led Zeppelin, but the group isn’t getting ahead of themselves.

“We don’t have huge ideas of being on a major label and blowing up and being the next U2,” said Gullen. “We’re keeping ourselves pretty level headed and not having big ideas.”

The real benefit of winning the competition, according to Gullen, would be the exposure.

“I think that having people in place that can expose you to the public is always a good thing. Any situation where you can align yourself with somebody that can help get your music out there and get some money behind what you’re doing, it’s a huge thing.”

The American market is notoriously difficult for Canadian bands to find ground in and having the promotional power of Atlantic Records behind them, the Sheepdogs could find a much larger audience, although the competition itself has already been great exposure for the group.

“Just yesterday on MySpace we had something like 23,000 plays just based on the contest,” said Gullen.

The group self-produced and recorded their last three albums, but given the chance, and with Atlantic footing the bill, Gullen said that they would be excited to bring some outside influences into the process.

“Ethan Johns is a really good producer, Paul Butler — who is in a band called The Bees from the Isle of White — we’re really big fans of their music. I think that to work with a producer who we would obviously never be able to afford, who could make our records even better — that would be a really big thing.”

The Sheepdogs are notably the only Canadian group in the competition and, considering that they don’t hail from Toronto, Montreal or any of Canada’s other musical hotspots, their presence on the list has been a surprise to many, including the group, said Gullen. “To be the only Canadian band picked is pretty crazy.”

“Being from Saskatchewan we are at a bit of a geographical disadvantage,” said Gullen. “In order for us to do things within the music industry we have to go to Toronto or we have to go to Vancouver or Montreal or down to New York or wherever, but a band from Saskatchewan is a much more interesting story.”
The Sheepdogs are facing a wide field of competition, from their roots rock counterparts, Jamestown Revival, to MC Mod Sun.

“I feel pretty strongly about our band,” said Gullen, “but there’s definitely some other bands that are going to be tough competition.”

Despite the wide variety of music represented in the contest, Gullen said that The Sheepdogs are in a good position.

“We’ve always been told that our music is accessible. We’ve played in New York and had hip-hop guys just loving our stuff. I think that our music is accessible enough that a lot of people can enjoy it even if they’re not into that genre.”

The difficulty, according to Gullen, is going to be competing with those groups on the list that already have a huge fan base, but, he said, “We have an entire country behind us.”

His cautious optimism hasn’t stopped Gullen from thinking about the contest’s other big prize, a spot on the main stage at this year’s Bonnaroo festival.

“I just saw that Buffalo Springfield is playing, which would be so cool. Yeah, and then I could meet L’il Wayne and Eminem. All my heroes of the musical industry.”

—
photo: Shannon Heather