articles
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, AB) - March 6, 2008
The globetrotting Dust Poets' aural identity blows with the wind
Corey Ticknor is in the heart of Nashville. The Dust Poets' mandolin player is on the main drag. It's the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week, and all around him is music. Tonight, the band is playing a show, but today the members are doing what travellers do, taking in the town. "It's honky tonk after honky tonk, all the way down the street. Every bar has live music, and where there's no bar, people are busking on the street and in doorways," he marvels. "The only places that don't have live music right now are the cowboy boot shop, the guitar store and the great big hockey stadium at the end of the strip." The Poets officially hail from Brandon, Manitoba, but the band seems to be constantly moving. Not too long ago, three of the members were in Toronto, one was in New Brunswick, and only songwriter Murray D Evans was holding the fort in the Prairies. Now, Ticknor is in Phoenix, accordionist Karla Ferguson and clarinetist Sean McManus are back in Manitoba and upright bassist Gord Mowat remains in Toronto.
Read article...North Island Gazette (Port Hardy, BC) - April 3, 2008
There's no dust on these musicians (Live Review)
Dust Poets were a hit for North Island Concert Society.
PORT HARDY - The Dust Poets may have been paying tribute to their prairie origins when they took the name for their band, but there was no dust on this well-polished quintet as they performed Saturday at Port Hardy Civic Centre. Blending a unique combination of instruments with the even more eclectic lyrics of singer-songwriter Murray Evans, the Dust Poets regaled the audience with songs that borrowed from country, pop, jazz, blues and even Mexican music as part of the North Island Concert Society's season series. The group, formed around veteran Manitoba folk-rocker Evans in 2001, includes Karla Ferguson on accordion, Corey Ticknor on mandolin, Gord Mowatt on double bass and Sean McManus on both clarinet and one of the world's smallest drum kits.
The show began pleasantly enough, with the group playing and the crowd politely applauding a pair of country-tinged folkies from the Poets' 2006 release Lovesick Town - Good Enough for Me and the title track. But when McManus closed out third number, the Spanish-influenced Mariachi Song, with a blistering clarinet solo, the first whoops came from the audience and the connection between stage and floor was locked in for the night. With Mowatt and Evans providing rhythm on bass and acoustic guitar, Ferguson, Ticknor and McManus carried most of the solos and melodies while making effective use of the combination of accordion, mandolin and clarinet. Evans, McManus and Ferguson each took vocal solos - Ferguson giving a yearning, torch treatment to Lonesome - but the group often sang in clean, four-part harmonies.
Read article...The Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, AB) - March 7, 2008
Dust Poets plying their roots music on both sides of the border
The long and winding road travelled by The Dust Poets is becoming more interesting as the Manitoba-based quintet steers its way through its seventh year of touring and recording together. Led by singer-songwriter Murray D. Evans, the Poets have not done things in a conventional manner, but are being noticed by the roots music community around North America. They combine elements of swing, bluegrass, jugband and eastern European sounds with, from time to time, pure pop melodies and a liberal dose of humour.
Read article...Kootenay Western Star (Rossland, BC) - March 18, 2008
Dust Poets coming to Rossland
"Out on the edge of town/Everything's on the edge of town/Box stores they are piling up/How I wish I could knock them down." So goes the opening verse from the Dust Poets' song Walk Away, a tongue-in-cheek critique of small-town life fallen victim to sprawl and the bigger-is-better mentality so common across the Canadian landscape. Who better to play Rossland's own historic Miner's Hall, then, than the quintet from the Canadian Prairies? The contrast between mountainous Rossland and the Prairie provinces, while striking, only serves to better illustrate just how similar small-town life is throughout the country's rural areas.
Read article...Spruce Grove Examiner (Spruce Grove, AB) - March 7, 2008
Prairie poets play folk mix
Five-piece band has played across Canada and U.S. with original and cover tunes
Distributed across the country, the Dust Poets are light-hearted, self-described irreverent Canadian folk-pop. "We don't like to sledge people over the head with a sad theme, so we like to keep it fun and interesting," said band member Murray Evans. Evans writes the majority of the band's material, which can include elements of bluegrass, swing and folk. He said the subjects of their most recent material have been small-town losers, apparent on their latest album Lovesick Town. "We're all from rural Manitoba and for some reason that plays into our psyche. Being from the prairies, we've got a bit of a cynical edge," Evans explained. "We like songs that mean something. We don't do a lot of fluff. Whether it's anti-war tunes or just interesting takes on life in general, it seems to go over fairly well."
Read article...Frederick News-Post (Maryland) - November 23, 2006
Bending genres, getting laughs
Canada's witty Dust Poets playing O'Brien's in Rockville
Like the circus performer in the band's song, "I Married a Magician," you never know what the Dust Poets are going to pull out of their musical hats. One minute, the Canadian band is performing the radio-friendly "Walk Away," a catchy rant against suburbia's big box stores and manicured lawns. The next, singer Karla Ferguson is pulling your heartstrings and channeling Patsy Cline with the lovely "Lonesome".
Read article...Argosy - September 21, 2006
Dust Poets deliver dynamic performance
Those who attended the opening show for the 2006-2007 Performing Arts Series knew that they had made a wise choice. Hailing from Manitoba, Dust Poets brought their brand of fun, country folk-pop to Convocation Hall for an energetic and impressive evening.
Dust Poets consists of five superbly talented individuals who, when put together, make up a sound that is unique, fun and at many times very heartfelt. The group started six years ago, although this was their first time performing in the Maritime region. Read article...
Here Magazine - September 7, 2006
Dust Poets are true travelling band
The members of The Dust Poets have toured Western Canada plenty, so now it's our turn. But to be fair, it's been a challenge for the band to tour at all. While its members were all based in Manitoba when the band formed, it's been a few years since the members of the Dust Poets all lived in the same area. Read article...
Telegraph-Journal (St. John) - September 13, 2006
Dusty Prairie Poets
With band members spread all over the country, the Dust Poets are a roving band of displaced prairie boys who carry on their western tradition, no matter where they hang their hats. Read article...
The Guardian (Charlottetown) - September 15, 2006
Manitoba band teaming up with Island singer at Baba's
Five-piece roots outfit coming to 'work' in the region for the first time.
The Dust Poets, one of Manitoba's hottest and most geographically challenged folk-pop groups, are bringing their songwriting and wit to Charlottetown audiences Monday. The group is part of a double bill featuring Island talent Catherine MacLellan on Monday at Baba's Lounge in Charlottetown.
The five-piece roots outfit formed in Brandon, Man., five years ago, and has been touring most of Canada and parts of the U.S. ever since. Though it's their first working trip to Atlantic Canada, they count a new Maritimer in their membership - mandolinist Corey Ticknor moved to Sackville, N.B., from Manitoba a year ago. "Over the years we've played from Montreal to Vancouver Island and all points between," said Ticknor. "We've always wanted to play the East Coast to check out its legendary music scene." Read article...
Uptown Magazine (Winnipeg) - March 9, 2006
Das Macht No
...The primary theme of the new disc is the stifling alienation of modern living. Songs such as Walk Away, Good Enough for Me, Elevator Music, Hillbilly Love and the title cut all seem to condemn the lack of humanity in economic 'progress.' From the big-box stores mentioned in Walkaway to the phenomenon of hotel-room showcase gigs Evans describes (and wryly decries) in Elevator Music, Lovesick Town is full of images of disconnection and disassociation. Read article...
Winnipeg Free Press - March 9, 2006
Roots group goes on with the show after name change
...The name change hasn't meant a stylistic overhaul. Lovesick Town features 11 offbeat tales of hillbilly love, suburban sprawl and the evils of elevator music wrapped in a mix of roots, folk, bluegrass and western swing. Read article...
Regina Leader-Post - March 2, 2006
Dust Poets latest album has Prairie feel
Not long ago, the band formerly known as das macht Show! spent a painstaking month frantically swapping e-mails and scratching their heads. Read article...
Prairie Dog Magazine (Regina) & Planet S (Saskatoon) - March 2, 2006
DUST MACHT POETS!
...In addition to spreading its wings musically, the Manitoba-spawned band's membership has spread out across the country over the past few years as well. Like McManus, bassist Gord Mowat and vocalist/accordion player Karla Ferguson now resides in Toronto. Mandolin player Corey Ticknor, meanwhile, calls the Maritimes home, while the unit's principal songwriter, Murray Evans, collects his mail in Onanole—a small Manitoba town at the base of Riding Mountain National Park. Read article...
The Manitoban - March 8, 2006
TRAVELLING TROUBADOURS - The Dust Poets release third CD
...Known for delivering a medley of genres on a single CD, the band produces wild concoctions of bluegrass, folk, rock, pop, roots, roots, jazz and swing as a way to keep from becoming bored, said Ticknor. "We're too musically restless," he said. "We want to jump around . . . We play bluegrass .... We like to mix it up — do a country torch song and follow that up with an Elvis Costello tune." Read article...
Edmonton Journal - February 24, 2006
Dust Poets plumb the love/hate relationship with small towns
...The unofficial sport in medium-sized prairie towns is talking about leaving medium-sized prairie towns. Other places are better, right? Alas, no. It's a refrain, but no less true for having been repeated again and again by prairie ex-patriates: wherever you go, there you are. Read article...