Toronto, ON: For their sixth album release in a decade-long career, The Sadies, fronted by brothers Dallas and Travis Good, decided it was time to gather family, friends and collaborators for a live album. And, seeing how the Toronto foursome are no ordinary band, with their breathless conflation of punk, surf, bluegrass, Ennio Morricone-esque spaghetti Western instrumentals and cosmic country rock, this would be no ordinary live album.

Spending most of their time on the road both in North America and abroad, The Sadies are at home on any stage they're on, with a typical show lasting 35 to 40 songs, give or take five or ten. The band's mind-blowing technical dexterity, coupled with their almost careless stage presence and reckless aesthetic, add up to make their live shows very special events. With their rep as a band not to miss, a live disc seemed a natural addition to their recorded legacy, a set of recordings that captures what The Sadies are all about.

Dallas Good explained the decision in a recent interview: "We've really made a career out of playing as much as we can on the road and working with as many different people as we can in doing so, which pretty much means we're a live band. We pride ourselves on our live performances; we do long shows, and often what we perform live isn't all that indicative of what our most recent release is. So doing a live album is a good way to document what we've been working on up until now and a good way to work with all of our friends in an atmosphere that we're comfortable with."

The Sadies have become as renowned for their collaborations as for their own albums, they had quite a list of friends to invite: The Sadies are the band on Neko Case's The Tigers Have Spoken and appear on her new studio album; they're also featured on the Mayors or the Moon album with Mekons/Waco Brothers frontman/artiste Jon Langford and they've made an album with soul legend Andre Williams, Red Dirt. The Sadies have a longtime relationship with the members of Blue Rodeo and its frontman, Greg Keelor, as well as Rick White (Elevator, Eric's Trip) and the Sadies/Keelor/Rick White trippy side project, The Unintended. Most recently, The Sadies have done live dates with Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray raunchabilly band Heavy Trash so Jon and Matt flew in for the sessions. Also on hand were members of The Deadly Snakes, Garth and Maud Hudson, Kelly Hogan, Gary Louris (The Jayhawks), Margaret Good (the Good brothers' mom), and Canadian Country Hall of Famers' The Good Brothers, featuring Dallas and Travis' dad and uncles.

To capture this all on tape, both as a document and a thank you to fans, Good assigned himself the daunting task of getting these folks together for a two-night stint in front of fans at Lee's Palace in their hometown of Toronto. (Putting out an APB, they finally located Andre Williams in Chicago and tried to arrange for him to fly in, but he was unable to make it -- his passport was at the Superbowl.) Once this logistical feat was accomplished, the shows would be recorded for a double live album by Steve Albini (who'd already recorded three studio albums with the Sadies) and Don Pyle (former Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet member who'd played with Dallas in Phono-comb).

For two sold-out nights, packed audiences were treated to four-hour sets by The Sadies and guests. With over 50 tracks to sift through, the Sadies settled on 41 songs to be released on two discs, mixed with "no overdubs or any such nonsense." The double album features mini sets by all the artists involved. Highpoints include a cover of The Band's "Evangeline" featuring Garth Hudson, Travis Good and Neko Case, live versions of Sadies' originals from the band's previous studio releases, Good family bluegrass breakdowns, a version of "Tailspin" featuring Gary Louris on lead vocal and a rousing version of the Mekons' "Memphis, Egypt" with Langford commanding the troops. On the psychedelic side, there were two new unreleased songs by the Unintended as well as three new unreleased tracks by The Sadies. They also covered the Pink Floyd classic, "Lucifer Sam."

On August 8, (two years to the day from their previous release, Favourite Colours), The Sadies: In Concert Volume 1 hits the streets. This is the album the Sadies have been moving towards with each release -- an album that establishes them not just as instrumentalists but as songwriters able to evoke their various influences and combine them into something unmistakably their own. While The Sadies may sound like a lot of things, no one sounds quite like The Sadies.

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