Fraser Tuff interviewed us for SHAW-TV and x92.9.
Calgary – October 4, 2011
Walking that line between country and rock
Calgary – Calgary Herald – October 5, 2011
That line of which Johnny sang, Matt Olah knows it and walks it well.No, the Calgary musician wouldn’t dare compare himself to the Man in Black, but sitting on the Ship & Anchor patio with the frontman for local band Cowpuncher you get the sense they’re something of kindred spirits, he and the late, great Cash.
That’s especially true musically, where that thin border between country and rock is something both patrol, dipping in and out of each territory with amnesty, mingling with the locals, speaking their language and fitting right in.
For Olah and his band of outlaws, it’s a pretty great place to exist.
“We do kind of walk that line,” Olah says. “We had someone ask us to do their wedding ceremony acoustically, and I thought it was the worst idea I’d ever heard. But it ended up being awesome. We totally can pull off an acoustic, bluegrass banjo thing, but we can also pull off a greasy rock ’n’ roll show at the Distillery or Broken City.
“And we own it on either side. So it’s a pretty interesting line to walk.”
Thursday night, Cowpuncher will make another claim to that perimeter by releasing their new album Call Me When You’re Single with a show at the Republik.
It’s the band’s first since its 2010 release, The Brown Album, and it’s an easy, honest, exceptional statement that goes down as smooth as if it were swigged straight from the still.
On a musical level, it shows the artistic growth and stylistic evolution of the band, one that Olah and Co. have hard-earned through gigging relentlessly in the city’s clubs and around the rest of the prairies. And it’s a definitive and distinct sound they’ve rustled up — informed by their original twangier beginnings but never letting the dust settle as it honky-tonks, rockabillys, bluegrasses and lazily rocks.
“It’s like a soup,” Olah says. “The base is country but we put in a lot more ingredients.”
It also never falls into the land of kitsch and coy where many other country rock acts find themselves floundering and where even the band name might even suggest, with lead songwriter and lyricist Olah sounding like other contemporary C&W-influenced troubadours such as Bobby Bare Jr. and Jeff Tweedy. From the gutty Light That Shines, which features the Cowpuncher “male choir” and lines such as “I’m gonna pick you up/When you hit the ground” to the sad and lonesome Hole In My Heart, it’s unabashedly in touch with and successfully reaching out from its emotional depths.
“It’s pretty honest and earnest,” he agrees. “I don’t know if it’s too popular to do these days, but it is, we just wear our hearts on our sleeves and lay it out.”
Helping with that honesty is the sonic air of the disc, which was recorded live off-the-floor in The Blackbird Cafe, an old church in Coleman, AB. The band camped out and laid down the songs — which they’d spent the previous four months rehearsing and working into shape —during a two-week period last January and in the throes of an Alberta winter.
It all works together for something that Olah is understandably proud of, but, oddly, already wanting to move on from for a number of reasons. The first being that the band dynamic has already changed, with the band’s pedal steel player, Shawn Canning, already having moved on.
And there’s also the fact that, quite possibly, the sound could be growing a little more, perhaps taking trips deeper into that rockier region and spending less time on that line. Who knows, thanks to a little more encouragement and acknowledgment from Calgary’s hard rock community, including the Calgary Beer Core, who named Cowpuncher the best new band at its recent awards ceremony, perhaps Olah could be convinced to stop walking and maybe make a leap.
“We just keep falling further down the rock ’n’ roll rabbit hole,” he says.
Rootsy country and greasy rock ’n’ roll
Calgary – FFWD – October 6, 2011
They may have painted this town brown on more than one occasion, but celebrating a recent coronation as the best new band according to the 2011 Calgary Beer Core Awards has local rock-posse Cowpuncher seeing gold.
Happy to claim that crown and the ensuing sensations of triumph, singer/guitarist Matt Olah, baritone guitarist Ryan Kelly, guitarist Scott Martin (the Smokin’ 45s), upright bassist Harley Hoeft (5 Star Homeless), percussionist Jeff Sulima (Matt Masters’ band) and guitarist Tynan Groves (the Bobby Kork Orchestra, also of Matt Masters’ band) are all the better for their five-year run at the title. Known for their hard-driving and quick-shifting alt-country and punk antics, Cowpuncher has become notorious for rustling talent from other local acts until their onstage roster swells to seven or more players. Whipping crowds into a frenzy with their genre-defying live performances, the Calgary-based ensemble has the unique distinction of being able to straddle the ditch, saddle the bronco and piss in the wind without missing a beat.
“The timing is right,” confirms founding frontman Olah. “We’re all quite proud and excited about the release of our second album, Call Me When You’re Single. Getting back to recording required some mental adjustments after performing live on the road for a stretch. After we got home there was no rest. We hit the road for a ranch and finally became men. We branded cattle, cooked pig and ate prairie oysters. That same night we played in a field under open skies in the cold of night until our hands froze up. That was the start of a good spring and summer; now we’re reaping that harvest.”
The latest recording to receive the Cowpuncher brand of approval sees the manly men parlaying their twisted roots into a bonafide rock ’n’ roll round up. An evolutionary leap away from the primordial mud of the band’s 2010 debut, The Brown Album, this new release connects the seemingly random dots in Cowpuncher’s sound. The picture revealed depicts a group that has run the gambit from honky-tonk to hardcore and found some mighty comfortable stomping grounds in between.
Somewhat deflated by the departure of banjo/pedal-steel player Shawn Canning, Cowpuncher dug deep to test their mettle and put some true grit into their second album. “Sadly, one of our members is concentrating on fatherhood and has left the punchers to focus on the family,” Olah says. “Rock ’n’ roll ain’t easy on a personal life…. We’re gonna miss you, Papa Shawn Canning. You’ll always be part of our family.”
Canning’s departure meant the group could try out some new musical ideas without changing their lineup. “Seeing as our pedal-steel player has moved on, and given that we already have enough mouths to feed, we decided it might be fun to bring in some different instrumentation on the new record rather than attempting to recruit new members,” says Olah. “I started Cowpuncher a long time ago, and since then we’ve had a pretty steady revolving cast, so it was the same crew for this record. We’ve all been playing as a group for two years straight now and you can hear it on the album.”
The recording studio also played a role in shaping the album’s sound. “Fortunately, the gentleman who mixed our first record is some big shot who was kind enough to engineer this one. We did it in January during his slow time and reached out to friends who helped us rent out a church that’s been converted into café in Coleman. We hung out for the better part of two weeks and the results were dramatically different than our previous experience. We made the last one right in the heart of downtown Calgary; I have to admit it was fun to go out to the country for a change.”
Cowpuncher turned the isolation of the remote Rocky Mountain mining town to their advantage. “We’ve definitely packed in the tasty licks,” Olah says. “On some songs you’ll get to hear three solos! I mean, you don’t have three guitarists in your act without wanting to hear some good licks…. I guess you could say we’re a bluegrass band that morphed into a crazy rock ’n’ roll band. Our aim is to provide an interesting twist on things and become everyone’s favourite rootsy country and greasy rock band.”
Stepping into the punch
Calgary – Metro – October 6, 2011
When you can’t think of a name for your band, what else is there to do besides rely on a random word generator circa the Internet?
That’s exactly how Cowpuncher came to be, according to founder Matt Olah, who is getting ready to release the band’s latest album Call Me When You’re Single tonight at The Republik (219 17 Ave. SW). If you haven’t heard them before, the best way to describe their sound is that it’s almost as random as their name.
Granted, I’m saying this from the perspective of a girl who loves her hip hop, but to my credit I grew up listening to the classics from all sorts of genres.
All I can say is Cowpuncher sounds like Buddy Holly had an awesome threesome with a banjo and cello.
Olah credits the unique sound to a very interesting creative process.
“We spent about four months jamming a few times a week and planning how to best approach each song prior to recording. We were knocking off three or four songs a day,” he says. “Then, we recorded it in an old church in the dead of winter. Over the course of two weeks, we were struck by this horrid flu. Each of us took a turn crawling around sick but no matter how sick we were, we still pulled ourselves together and spent about 10 hours a day recording.”
With a humorous tone, Olah insists you can hear the cold and aching on the record; however, tonight’s event is sure to be hot.
This band of six, including Scott Martin, Harley Hoeft, Ryan Kelly, Jeff Sulima, Tynan Groves, Shawn Canning and Olah definitely know how to light up a room.
After months of preparation and with their rock ‘n’ roll flare, Cowpuncher’s new songs will make you move, tip a few back, and regret that you stumbled home a few hours before you have to be back at the office. Show kicks off at 8 p.m. tonight with the $15 cover including a copy of the new CD.
Cowpuncher Interview
Edmonton – VUE Weekly – December 1, 2010
For Matt Olah, frontman for Calgary-based cowpunk band Cowpuncher, collaboration and networking have always been his strong suits. When he started Cowpuncher five years ago, it was basically him and pedal-steel player Shawn Canning. Slowly but surely the rowdy, energetic songwriter’s project ballooned to a seven-piece, thanks to members from Matt Masters, the Dudes, Dojo Workhorse, 5 Star Homeless, the Smokin’ 45s and Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. Basically, a who’s who of Calgary’s indie live-music scene. So how did Olah manage to moonlight so many great players from established bands?
“We had something cool going on,” he offers. “When you’re a solo guy, you’re the band leader, but I prefer the collaboration, so I think people appreciate their input and ideas being heard.”
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Slice sold out for Alberta Music Showcase
Lethbridge – L.A. Beat – November 17th, 2010
The Slice was sold out for an Alberta Music event featuring local singer -songwriter Alyssa McQuaid, the Dudes and a surprise visit from Calgary alt-country band, Cowpuncher, Nov. 12.
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While I missed Alyssa McQuaid‘s half hour set of originals, I was blown away by Cowpuncher’s five guitar attack.
Cowpuncher played an upbeat set of country rock. Photo by Richard Amery
They combined elements of Tom Petty’s roots rock with Fred Eaglesmith’s storytelling lyrics and a little bit of the Band’s laid back feel.
But they were just getting warmed up by the end of their 45 minute set, which had most of the crowd on their feet.They had the audience singing along by the last song “Thank God for Lonely Nights,” which had a guitar riff reminiscent of “Ghost Riders in The Sky.”
One of the guitarists, Tynan Groves picked up the banjo to add even more twang to the proceedings.
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BeatRoute: Cowpuncher – Packin’ A Punch
Calgary – BeatRoute Magazine – November 2010
“Heartbreak Honkeytonk Rock ‘n’ Roll Show” is how the Calgary seven-piece, Cowpuncher, sums it up, complete with cowboy hats, rocker attitude and a performance style that may not be suitable for minors without parental supervision.
“Our baritone player tends to not wear a shirt, or otherwise, onstage, although he might be growing out of that,” says Puncher frontman Matt Olah.
Well, sort of the frontman. Considering that the band always gigs with a minimum of seven players, Cowpuncher sounds like they’re shaping up to be a farm team for the Calgary Stampeders.
“It’s a guitar explosion!” remarks Olah, as he explains the dueling guitar extravaganza that takes place onstage when five or six guitar players go at it.
Yes, picture the amplitude when five or six seasoned guitarists battle it out onstage. One might say front row show attendees might want to have an ear exam if they can’t get the last set out from rattling around in their brains following a show.
Full time members of Cowpuncher include Matt Olah (hollering, acoustic guitar, prancing), Ryan Kelly (baritone guitar), Shawn Canning (banjo, pedal steel, electric guitar), Jeffery Sulima (drums), Scott Martin (electric guitar, also from the Smokin’ 45’s), Harley Hoeft (upright bass, also from 5 Star Homeless) and Tynan Groves (electric guitar, also from the Bobby Kork Orchestra).
Not to mention that the band also has a list of nine special guests that just might threaten to join the tour de force onstage at any given show.
A filled-out assembly of versed musicians and one common goal to take Cowpuncher as far as it can go sounds like a recipe for success, or, at the very least, this band seems to have all the ingredients lined up to have a blast at their upcoming CD release party.
After a year in the making, countless hours recording and a multitude of live shows, Cowpuncher is coming out swinging with their debut album, which they’re calling The Brown Album.
“That album was a heckuva process – some of those solos took fifty takes!” remarks guitarist, Tynan Groves, who (as a former jazz cat) puts up a high level of personal expectation.
“I love this band a lot. There’s this magic in the band… sometimes you just click with people, y’know?” continues Groves, who couldn’t be happier about the direction in which Cowpuncher is heading, as well as how close the band members have become.
“We’re all kind of rough and tumble guys,” he laughs, reflecting on a recent gig in Saskatoon where the two carloads of band members had a competition throwing roman candles at each other while driving.
When not roughhousing, hollering, or competing with one another, the band really does focus on their musicianship. While fun is always on the agenda, the level of professionalism that each member carries out is evident in the overall production of Cowpuncher’s music.
“The musicianship is second to none,” explains Olah. “I’m a writer, so I spend all my time in the words, but the guitar playing is insane… like, from outer space.”
So, providing no members of Cowpuncher get abducted by aliens, fans and intrigued music lovers alike can expect a full-scale, no-holds-barred performance for the release of The Brown Album.
Cowpuncher brings outlaw country music to Gitter’s stage
High River Times – August 2010
Cowpunching is not as bad as it sounds. It’s a term that’s fallen from use for a cowboy and not the drunken buffoonery similar in intent to cow tipping as some would think.
Matt Olah is the lead “hollerer” of a band named Cowpuncher who will play at Gitter’s Pub in High River next week, and he said a random word generator chose the name.
“It seemed to fit us, so we kept it,” he said.
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