The 'Boots have had a busy busy June. We started off playing a private function out in Langley, this beautiful property in the country. It was for a birthday party and it was a great time, a rare private event for the 'Boots. Our stage was set up in this massive garage that had a bevy of classic hot rods as well as a current lamborghini....pretty cool stuff.
We followed that up with a wicked event in Courtenay, BC called the Norwood Barn Dance. This was a helluva time, 1,000 drunken party-goers crammed into a huge barn dancing the night away to the country-rock sounds of The 'Boots. It was awesome, we hope to be back next year. It was also announced at this show that The Steel Toe Boots will be opening up for Travis Tritt on September 25th in Duncan, BC and we are extremely excited for this show.
Finally last weekend we played a rare North Shore gig at the Village Taphouse in West Van. It was fun. They are always tough gigs because we are so used to large crowds dancing and what not that it's strange to suddenly go to a loungey sort of environment even though we got the whole band out with all our gear. However, we always enjoy being back on the shore as three of the five of us all grew up here (myself, Harts and Drummer John).
Now we're gonna take a short couple of weeks break then come back for another busy busy July. Lonsdale Quay will kick it off on July 11th and then we're at Roosters and Gabby's for our usual honky tonk tour.
-DB
* May 24, 2010 *
Well, it has been a crazy couple of weeks....we have played 11 shows in 12 days....but more accurately 7 shows in the past five days. It's been nuts, but a ton of fun. Every night was a ton of fun...Roosters was its usual high energy self......Gabby's was great every night...the crowds at both bars were totally into partying and the music. As well, the Cloverdale crowd was fun and we lucked out with some sunshine. It's quite interesting going from a day time family crowd to a night time party crowd...the whoe vibe is quite different. It was great to see families and their kids out, enjoying the rodeo and the festival grounds and it was cool to entertain 'em all for a bit.
HOWEVER, tiny (by tiny I highly under-exaggerate) bit of bad news...'ole Gary Boy himself, Garett Vergides had his last night w/ the band Sunday night. Garett, who has been there since day 1...and even before day 1...has decided to move on to bigger and better things. So it is with a heavy heart that The Steel Toe Boots bid Gary farewell. Last night was a great way to say good bye, the crowd was bumping, the shots were flowing, and the music was happening. We're gonna miss you Gary...even though myself and Harts see you all the time any ways.....it won't be the same without you bringing the power to the people. Chad Drover, formerly of Rawhide and Diesel, has now joined the band and no doubt his Newfie spirit, and his love of music will fit well with our style. I have to admit, there were a few songs in the last set that became difficult to sing due to a lump in the throat......Garett was there at our first gig at the Roxy long ago......and has been an integral part of this group since. Good luck buddy! Jagr bombs just won't be the same!
* March 8, 2010 *
Hey all, once agian it's been ages since we updated the blog. Now that the chaos of the Olympics are over we thought this would be a good time. The last couple of months have been a bit of a quiet period for the 'Boots.....Hartney got his tonsils out which sidelined him for a bit, while I took off to England and came back to Olympic fever here in Vancouver. Everyone in the band had a great time experiencing the world come town, and the great atmosphere that came along with it. We played one show during the Olympics at the Edgewater Stage across from BC Place Statium in the old Plaza of Nations. It was a lot of fun to play downtown during all the chaos, and great to participate in the Olympic entertainment flavour.
However, the Olympics ended...and in fine fashion I might say. It's time to get back to business for the 'Boots and that means getting ready for the busiest part of the season. The spring/summer season is packed full of appearances at the usual bars on the circuit plus a ton of festivals and fair dates being confirmed every week. We are looking to put some Alberta trips together and are excited to be in the process of writing songs for another album. Looking forward to getting back on stage at Roosters at the end of the month...hope to see you all soon!
Dave B.
* November 1, 2009 *
Hey everyone, just wanted to write a little update because we haven't done one since we got home from Merritt in the summer. It's been a great end of summer and fall for the band. In September Dave and I got to play at the Songwriters' Showcase at the CCMA Awards weekend here in our hometown. It was a real honour for us, as people like Dean Brody ("Brothers") and Victoria Banks ("Come on Over" for Jessica Simpson and "Dance With Me" for Johnny Reid) were just some of the other songwriters performing in the showcase. Then in October we made our first TV appearance on "Urban Rush," with Fiona Forbes and Michael Eckford. It was a very cool experience and it's always fun to say "look mom I'm on TV," right? We just got the video up on our video page if you want to check it out. We performed our first single, "Coming Back For You" which is also our first ever release to radio. Talk about a great milestone for the band, and I can say personally that there's no other way to describe it than a dream come true. The song was one of the first songs I ever wrote, and something that Borys and I jammed acoustically in our very early days, before we ever played a show as a band. It was inspired while I was in university because I would always be moving back and forth to Saskatchewan for school, and back home to Vancouver for the summers, and so every relationship ended up being a long distance one with the associated problems. Of course, we recorded our album "Cross the Line" over about 7 months in late 2008 & 2009, in between busy day jobs and our performance schedule. It is every band's and every songwriter's goal to get to radio so you can share your music with people, and now our song is being heard across Canada. Our fans and friends have been so great at calling and emailing requesting it across the country and I just want to say on behalf of all the guys, thank you so much for taking the time to do that and support us.
Last weekend was the BCCMA Awards weekend, and we played at the Industry Awards on Saturday. It's always a pleasure to get back on stage with Mike Sanyshyn and Scott Smith who played fiddle and pedal steel on our album (Scott also came on Urban Rush with us). It was probably the most nervous I have been on stage in a very long time, looking out at all the talented people who were there watching and also performing. It was very cool to play in front of people that we are fans of as well, and we felt blessed to share the stage with people like Chad Brownlee, Karen-Lee Batten, and the Higgins. Curtis Pope from Country 107 in the Valley was helping with the MC duties and announced that the station had just added "Coming Back For You." So I found out that bit of good news right before we started playing the song, and it was a real class touch by Curtis (who incidentally won On-Air Personality of the Year at the big awards on Sunday).
The BCCMA show on Sunday was fun as always and Dave and I got to see a lot of good friends and meet some new ones. That JD Bixby likes to party almost as much as we do, so we offered him a spot in the band; we'll let you know if he goes for it. Finally just wanted to say that a very cool moment happened at the awards when Greg and Annie from Gabby's presented Johnny and Marnie from Boone County, and Melva from Cactus Annie’s in Merritt, with the co-award for Country Club of the Year. This is an award that Gabby's has won a whole whack of times and it was a very cool moment, as all of those people have been so supportive of our band. They are all good friends and we always like it when the bars get some recognition for promoting country music and bringing live acts and good times to people week after week. Speaking of that, we are back at Gabby's this weekend so hopefully we'll see you there. The girls got decked out in S.T.B. shirts last time, and I'm sure they'll look just as good on 'em all this weekend.
Dave H.
* Sunday July 26, 2009 *
Well, a solid blog has been long overdue, so we thought it would be apropos to catch all you Steel Toe Boyz and Babes up on the happenings of the ‘Boots. The summer has been crazy. The ‘Boots have been doing the usual bar circuit routine, of course, with the usual pandemonium; however, with the summer comes the festivals and no festival is as infamous as the Merritt Mountain Music Festival. After years of attending Merritt as party goers the ‘Boots attended this year’s Mountainfest as artists. We were given the honorary spot of headlining the beer garden stage on the Thursday night following Paul Brandt. It was quite a night, a brief rainstorm worried us for a bit but by the time Paul took the stage the stars were out and people were rearing to party. Who better to cap off the first of three wild nights than The Steel Toe Boots themselves. It was a great night and couldn’t have been pulled off were it not for the amazing staff and crew working up there.
Unfortunately the ‘Boots had some sad news as well when Steve Costello, our long time drummer, decided to move on and pursue other life goals. We will miss you Steve, and we hope and wish all the best for you buddy.
The great John Tate covered for us in Merritt and did a superb job, and now the band is excited to introduce Ryan Wylie to the world as the ‘Boots’ new drummer. Ryan brings a ton of experience, and is an eerie look alike to Keith Urban, which worries all the single guys in the band, hah! Ryan played the entire week at Roosters and our recent gig at the Village Taphouse in West Vancouver and has already introduced a new drumming style that everybody who sees us is talking about. We’re excited to have you on board Ryan!
Recently, both Dave Hartney and David Borys were given some great news when they were informed by the CCMA committee that they would be performing at the Songwriters showcase in September when the CCMAs come to Vancouver. This is a huge honour for both Dave’s and they are both extremely excited to be taking part in this great event.
Needless to say, many great shows and wild events are yet to come for the ‘Boots and the whole band is excited about the future. Hopefully y’all will tag along with us on this wild ride. Keep yer beers cold and your boots shiny!!
Dave & Dave
* Saturday March 28, 2009 *
We are so excited to finally be able to release our first album, "Cross the Line," through our website today! This marks the end of a 7-month recording process, and we could not be more excited to share this music with you. More than that, this is the realization of something we have been thinking about and working towards since we first started the band, and now the big day has finally come. This is a huge milestone for us, and as always we are reminded how lucky we are to have so many great people supporting us. Thanks for all your kind words and patience, and we truly hope you enjoy this record.
-Dave & Dave
* Sunday January 25, 2009 *
Holy heck did the 'Boots just go through a country bar boot camp the last two weeks. Gabby's followed by Roosters with some of the busiest, craziest, fun evenings we've ever had at these establishments. The Saturday that finished Gabby's was packed wall to wall as usual and our first week at Roosters was cccrrraaazzzyy. Thanks to our producer Kirby Kaye who subbed in with the band the past while as Torben has been overseas. It was a wild two weeks and the whole band is ready for some much needed rest.
Speaking of rest, our drummer Steve is heading to Belize for a couple of weeks, and Harts is going to be spending a weekend in Saskatoon. Gary boy just got his welding ticket (congrats!) and will be starting a new job in Feb. Torben is still in Poland, and I might even be going to Ottawa for a couple of weeks for research purposes. So the band is scattered to the four corners of the globe.
Of course we're still plugging away on the album. Mike Sanyshyn has been laying down fiddle this week and we've got a video for you below. We should be going into final mix phase with John Webter at Hipposonic the first week of February! Every day we're getting a little bit closer to the final product and things are looking great.
Keep them boots shiny, and them beers cold!
-David Borys
* Sunday January 4, 2009 *
So the holiday season has come and gone. What a chaotic week and a half! Between all the family commitments, album commitments and the massive amount of snow dumped on us during some of the most important days of the holiday break it was quite the wild week. But now things are settling back into normality (and I have finally stopped shoveling!).
The album is really coming together now. Recently we've had Scott Smith (steel guitar player for Aaron Prichtett) and Adam Dobres (lead guitar player for Ridley Bent and Dustin Bentall) lay down their skills and we're really excited about the sound that is being produced in Kirby's studio. We'll post some videos here soon. Matty "Boom" Bryant from Headwater has even put down some mandolin. We still have a bit more instrumentation to do plus and finally the back up vocals. As you may or may not know some of our album shots came back and they lookin pretty sweet. All credit to Mark Maryanovich who was brilliant as usual (check 'em out on the facebook group). So things are busy busy busy as usual. Hopefully, music gods willling, the album will be ready for distribution by mid-February.
We recently performed a New Years show up in Pender Harbour and it was our best night up there yet. The dance floor was packed until the owner literally had to kick us all out! A big January is ahead of us w/ Gabby's and Roosters on the burner and we're extremely excited for both these weeks!
So, we hope all of you had a wicked holiday season and we'll see you on the trail somewhere!
-Dave Borys
* Tuesday November 18, 2008 *
I though I'd also share a video I took at Mushroom Studio recording drums for our first album (due out in the new year). This is a very historic studio in Vancouver, and everyone from 54-40 to Tom Cochrane, Blue Rodeo, Marcy Playground, Trooper, Ringo Starr, Sarah McLachlan, and on an on, has recorded there. There is even a drawing supposedly authored by John Bonham of Led Zeppelin hanging on the wall when he quickly came in to do a recording while on the road. Of course I do not say this to draw any comparisons, but its very cool to have listened to many of these artists growing up, and then find yourself in that control room knowing who else has been there. Even when you walk outside, people passing by are always looking to see if they recognzie a famous face. We obviously dissapointed them. haha
We got to work on the sessions with a guy named John Webster, who has recorded with everyone from Aerosmith to the Tragically Hip, and was a longtime member of Tom Cochrane's band (I even got to hear an original demo of "Life is a Highway" ! ). Again the stories from this guy are amazing and we all felt pretty lucky to get him on board with his busy schedule.
The drums are usually the first part of a song to be recorded. So we did some quick guide demos over at our producer Kirby Kaye's studio - just vocals and an acoustic guitar recorded in time to a metronome or "click track." Then John just plays the demos through the system (thats what you hear in the background) and the drums get recorded in time to the track....easy. Well of course things come up and new ideas happen, like at the end of this video Kirby and John decided to do something else on the ending of the song. Now that the drums are finished, we can start re-recording the instrumentation and vocals properly, layering and bulding over the drums. There is the production lesson for the day...take care.
- Dave Hartney-
Hey everyone, welcome to our blog, this is a brand new feature on the website where we can tell you what's going on with us, share random stories, put up pictures from our last show or road trip...whatever we want.
* Sunday November 16, 2008 *
I want to use my first post to send out a big thanks to everyone who came out to Gabby's last week. We had another fantastic weekend and people treated us so well and really made us feel welcome again... we can't wait to come back in January.
For those that don't know, David, Garett and I grew up freinds in North Van, and one of our buddies (congrats Tyler) got married on the Saturday. Garett was in the wedding party and couldn't make it, so we quickly trained up a new bassist, Marty, for the show. David raced out from the ceremony and played the first set in his suit. Huge thanks to Marty for doing such a great job learning all the songs...we more than got through the night - Saturday was an epic party. What a blast.
We did not get a lot done on the Album this week, but now that we have a bit of time off, we should be over at the studio most days. Hopefully we get this done in December!
Hope you guys are all well and thanks so much for stopping by the website, esp. you girls who wrote on our guestbook recently!
