Led by brothers
Dallas and
Travis Good, the Toronto-based
Sadies honed a distinctive sound, taking influence from traditional country, surf music, and garage rock. After earning notice and adding backing singer
Neko Case, the group issued its debut LP,
Precious Moments, in 1998.
Tremendous Efforts followed in early 2001, teaming them with
Breeders/
PJ Harvey producer
Steve Albini for the second time. A year later,
Stories Often Told marked their first album without
Albini, placing
Blue Rodeo's
Greg Keelor in his position.
The Sadies produced themselves on 2004's
Favourite Colours, with
Keelor,
Nick Luca, and
Chris Shreenan-Dyck handling the engineering duties;
Robyn Hitchcock made a guest appearance as vocalist and lyricist on one track. After gaining more recognition while backing
Neko Case on tour -- which resulted in a live album,
The Tigers Have Spoken --
the Sadies recorded an album in collaboration with R&B legend
Andre Williams, one with
Mekons frontman
Jon Langford, and then released a live album of their own,
In Concert, Vol. 1, in 2006. Soon after, in September 2007, Yep Roc released the band's rousing seventh studio album,
New Seasons, followed by a 2009 classic country/honky tonk collaboration with
X's
John Doe called
Country Club. In 2010,
the Sadies returned to the studio for the full-length
Darker Circles. In 2012, Night & Day surfaced, a second collaborative album with
Andre Williams. The sessions for Night & Day had begun in 2008 amid Williams' troubles with drugs and the law, but were rounded out a few years later once he'd cleaned up his act and gone sober.
–
Jason Ankeny, Rovi