Ride on

East St. Paul

North Kildonan

St. Boniface

Transcona

The Maples

Fort Rouge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2024 (566 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They say the road goes on forever and the party never ends.

Yet, despite playing countless gigs over the past two decades, the party’s only just getting started for the Sean Taylor Band.

The group, which boasts a lineup of stalwart veteran musicians, started as a cover band, playing honky-tonks, rodeos, festivals, and community fairs across Manitoba and beyond, and in now set to launch its debut album on Sunday, April 28 at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain (340 Provencher Blvd.)

“Jeff (Kula) and I have been playing together since I got out of high school, so 20 years and a bit ago,” said Sean Taylor Johnston, lead singer and acoustic guitar player. “I started filling in for his country cover band at the time, and then I evolved into our own.”

Drummer Kula was a longtime music instructor at River East Collegiate, where Johnston was a student.

“We’ve played with a lot of different players over the years,” Johnston said. “We’ve had numerous guitar, bass, and fiddle players over the years, who are now out there, playing professionally. We’ve had some pretty famous players in the band.”

Currently, the band also includes music biz vets Greg Dunstan on bass and vocals, Blaine Badiuk on fiddle and mandolin, lead guitar and multi-instrumentalist Sean Borton, as well as keyboardist James Klassen, also an REC alumnus.

“We’ve got one band member in his 60s, one in his 20s, so we span four decades of knowledge,” Johnston said.

In 2022 and 2023, the band was nominated for a number of Manitoba Country Music Award, which inspired the band to work on some the original material it had been kicking around, the result of which is the Sean Taylor Band’s eponymous debut disc.

“At first, I was worried we were covering too wide a variety of tunes, but I’m happy with the way it flows,” Johnston said. “We’ve got Canadiana, older school country shuffles, waltzes, and poppy country stuff, too.”

The 10-track album includes a number of songs by local artists, including Letting You Go by the Bros. Landreth (both Joey and David Landreth have performed in the Sean Taylor Band in the past), Rolling Stone by the Proud Sons, and Cowboy’s Last Ride by the Foster Martin Band, along with originals from Johnston.

“I’ve been writing forever, and the guys have been really supportive of the writing,” Johnston said. “It’s been cool to see what really talented musicians can do with the songs.”

Fans of the full-band, high-production ’90s country sound will surely find themselves tapping their toes along to these tunes.

“We take our harmonies seriously,” Johnston said. “We’re kind of a smash together of Diamond Rio and Zac Brown Band.”

Despite the pedigree of the players involved in the Sean Taylor Band today, the changes the music industry has seen in recent years has been a bit of a challenge of its own for the group.

“In the whirlwind of releasing an album, and learning what it’s like to be an indie band,” Johnston admitted. “It’s been a bit of a shock to all of us. The guys in the band who have been on other records with other bands would have been more of the ‘buy a CD at HMV-era.’ Now we’re in the Spotify-Apple Music world, which has been a learning curve for all of us. We’re learning as we go.”

Kates Outlaw, from Dauphin, Man., will open the show on April 28. Tickets are $12.

For more information, visit theseantaylorband.ca