PREVIEW
DUTCHIE AND THE DOUGHNUTS
Friday, May 9
Merlot
If musical incest were to be traced on paper, Tim Leacock could write the Kama Sutra for the Calgary roots scene. Having played in interlaced bands like National Dust, Beautiful Joe and The Burners, Leacock now finds himself leaving his Inglewood home at least five nights a week to play with The Co-Dependents, The Steve Pineo Trio, Mike Stack, Ralph Boyd Johnson and Tom Phillips and the Men of Constant Sorrow.
And yet these projects didn’t quite fill up all the moments Leacock was not sleeping, eating or enjoying time with his wife and young son, Josh. He still had time to write songs of his own. Thus, Leacock ended up with yet one more project: Dutchie and the Doughnuts.
You’d think that Leacock needs another band about as much as Liz Taylor needs another divorce. After all, how could you improve on Calgary’s most beloved act, The Co-Dependents, a band whose album Live Recording Event has been in the Megatunes Top 20 for roughly 18 months – a band who has yet to see one empty table at their gigs?
"Maybe I’m just greedy," the affable Leacock says over a can of beer. "I guess it’s a number of things lining up.
"I am really proud to be part of that band (The Co-Dependents) and I really appreciate that the other guys have not booted me out and (instead) let me learn how to play bass," adds Leacock, who is also a musical master of guitar, mandolin and harmonica.
"The thing about The Co-Dependents is everybody really enjoys being in that band – how could you not? We’re playing rock and roll that we know how to play and like playing it. That said, Billy (Cowsill) and I have written a few songs together that don’t necessarily fit into the parameters of The Co-Dependents."
When a friend who owned a club offered Tim a place to play, Dutchie and the Doughnuts emerged.
"We have this kind of house band, but then when there’s Billy and Kit (Johnson) as part of it, why just work up a set when you can work up a band?" Cowsill’s musical legacy stretches back to the ’60s, while Johnson toured with Chris de Burgh and is a renowned producer, writer and musician from his years in Toronto.
While Dutchie and the Doughnuts may be new, its roots are not. Leacock’s innate musical passion flared when a junior high school teacher made music come alive, and he met future Co-Dependents drummer Ross Watson when they toured Europe together in Central Memorial’s high school band. By the time Leacock returned from a stint at university in Victoria, he had done enough guitar strumming to play with Stack and Watson in The Burners, a band that beat 86 other acts to win recording sessions produced by Cowsill in 1987. The individuals involved in that project have traded riffs ever since.
As Dutch is a nickname that has stuck to Leacock for 20 years, his group was nearly christened Dutchie and the Castratis due to Cowsill’s and Johnson’s vocal range. Reverend Ted and the Easter Bundys was also rejected.
"(Dutchie and the Doughnuts) admittedly is the dumbest name out there, but I think I could claim it would be the only band I’ve been in for a long time that didn’t have problems with names (regarding copyright). I didn’t want to call it the Tim Leacock Band, although no one would send me a cease and desist order."
By whatever name, the group’s recent performances have been a pleasant musical treat for people who can’t find even standing room at Co-Dependents gigs. The three members’ harmonies blend well, and Leacock’s originals tumble smoothly into the mix of covers from The Stones, The Band and others.
"Billy really comes from that angle of ‘if you’re going to do a cover song, it’s OK to do a different read as long as you first are able to do it pretty much note for note the way it was.’ Then, if you want to do something else, that’s fine, but it’s not fair to do a different read on it just because you think you’re adding your artistic license to it….
"I’m pretty sheepish about even telling people I have this other band because, as soon as they hear Billy’s in it and then they come down and find out he’s not singing every song, some of them might be disappointed. I am myself. His whole thing was ‘I really want to be in it if it’s your band because you’re already in my band.’" |
Copyright ©2003 FFWD. All rights reserved.