The Saunders Brothers Show

Last updated
The Saunders Brothers Show
OriginIndian Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada
GenresMaritime/Comedy
Years active2006–present
LabelsIndependent
MembersEd Saunders
Terry Saunders
Brian Smeltzer
Website

The Saunders Brothers Show is a Canadian Comedy/Celtic band from Nova Scotia. Billed as "East Coast music with a twist", the band is well known for their outrageously comedic bantering demeanor and audience participation, complemented by extreme flexibility in terms of musical genres, ranging from folk and country/pop to Gospel and East Coast traditional all flavored with a unique twist.

Contents

Biography

The band The Saunders Brothers Show was formed in 2004 by brothers Ed and Terry Saunders plus Brian Smeltzer. The band's first media exposure occurred in April 2006 when their comedic song Hot Wings was featured on Q-104 Halifax. [1]

The band's popularity grew steadily, culminating in November 2006 when the band recorded their first single, the pop/rock flavored Hallelujah at Nova Scotia's Denmark productions. The song, which released in time for the holiday season, was well-received, being included on the holiday playlists of fifteen different radio stations. [2]

In 2007, The Saunders Brothers Show released their debut self-titled The Saunders Brothers Show, again through Denmark Productions. Several tracks from the album, notably I love you, but then I ain't too bright, Me love is Me Boat received feature radio play, and You're Sailing Without Me scored National recognition as a FACTOR $2,000 Outstanding Original winner. Other cuts including Belly Yourself to the Bar, Chug, and their covers of Sonny's Dream and Banks of the Ohio became popular crowd pleasers for their increasingly broad range of performances.

2008, their second album, Gospel-ish, featured a light-hearted approach to inspirational songs. Ed's original about fighting addiction - Fire of My God in My Eyes - became a multiple award winner, being recognized by the International Song of the Year Awards, the Nashville Paramount Song Contest, and The Billboard World Song Contest. Other popular tracks included a partnership with members of the Indian Harbour Church Community Kids Choir on Terry's tribute for fishermen Fishers of Men Blessings. Heed the Call, Ì Just Don't See it` and covers of classics including Uncloudy Day and Soul of Man rounded out this fundraising partnership.

2014 the album SINGLES was released. Their third at Denmark Productions, this project included 12 original songs highlighting some incredible musical collaborations. The Billboard Song Award and Song of the Year Award track The Man You Used to be features a stunning vocal from Christine Campbell and touching cello from John Spearns. Dumping Day, the story of the first day of the lobster season in Peggys Cove Nova Scotia featured fiddling by Alycia Putnam and received widespread feature radio support. Let`s Get Naughty included naughty taunts by comedian Candy Palmater, a washboard tie scratched by Robert Dill and was one of 8 tracks featuring percussionist Geoff Arsenault. Other performers on the album included Bill Bean, Mike Evans, Larry Rankin, Howard Mclean, and Danny Banfield. The song Weather Girl was a Semi-finalist in CBC National Searchlight Contest, and was also featured on Global TV. And Get Off Your Ass and Dance and Òcean Blues have become crowd favorites in live shows.

Throughout the years The Saunders Brothers Show has built a reputation of being a unique, interactive comedy experience which includes pulling members of the audience up to participate in every part of the show. They performed their 500th show in 2014, and the summer of 2015 set off on an extensive tour of festivals, corporate events and campgrounds across Nova Scotia and beyond.

Stage Presence

The entertainment from a Saunders Brothers Show comes as much from the humorous banter between the band members, audience members, and even the staff of the host establishment. The Brothers incorporate a great deal of humour into their show in the form of dialogues between (and during) songs, jokes, and non sequiturs.

They are experts at gauging the interests and attitudes of given audiences and can subtly tailor every show to its complete entertainment potential, and some reviewers postulate this is why so many fans return for repeat shows. Wherever the venue, a Saunders Brothers Show can be very family-friendly yet offer a wink to subtle yet suggestive humour, intense entertainer/audience interaction, and a great deal of laughter.

A good example of the unique style of the Saunders Brothers Show is Bar Hopper, a Vietnamese carved wooden frog that appears at many Saunders Brothers Shows. Bar Hopper has a series of carved ridges on its back, and when the band plays the song "Old Black Toad", Ed Saunders (and guests from the audience) scrape a hollow wooden rod across these ridges to produce a crackling toad noise. Other weapons of audience musical talent include the ugly stick, washboard tie, tamboreens, drums, spoons, and various costumes of wigs or wiggyness! [3]

Members

Discography

Related Research Articles

<i>French and Saunders</i> Television series

French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows.

The 38th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 28, 1996, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The awards recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Alanis Morissette was the main recipient, being awarded four trophies, including Album of the Year. Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men opened the show with their Record of the Year nominated "One Sweet Day".

Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The range of lounge music encompasses beautiful music-influenced instrumentals, modern electronica, while remaining thematically focused on its retro-space age cultural elements. The earliest type of lounge music appeared during the 1920s and 1930s, and was known as light music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonny Terry</span> American Piedmont blues musician

Saunders Terrell, known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occasionally imitations of trains and fox hunts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Statler Brothers</span> American country music, gospel, and vocal group

The Statler Brothers were an American country music, gospel, and vocal group from Staunton, Virginia. The quartet was formed in 1955 performing locally, and from 1964 to 1972, they sang as opening act and backup singers for Johnny Cash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Gaither (gospel singer)</span> American singer and songwriter

William James Gaither is an American singer and songwriter of Southern gospel and contemporary Christian music. He has written numerous popular Christian songs with his wife Gloria; he is also known for performing as part of the Bill Gaither Trio and the Gaither Vocal Band. In the 1990s, his career gained a resurgence, as popularity grew for the Gaither Homecoming series.

The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group active from the mid-1920s to the late-1950s. The band featured harmonica, kazoo, fiddle and mandolin or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard, washtub bass and jug. They played slow blues, pop songs, humorous songs and upbeat dance numbers with jazz and string band flavors. The band made the first commercial recordings in Memphis, Tennessee, and recorded more sides than any other prewar jug band.

<i>Live</i> (X Cert) 1979 live album by the Stranglers

Live (X Cert) is the first live album by the Stranglers, released in February 1979 by United Artists. It contains tracks recorded at The Roundhouse in June and November 1977 and at Battersea Park in September 1978.

The Word is an American instrumental/sacred steel/gospel blues jam band. The supergroup includes well-known musicians: Robert Randolph, John Medeski (keyboards), both members of North Mississippi Allstars- Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson, and ex-North Mississippi Allstars bassist Chris Chew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael, Row the Boat Ashore</span> Folk song based on a Sea Islands spiritual

"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" is a traditional African-American spiritual first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina. The best-known recording was released in 1960 by the U.S. folk band The Highwaymen; that version briefly reached number-one hit status as a single.

<i>Not the Messiah (Hes a Very Naughty Boy)</i> Oratorio by Eric Idle and John Du Prez

Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) is a comedic oratorio based on Monty Python's Life of Brian. It was written by former Monty Python cast member Eric Idle and collaborator John Du Prez, and commissioned by the Luminato festival.

"Hallelujah I Love Her So" is a single by American musician Ray Charles. The rhythm and blues song was written and released by Charles in 1956 on the Atlantic label, and in 1957 it was included on his self-titled debut LP, also released on Atlantic. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard R&B chart. It is loosely based on 'Get It Over Baby' by Ike Turner (1953).

"Jesus Is Just Alright" is a gospel song written by Art Reynolds and first recorded by Reynolds' own group, The Art Reynolds Singers, on their 1966 album, Tellin' It Like It Is.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">40th GMA Dove Awards</span>

The 40th Annual GMA Dove Awards presentation was held on April 23, 2009 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2008. The show was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by Rebecca St. James, Matthew West, and Lisa Kimmey.

Bull City Red was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, singer, and predominantly washboard player, most closely associated with Blind Boy Fuller and the Reverend Gary Davis. Little is known of his life outside of his recording career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirsty MacColl</span> English singer and songwriter (1959–2000)

Kirsty Anna MacColl was a British singer and songwriter, daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl. She recorded several pop hits in the 1980s and 1990s, including "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" and cover versions of Billy Bragg's "A New England" and the Kinks's "Days." Her first single, "They Don't Know", had chart success a few years later when covered by Tracey Ullman. MacColl also sang on a number of recordings produced by her then-husband Steve Lillywhite, most notably "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues. Her death in 2000 led to the Justice for Kirsty campaign.

Hallelujah the Hills is an American indie rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in late 2005 by Ryan H. Walsh. They have been described by The Boston Globe as "the sound of music without limits", "criminally underappreciated" by Spin (magazine), and have been praised by Pitchfork Media for their "vivid lyrics," "knack for crafting fist-pumping anthems," and “shambolic, maximalist barroom aura.” They've been hailed as an “indie rock institution in Boston" and Aquarium Drunkard has declared that “few do it with the style and imagination of Hallelujah the Hills.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">42nd GMA Dove Awards</span>

The 42nd Annual GMA Dove Awards presentation was held on April 20, 2011, at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. The show was broadcast on GMC on April 24, 2011, hosted by Sherri Shepherd from The Newlywed Game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary McSpadden</span> American singer and songwriter (1943–2020)

Gary McSpadden was an American pastor, singer, songwriter, record producer, television host and motivational speaker. He had musical roots in quartet music and Southern gospel with The Statesmen, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Imperials, The Bill Gaither Trio, and The Gaither Vocal Band. McSpadden's songs include "Jesus Lord To Me", "Hallelujah Praise The Lamb", and "No Other Name But Jesus". He has produced albums for numerous groups. In 1987, he co-hosted PTL Today after Jim Bakker resigned. McSpadden went on to produce television programs, including the "Jubilee" concert series filmed at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. He also produced and starred in several live music shows in the Branson area during the 1990s and 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Sandfleas</span> Musical artist

The Sandfleas are a fictional gang of masked hooligans within the mythology of the superhero-themed American comedy band The Aquabats, who featured prominently as the latter's "arch enemies" in their stage shows and related media during the late 1990s.

References

  1. "Saunders Brothers Hot Wings debut". SBS website. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
  2. "List of Holiday playlists feat. Hallelujah" . Retrieved 2008-03-08.
  3. "Bar Hopper's name". Saunders Brothers Show. 2008-01-04. Retrieved 2008-03-08.