Kyp Harness 
Sound: The love child of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed.
People: Kyp and a stellar supporting cast.
To contact: Steve or Lisa at SlapHappy, 15 Woodward Ave., Thornhill, ON L3T 1E3 (905) 709-2556, FAX (905) 709-9274.

If this album were a vegetable, it would be one of those organic onions you find at a food co-op, still covered in the original dirt and far tastier than those overly-manufactured shiny ones. Working with producer Dale Morningstar (The Dinner is Ruined), Harness explains, "We recorded most of it in one night. It just seemed to work best; I'd played the songs with the band at a bunch of shows," during which they'd worked out arrangements. Nearly every song is first- or second-take, and all were recorded live off the floor. "There were a couple of songs that night that didn't have whatever, so we did go back and re-cut them another time."

About "The One and Only", Harness says, "I was thinking we might have to record it again, because there was something about it I didn't like." He re-recorded the vocal without erasing the original, "so it kind of gives a cool sound to it, kind of double-tracking, but not really." For many of the songs, Harness adds, Morningstar "did a lot of editing of 'One'," actually cutting [pieces of the tape] and taping them together."

The Immigrants 
Sound: Earthy, wine-y, full-bodied roots music.
People: Pete Zantingh (vocals, guitar); Rob Van Hartingsveldt (more guitars, vocals); Fred Geus (bass, vocals); Paul Hogeterp (electric violin, fiddle, vocals). Guest-starring Todd Lumley (The Waltons) on keyboards and Paul Brennan (former Odds, Big Sugar) on drums.
To contact: James Porter, RamJam Management Group - 306 Sackville St., Unit 8, Toronto, ON M5A 3G2 (416) 966-9404, FAX (416) 966-9274,

"We were experimenting a lot with this album, compared to the first one, so it was a different recording experience for us." So The Immigrants Fred Geus explains the process of putting together Awkwardly Mobile, their earthy and defiantly un-Celtic sophomore album. Best known for traditional fiddle-and-such arrangements, this group of flying Dutchmen (by way of Hamilton) chose John Switzer (Jane Siberry, The Waltons) to help them shape their sound.

Recorded at Orchard Studios, Number Nine Sound and Switzer's own studio, Geus explains, "Paul was no longer playing traditional fiddle, so he was experimenting a lot with different effects and ways of playing with those effects." Whatever he wound up using enhanced the songs without overpowering them. Because the band was no longer tied to their Celtic sound, "The mix stage gave us even more room for experimentation." The main transition for the band, Geus says, is that "The acoustic is very much mixed in the background; it's not in the foreground like on the previous recording. We wanted to toughen up the sound a little bit."

The Yeehaa Cowboys 
Sound: A coarsely blended margarita of edgy country, heavy fiddle, with a pinch of punk.
Cowpunks: El Cleo (lead vocals); Stevan Krickovic (guitars); Dino Verdis (bass); James Swan (violin); Cowboy X (drums).
To Contact:To contact: Steve - SomaSky Entertainment, 10 Lindsey Ave, Toronto, ON M6H 1C9 (416) 532-4647, FAX (416) 532-3907,

"We were a movie idea first," explains the Yeehaa Cowboys' guitarist and songwriter Stevan Krickovic, "which turned into a stage musical, and somewhere in the middle, we turned it into a band." Krickovic and pal Cleo Alves (a/k/a El Cleo) developed the idea for a "wacky, wild farce about two punks searching for integrity" several years ago, which Krickovic was still in a Toronto band called Jessica's Chill. They decided their search for a movie producer would be enhanced if they sent songs along with the pitch, and although "We didn't know too much about cowpunk … We thought, what the hell, let's try to give our own interpretation of what cowpunk was." One producer suggested they turn the idea into a stage musical, which they performed in Toronto in 1996-97.

Encouraged by the response, the new "band" headed into the Mississauga studio of Mike Pedrow's Rumenal Records. "He was the cheapest guy around," Krickovic recalls, "charged about $15 an hour, and he had amazing equipment." The result was "Cowpunk, Baby, Cowpunk!"

"The band comes first," says Krickovic, who is now in the process of adapting the musical into a film.

Credit: Sarah Chauncey is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

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