The Sadies and Mister Williams break it on down

If you have a spare 6 minutes and 32 seconds, listen to this snippet from NPR’s American Routes. It’s a short interview with the Canadian band the Sadies (with some clips of their tunes).

The Sadies are a mix of bluegrass, country, surf and garage rock, among others…here’s a taste:

Listen: The Sadies – Flash
Buy: The Sadies on Amazon

One thing they talk about in the interview is their collaboration with Andre Williams, an R&B pioneer from Detroit. This man has been around since the 50’s, and it would take me all day to talk about the things he’s done, so read here for his bio. But basically, Andre had some serious drug issues in the 80’s & 90’s and ended up living on the streets. He cleaned himself up though, and has been releasing albums again with the likes of the Sadies, and a couple of guys from the Demolition Doll Rods. Now, Mick Collins and Dan Kroha are the two fellows from the DDR’s, and they wrote everything on Andre’s 1998 release, ‘Silky’ (along with Andre), including this cool rollicking surf shuffle….Ohh, you’re gonna like this.

Listen: Andre Williams – Only Black Man in South Dakota (mp3)
Buy: Silky