Toronto-based New Country Rehab (NCR)’s mandate from their inception in 2009 has been to rethink country music, taking a jackhammer to today’s country radio sounds, and giving the old country tradition new life. Reclaiming country, by bringing it back to its roots, then ripping out the root system altogether. NCR collects Americana, roots, folk, country […]
Toronto-based New Country Rehab (NCR)’s mandate from their inception in 2009 has been to rethink country music, taking a jackhammer to today’s country radio sounds, and giving the old country tradition new life. Reclaiming country, by bringing it back to its roots, then ripping out the root system altogether.
NCR collects Americana, roots, folk, country and rock influences all under one roof, and makes it work. Led by singer/fiddler John Showman, along with guitarist Anthony da Costa, double bassist Ben Whiteley and percussionist Roman Tomé, NCR have thrilled a growing audience across North America and in Europe with their engaging live performances and thoughtful, narrative-based songwriting approach. This is a band that pull young and old alike out on the dance floor, drop their jaws to the floor, and send them hobbling home knowing they’ve been part of something very special.
Their latest album Ghost of Your Charms (Kelp, 2013) is a bold step forward from their 2011 self-titled debut. Working again with Toronto producer Chris Stringer (Timber Timbre, Ohbijou), NCR have stepped up their sonic palette, and the result is the sound of a band that has gotten very comfortable in their skin. Love, loss and tall tales of sordid characters inhabit the album’s eleven tracks, including reworkings of Hank Williams Sr.’s (“Too Many Parties”), and “Image of Me,” a Wayne Kemp country classic that Conway Twitty took to #1 in 1961.
Hailed as “the next big thing in Canadian music” (Tom Power- CBC) and “Canada’s answer to the Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons” (UNCUT), NCR have raised a raucous that shows no signs of slowing down. The band’s fan base continues to grow with festival performances at Grey Fox, Red Wing, Mariposa and Four Corners Folk festivals this summer. Fall 2013 will see the band release Charms over the sea, as they tour Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Austria and the UK. Look out for them on a stage near you soon!
PRESS FOR NCR:
“This is an album of seriously rocking Americana music that sounds like some strange combination of Pink Floyd, the Band, the Stones, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It’s young and filthy and loud and Canadian. What’s not to love?….easily my pick for best album of 2013.”
-Kim Ruehl / Mathew DeRiso, No Depression
“The band’s music is not just a new rehabilitation of old country music – as their name was meant to suggest – but new songs for a country in need of rehab.” – National Post
“In the two years since NCR’s spellbinding debut, many have lauded the Toronto quartet as Canada’s answer to Mumford & Sons. On their sophomore release they continue to display a thread common to that act, but NCR has bred something extraordinary and singular.” – Winnipeg Free Press
“New Country Rehab chart new and often bold roads in an out of dark stories and rural places.” – Globe & Mail
“New Country Rehab cuts through the clutter of watered-down musical imitations with a modern, high-voltage, alt-country sound. Combining sharp innovation and a deep respect and knowledge of timeless musical themes and motifs, New Country Rehab’s powerful music is full of love, loss, longing and joy. They are more Arcade Fire than Lady Antebellum…like Canada’s answer to the Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons.” – Nigel Williamson, UNCUT
NEW COUNTRY REHAB video “Lost Highway” premieres on CBC Music // Fall tour dates!