Music of the West
By Hugh McLennan
Dec-Jan 2007
Classic Country
 The Sons of the Sage
Those of us old enough to remember living in a world before TV got most of our musical entertainment from the radio. Growing up with the daily broadcasts of the Sons of the Pioneers had a profound influence on our musical taste. There was a daily fifteen-minute radio show heard on the prairies in the early ‘50s featuring Canada’s Cowboy Troubadour, Stu Davis. I can still hear his theme song, Saddle Your Worries to a Cowboy Song and Yodel Your Troubles Away. Once in a while, Stu Davis would bring his young son Duane to the studio. I’d guess he’d have been around six or seven years old, and boy, could that kid sing. Duane left a promising musical career of his own later to work in the field of education, but very recently he’s relocated to B.C., and teamed up with well-known country and gospel singer Abe Zacharias and versatile musician Gerry Pelland to form a new western harmony group they call The Sons of the Sage.
This is their first release and it covers a nice range of western, gospel and classic country songs. The track that really got to me is Rusty Spurs, a song Duane sings the lead on and included as a tribute to his dad who wrote it.
There’s some great acoustic guitar work on the gospel flavoured Way Down Deep, and the mix includes songs from Hank Williams Sr. and Vince Gill. Western harmony isn’t easy but these guys do it pretty well considering the short time they’ve been together. Blue Shadows on the Trail and Cool Clear Water are included, and I really enjoyed Blue Shadows. On Cool Clear Water, they haven’t developed the same harmony pattern the Sons of the Pioneers used, where the melody shifts seamlessly from the baritone in its lower notes, to the lead in the mid range and to the tenor on the higher notes. They have the tenor about a third above the lead, and the baritone a third below the lead, and it stays stacked that way through the song. Abe, Duane and Gerry take turns doing a solo on the verse and it works well. When my brother Jim and I opened for them at a recent concert that was the song that drew the biggest and loudest applause. www.canadiancowboy.ca.
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