ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 8, 2011
By Steve Newton
The two singer-guitarists in Toronto alt-country act the Warped 45s go way back—and they should, since they’re first-cousins. But before you get to thinking that Dave McEathron and Ryan Wayne McEathron’s living rooms are crammed with snapshots of them joyfully jamming as kids, it should be noted that Dave is nine years Ryan’s senior. And that’s the kind of gargantuan age difference that even a mutual love of country music can’t always overcome.
But when contacted at his Toronto home and asked to relive the first time he and Ryan connected musically, Dave manages to peer through some dusty memories to surprisingly vivid effect.
“I guess I would have been in college and he would have been in high school,” recalls McEathron, “and he was just starting to get into more of the acoustic music. I know I brought a four-track recording machine to my grandmother’s to try and do demoing in the basement, and he was there, so we went through the whole Willie Nelson Red Headed Stranger album, discussing songwriting.
“Then we did some jamming, and I’m pretty sure I showed him a Gram Parsons tune.”
If those recollections are right, that choice of material just might have laid the groundwork for the cousins to form the Warped 45s a decade or so later. In 2008 the band released its self-titled, six-song debut EP, which won it both critical raves and the $10,000 Fan Choice Award at the North-By-Northeast Music Festival.
Investing smartly, the group put that cash towards the used van that has taken it across Canada three times and will be doing so again—with a recent brake job and some rustproofing—by the time you’re reading this.
“It was really important to us that we get set up so we had no excuses to keep playing,” explains McEathron, whose band plays the Railway Club on Wednesday (June 15). “I don’t know if most bands do that or not, but it was like, ’Okay, we got our gear, what keeps bands from touring?’ And I think not havin’ a good van is maybe the number one thing.”
The Warped 45s’ current Canadian swing sees the quintet—which also includes keyboardist Kevin Hewitt, bassist Alex Needleman, and drummer Hamal Finn Roye—showcasing tunes from its new album, Matador Sunset, a leaner and meaner offering than 2009’s 10 Day Poem for Saskatchewan.
“It growls and snarls a little bit more,” says McEathron, a prime example being “Grampa Carl”, a dark and edgy tale inspired by the “colourful” life of Ryan’s great-grandfather, who ran bootleg rum in southern Ontario during prohibition.
It’s the type of gritty tune that—in its Pheromone Recordings bio, anyway—has led the band to be called “Canada’s Drive-By Truckers”. While not entirely accurate, it’s a description neither McEathron would rail against.
“I wish we didn’t have to be defined by any other band,” notes the older of the two cousins, “but if we were going to, then people referring to us in terms of Fred Eaglesmith or Blue Rodeo or the Drive-By Truckers or Wilco—or any of the bands that we really do like—I’m very happy to hear those names.”