Canadian band The Sheepdogs at the 2011 MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
The dogs are having their day. The Sheepdogs, that is, those burly, bearded, wheat-field rockers from Saskatchewan who are the subjects of a perfectly coherent documentary on the slow-rise of a band otherwise thought to be a spontaneous and instantaneous success story. We learn from director John Barnard's tightly told saga that the Sheepdogs may have been born at night, but it wasn't overnight.
There's probably a sense, in this world of talent-show idols and the quick-dry heroes of YouTube, that music stars just sort of happen. Take the Sheepdogs, who were nobodies thrust upon the North American rock-music consciousness in 2011 when they competed at and won the right to be featured on the cover of Rolling Stone, an overmythologized but nevertheless significant achievement.
How did these obscure chooglers win such a highly publicized contest (and the major-label recording contract that came with it)? Where did they come from, and where did they still need to go after grabbing rock's holy grail? Just who, I mean to say, let the dogs out? By use of interviews with music insiders and the band members and their parents, most all is crisply revealed.
Livened up with studio footage and concert action, The Sheepdogs Have at It is a front-row look at music-biz machinery. It's easy enough to be almost famous. The next step is another matter.
Director John Barnard and the Sheepdogs will attend an early-evening screening and participate in a Q&A at Toronto's Cineplex Odeon Yonge & Dundas, June 21.
Brad Wheeler