Yesterday’s Ring Tour Canada and release new record “Diamonds In The Ditch”
For Immediate Release
Aquarius Records Recording Artists
Yesterday’s Ring
Yesterday’s Ring’s new record “Diamonds In The Ditch” hits the streets April 14th but for those digitally inclined your wait will be over as of March 31st with a special bonus track available exclusively on ITunes.
Yesterday’s Ring began in 2000 on a hot summer day on the front porch of a Memphis, TN punk house. Fred Jacques (guitar and vocals) and Hugo Mudie (vocals) were on tour with their punk rock band, The Sainte Catherines, when they began writing folk/country songs fuelled by beer and whiskey and influenced by a mix of Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits and punk heroes like Tim Armstrong (Rancid), Joe Strummer (The Clash) and Shane Macgowan (The Pogues). “We were just tired of playing loud and fast punk songs.” Hugo says. “We were listening to a lot of country music in the van and we wanted to do something similar, but coming from the punk scene, the music was really dirty, rough and…punk.”
The duo got back from tour and played shows around their hometown of Montreal, before releasing a much acclaimed EP on local imprint, Dare To Care Records in 2001. Two years later, they released the bilingual acoustic punk-folk “Onze Chansons Pour Faire Pleurer Les Morts Vivants.”, still on Dare To Care, adding to the line up, Louis Valiquette (guitar and vocals) and Marc-André Beaudet (bass and vocals), also of The Sainte Catherines. After a cross-Canada tour, some US and European shows, they released in 2005, El Rancho. This full length album established them as one of the top alt-country bands to come out of the Province of Quebec. With the addition of drums, electric guitars, keyboards, harmonica, banjo, mandolin and horns, the band had found a new sound that they were more comfortable with. It mixed their old love for the punk rock energy with their new dedication to the country and folk tradition. “When El Rancho came out, people started to take us more seriously. We had written all those songs while on the road with The Sainte Catherines. We knew a bit more about the style of music we were trying to play and we were just older, i guess.” The album was a bit rough around the edges, but altogether more ”singalong-able” and energizing. It received a great deal of praise from punk zines, magazines, blogs, and fans alike.
The increasing attention was enough to score them gigs with similarly minded bands like Lucero and The Real Mackenzies, and by 2008, Yesterday’s Ring had played over 200 shows around Canada, the United States and Europe. They recorded the four-song EP Back From El Rancho in 2006 and continued to play dates around the hectic touring schedule of The Sainte Catherines (Fat Wreck Chords, 600 + shows in 14 countries since 2000). Now with Rich Bouthiller (drums, The Sainte Catherines), Mathieu Guilbault (bass, Fifth Hour Hero/Mi Amore/Rudy Caya), Ryan Battistuzzi (guitar, banjo, pedal steel) and featuring from well known and talented musicians (Malcolm Bauld, Mara Tremblay, Coeur de Pirate, Keith Douglas and Chuck Robertson of the Mad Caddies), they might have just wrote the best country-influenced album to ever come out of the city of Montreal. “We really wanted to make an album that we would be proud of. We didn’t limit ourselves to write country or folk songs, we just wrote pop songs…great songs I think. They are far away from the heavy music we make with The Sainte Catherines, but closer to what we actually listen to at home and in the van.”
Diamonds in The Ditch, produced and recorded by the band themselves, features heartfelt and catchy songs that people will have trouble getting out of their heads. Country, Folk, Rock, Pop, Punk…heavily influenced by the greatest songwriters of our time, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Tom Petty, Bod Dylan, Billy Joel, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and Shane Macgowan of The Pogues. “The album is like a road trip. It’s a story about someone that leaves Montreal to get away from drugs, alcohol and a girl, of course. The hero drives all the way to Florida only to realize that it’s all the same over there. He comes back to Montreal, to find things better even though nothing has really changed. He realizes that where one lives doesn’t bring happiness, happiness must be brought to one’s self.“ Yesterday’s Ring will tour the world with Diamonds in The Ditch and everywhere they will go, people will wonder: “How come I didn’t know this band before ? “ People and critics used to call them “one of the best side projects around”. With the new record, they will simply be known as “one of the best bands around”.
Yesterday’s Ring are coming to a bar near you, grab a whiskey and get ready for your new favourite band to blow you away!
3 April- St-Hyacinthe @ Le Trash
5 April -Mont-Tremblant @ Station Mont-Tremblant
10 April – Sherbrooke @ Telephone Rouge
11 April – Quebec @ Casbah
14 April-Montreal@ Savoy- ALBUM LAUNCH
17 April – Drummondville @ Box Office
18 April – Chicoutimi @ Le Bunker
24 April – Longueil @ Brasserie Les Gaulois D’Ameriques
25 April – Joliette @ L’Azile
9 May- Mascouche @ Le Cheyenne
14 May- Laval @ Studio Theatre de La Maison des Arts
15 May- Toronto @ Kathedral
29 May- Montreal @ Divan Orange
30 May- Montreal @ Divan Orange
14 June- Ottawa @ Mavericks w/ Bridge & Tunnel, Orphan Choir
16 June- Hamilton @ Casbah w/ Bridge & Tunnel, Orphan Choir
18 June- Toronto @ The Kathedral w/ Bridge & Tunnel, Orphan Choir
19 June- London @ Call The Office w/ Bridge & Tunnel, Orphan Choir
20 June – Montebello @ Rockfest Montebello
2 July – Lavaltrie @ Chasse-Galerie
