5 Saskatchewan bands who've made a splash over the last 10 years

With a decade in the rear-view mirror, it's time to take a look at what the past 10 years have meant for Saskatchewan artists.

On CBC Radio's Saskatchewan Weekend, Peter Mills spoke with five artists about how their careers have changed and evolved, and what they've leaned from a decade of making music and touring the world.

For The Dead South, Jess Moskaluke, The Sheepdogs and TheDeep Dark Woods, the last decade has given them a chance to tick a few things off their bucket list.

And for one Saskatchewan band, Rah Rah, the end of the decade will also mark the end of their run.

The Dead South

The Dead South's In Hell I'll Be In Good Company might be the best known song from the Saskatchewan-based quartet. Their light-hearted, choreographed video which flashes through scenes of the band in hotel rooms, back alleys, the streets of Toronto and prairie grid roads flanked by canola fields — to the tune of bluegrass sang with raspy vocals — has over 162 million views on YouTube.

"After that everything just kind of started steamrolling forward," said Scott Pringle. 

Pringle — who plays the mandolin and guitar in addition to singing — says the band started with Nathaniel Hilts, Colton Crawford and a few friends who met through wrestling and school.

"They ended up jamming a whole bunch and writing a few of the first Dead South songs," said Pringle. Shortly after those early sessions, the other friends left and Pringle came in.

"Me, Danny, and Nate have known each other since we were five years old, and we picked up where they left off and just continued on from there," said Pringle. 

Pringle said they ran the gambit of punk, grunge, metal and rock, and turned to bluegrass after Crawford bought a banjo in university.

"That's when we were first just starting to explore bluegrass music and we took all of those older influences that we had developed earlier in high school and started applying that to these bluegrass instruments, and now that's what ended as Dead South," he said.

The breadth of travel undertaken by the Dead South has been remarkable to Pringle. "We've been all over the world so many times in the last just over seven years," said Pringle. 

"Sometimes I can't even remember where I was the day before, let alone know where I'm going the next day. So I think back to all the places I've travelled (and) it's pretty incredible and pretty special to have the privilege to do that, to be able to do it with our band family, and crew and my brothers. It's pretty awesome."

Playing the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado this year was a career highlight for Pringle.

"That has always been a bucket list venue to play. So being able to play between those two massive rocks and play to 10,000 people was pretty incredible," he said.

Travelling the world has meant the band now has fans all over the globe. In 2014 the band was picked up by a German record label and have been touring overseas three times a year ever since. Going into the new year, the band already has 60 tour dates spanning the globe, including a tentative show in Russia. 

From the attentive, polite crowds in Germany to rambunctious Quebecois fans, The Dead South are set to be in good company this coming decade, no matter where they go.

Jess Moskaluke 

This decade saw Jess Moskaluke's star steadily rise, and she's now one of the biggest country music stars in Canada. 

Moskaluke was nominated for country album of the year at the Junos four times (and won the category in 2017), won female artist of the year at the Canadian Country Music Awards three years in a row and became the first Canadian female country artist since Shania Twain to have a platinum single with her song Cheap Wine and Cigarettes.

"Man, I really never thought I'd get any of these things," said Moskaluke. "I still barely believe you, hearing these things." 

Ten years ago the country star in waiting had just graduated high school, and was studying at Brandon University with hopes of becoming a parole officer.

Two years into her time at BU, after taking part in talent competitions and singing anywhere she could, Moskaluke signed a development deal and a publishing deal in Nashville, Tennessee.

"The requirements from both ends — both the university side and the publishing development side — were just too much. I was in Nashville once a month. I was in L.A. once a month and that left like a week every month to go to school, which is not enough," she said.

She decided to take a break from school.

"I was not conflicted at all. I knew that the music industry is sometimes a fleeting one, and you know you might have your 10 minutes in the limelight and then it might go away," Moskaluke said. 

But the fleeting nature of the industry, and through the fear of making a huge change Moskaluke said her family's support was crucial to her career. 

"That's a pretty scary jump, you know especially when you're on a path that seems really safe — Go to school, get a job, live a really nice life."

Moskaluke splits her time between Nashville, her home in Rocanville, Sask., and on the road, and she has big plans for the new year, including her first show with a symphony this coming May. 

The Sheepdogs

The hard-rocking, southern-inspired, bluesy sound of The Sheepdogs would be right at home with the southern-fried rock of decades past, but their music was heard far loud and clear this past decade.

From being played in arenas in the Czech Republic during the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship, to spots on late night and early morning talk shows in America, the Saskatoon band's music has reached far and wide.

But that success didn't happen overnight. The band formed in 2004, and 10 years ago frontman Ewan Currie was already putting in work. 

"Ten years ago, I would have either been waking up and jumping in the band van, or sleeping in late and working at a bar in Saskatoon," said Currie. 

Currie described his bandmates Sam Corbett and Ryan Gullen as "a bunch of half-baked university students that weren't really too thrilled about going to class and trying to get a regular job," when they first started playing. From their very first months the band has stuck to the rock-n-roll sound and fury that first moved them.

In 2011, with three albums and no label, the band wound up with some of music's most prestigious real-estate — the cover of Rolling Stone.

"It was a kind of a spellbinding year," said Currie. "I didn't really have a lot of time to actually consider how I felt — I mostly felt exhausted, but you, know buoyed by a lot of adrenaline and excitement that kept me going."

The sudden attention was overwhelming at times, and to manage the sudden spotlight the band threw themselves into their music. Already seven years in at this point, Currie said they wanted to show all the new eyes on them that they were the real deal. 

The sudden attention opened doors for the band, like playing the Jimmy Fallon Show twice and meeting Larry David, of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, at a party in New York.

Even with the sudden rush of attention nine years ago, Currie said it isn't what motivates him. The ability to create is fulfilling and encouraging, and his pride is in what he does. 

"The thing I'm most proud of is just that it's 2019, I'm in my 30s and I'm making a living playing rock and roll music that I write with my best friends and my brother," he said. "That's kind of my dream job."

From memorable shows at Massey Hall, the Grey Cup in Regina or at the top of the Broadway Bridge, Currie said the new decade will chock full of concerts and a new record that he's been writing with the same passion he had 15 years ago when the band started. 

The Deep Dark Woods

Ryan Boldt of The Deep Dark Woods said it's hard to believe he's been making music for as long as he has. 15 years writing tunes and strumming chords have taken Boldt around North America a few times.

In this decade, a few highlights include playing the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and playing the Newport Folk Festival.

"Austin City Limits Festival, there's Bonnaroo, I mean the list is long of things that I'm very proud of," said Boldt.

Boldt now lives in Ontario but comes back to the province quite often. His 2017 album Yarrow was recorded in Saskatoon as was some of his current album.

One song that stands out from Boldt's discography is Charlie's (is Coming Down), a song about Good Time Charlie's, the bar and venue at the Plains Hotel. The hotel was torn down to make way for Capital Pointe — a real estate venture which had a far less illustrious decade than the artists mentioned here — and Boldt's song stands as a memorial. 

Boldt wrote the song for CBC's Great Canadian Song Quest while he was on tour in Halifax. He wrote the whole song in a day.

"It came together pretty good," he said. 

This song about an old staple of the scene closing down — a place where Boldt remembers drinking beer, playing open mic nights, going to shows with his mom and seeing young musicians get their start — struck a chord with many in the province.

"It's a real shame," he said. "Kids could go and learn how to play music in front of a crowd. You don't find those sorts of places very often. It's really a shame that this place was torn down. I don't know what they're thinking."

Heading into the new year Boldt said the industry is tenuous and it's hard to eke out a living, but he hopes he'll be at it for a while longer. 

"I hope to be doing this in 10 years. Well, we will see, I mean the way things are going it is harder to make a living off of it now ... we'll see what happens."

Rah Rah

All good things must come to an end, and as one decade ends and another begins, Regina's staple indie rock band Rah Rah are saying farewell. 

With albums like Vessels and The Poet's Dead, which was nominated for a Juno award in 2014, Rah Rah set the stage for the indie genre to take root in Regina and across the province.

"There's been a lot of stories people (have) been sharing on social media and stuff like that. They kind of jog the memory because of course it kind of feels like a blur you know?" Marshall Burns said.

Burns sang and played guitar in the band, which he'd been a part of since high school. Even when their music was featured during the FIFA World Cup, or when the band was going to the Junos, there was never a moment where Burns realized the musicians dream of making it big.

"I felt like we were building towards something within the reach of the band," which was a slow and steady process, said Burns. "We never broke through in like a major way overnight or anything like that, or at all."

The band has over 600 shows under their belt. While some  were big, some small, some rowdy and packed, others were sparse and indifferent, which formed a two steps forward and one step back feeling for Burns. But looking back on the band's history, he's proud of the tours, travel and music.

"The amount of travel that we got to do to cool places, you know, the band really truly did take us to do things and see things that we never thought possible," he said. "No regrets. It's been a great experience."

The band went on hiatus in 2016 after playing the BreakOut West festival. Burns said with band members in different cities, in new jobs and with time sneaking up on them, they felt that the hiatus was indefinite.

Members of the group have branched off into new projects said Burns, who recently released an album called Dogs and Booze.

The band decided to make the ambiguous end to the group more definitive, and are putting on three shows in Saskatoon and Regina.

"We never really had a proper final show. Those last shows we played certainly weren't billed as such," said Burns. "I think people will appreciate the chance to hear the songs once again and we'll certainly appreciate the chance to play them."

Rah Rah will play their two final shows on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30 in Regina at The Exchange.