United Steel Workers of Montreal (or USWM) are a six-piece alternative country ensemble based in downtown Montreal. At present, the band consists of Gern F (vocals/acoustic guitar), Felicity Hamer (vocals/accordion), Sean "Gus" Beauchamp (vocals/acoustic guitar), Matt Watson (electric guitar), Flipper Frumignac (bass) and Dylan Perron (banjo/mandolin). The band draws on punk rock, bluegrass and country influences, and is part of a "citygrass" scene of alternative country musicians in Montreal which also includes Katie Moore and Lee Mellor and the Mudhounds.
The band began as an informal busking collective, playing every Tuesday in Montreal's Lucien-L'Allier metro station. After about seven or eight months, they booked a rehearsal space and began to actively record and perform as a permanent band. Their debut album Broken Trucks and Bottles was released in April 2005 and featured Sean Moore on banjo, mandolin and guitar. Shortly after the album's release Moore left the band and was replaced by Kevin McNeilly, while session man Roger Dawson also became a member.
The new lineup followed with Kerosene and Coal in 2007. That same year, a Montreal Mirror readers' poll voted them the third best act in the city, behind only Arcade Fire and electronic duo Team Canada. In 2007 Dawson left the band and was replaced by bass player Eddie Blake.
The band is currently signed to Toronto-based indie label Weewerk.
They have toured extensively across Canada and the United States,and Europe including shows at the 2008 SXSW and Ottawa Bluesfest. Their music has also been playlisted on CBC Radio 3.
Read more about United Steel Workers Of Montreal: Discography
Famous quotes containing the words united, steel and/or workers:
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In former times and in less complex societies, children could find their way into the adult world by watching workers and perhaps giving them a hand; by lingering at the general store long enough to chat with, and overhear conversations of, adults...; by sharing and participating in the tasks of family and community that were necessary to survival. They were in, and of, the adult world while yet sensing themselves apart as children.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)