[color=rgb(68, 68, 68)]This single from Sidewinder is a pretty good country boogie record - we can totally see why they would have been a popular bar band around town in the early 80's. [/color] [img width=662]//7ca49eb9f67ba1319ef136f9d52cd8b8.cdn.bubble.io/f1722710254816x568625951513586300/richtext_content.jpeg[/img] [b][color=rgb(68, 68, 68)]Sidewinder eager for future in concert settings[/color][/b] By Vivian Rudd (Herald staff writer) Don't describe Sidewinder's music as anything but rock'n'rodeo - not country, country-rock, or rock - because they won't like it if you do. "We have our own niche." explains guitarist John Mills. "We want to be able to play anything in any situation and get away with it." With that end in sight, the band tries to choose a variety of material that will complement the band, and they're working to develop a distinctive style that will place a Sidewinder "stamp" on anything they play. "Anyone can take a song and copy it." says vocalist Debi Dunitz. "It's like tracing a picture. What's hard is to make it original." Sidewinder has existed as a band for 13 months now and has become a popular name on the Calgary bar circuit. Although it's important to them to be able to walk into any bar and win the audience, their ultimate goal lies in concert work. The group opened for George Thorogood earlier this year and appeared at Alberta Jam III in July. Eventually, they hope to alleviate most of the bar work and stick to concert settings. The problem with the bar circuit, they feel, is the time it takes from rehearsing and working on original material. Although they perform a portion of their own songs in the bars, the necessity to work steadily night after night means less time for work on arrangements and ideas. And bar work by its very nature requires a certain amount of catering to the bar crowd. [b]A feeling[/b] That's where giving a "Sidewinder feel" to other people's material helps in getting their own music across, Mills believes. "We try to choose the right copy material." he says. "If we do copy tunes that complement the band's style and do them so they grab the crowd. then our original tunes will grab them, too." Whether performing originals or copies, the important thing is projecting feeling. he adds. [b]Shared input[/b] "If you don't put your heart in it, you'll never get it across." he says. "I try to put the same feeling in someone else's song as I would if I wrote it." Songwriting input is shared by the group. To date, they have two recorded at Circa singles to their credit. Sound last March. The airplay the songs are receiving is good, they say, especially considering the lack of promotion behind them. And there's more songs where those came from. The ideas and concepts are all there what isn't there is the money. "We have enough original material to fill an album," says Mills. "But we don't want to just throw it together."
