United Steel Workers Of Montreal – Three On The Tree

Press for Three on the Tree

Urban hillbillies, the United Steel Workers of Montreal are a bar band. Their latest release, Three on the Tree, would best be heard with a flask of whiskey and a group of sweaty strangers in some seedy watering hole. Three Hard Knocks sets the wild tone of the album. It’s fast finger-pluckin’ guitar, banjo and mandolin and Gern’s gruff vocals. For Love and Your Mother’s Sake is on the same train, though Felicity Hamer takes over on vocals. Shawn Beauchamp takes it down a notch on Son, Your Daddy Was Bad. United Steel Workers of Montreal divide their vocals throughout the album, which befits the plethora of musical styles the band explores. Imagine bluegrass, Irish and country with a mixture of folk elements. The Line should be a favourite among duet lovers. But it’s The Ballad of Mary Gallagher that highlights the band’s exceptional craftsmanship and creative integrity.” – Penguin Eggs, Shannon Webb-Campbell, Summer 2009

Recent Press Quotes

“Their live gigs have achieved a legendary cult-like status – they sing about you and me, and to you and me. It’s real, it’s about a good time, it’s about life.” – Nightlife Magazine

“It doesn’t take long to realize that USWM is doing something different than most bands out there. The lead vocals are unique and the harmony vocals are outstanding.” – Antimusic

“Breathtaking harmonies, strings, and banjo …can make you stomp a hole into the dance floor on one track …and hold your girl tight as you sway to the next.” – Herohill

“The hoot-and-holler meter went highest when the United Steel Workers of Montreal thundered through a set of urban hillbilly — or “citygrass” — music… with the fierceness of a Tom Waits-Shane MacGowan knife fight.” – Globe and Mail

“The USWM eat the crowd with a raucous country-marries-urban-roots set. After Felicity’s sass has met Gern’s grit, a vocal shot of Tom Waits if he’d been born in a motel in the Ozarks, you are feeling that familiar flush of pride and thinking “we’ve done it again.” Because USWM are indeed from Montreal.” – The Gazette