Lost Dakotas was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

alternative country Alternative country (commonly abbreviated to alt-country; also known as alternative country rock, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative) is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that diffe ...

band in the 1990s. The band originally consisted of vocalist Paul Dakota and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

Greg McConnell (formerly of Absolute Whores), who began in 1989 as a

busking Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuity, gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performa ...

duo at the corner of Yonge and Dundas Streets in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario."Dakotas get off street ... and hit highway". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', March 11, 1993. Dakota and McConnell added

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

ist Adam Faux and drummer Ron Duffy for their 1990 debut, ''Love to Play''. Initially released as a limited edition cassette, the album completely sold out in just two days."Gregarious Greg McConnell", ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', May 19, 1999. The band's visuals, including

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

s, album art and animated video clips, were created by artist Erella Vent. 1991's ''Last Train to Kipling'' (a reference to

Kipling station Kipling is the western terminus station of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth of the Toronto subway system. The station is served by buses and subway trains operated by the Toronto Transit Commission and is adjacent to the Kipling GO Station on the Milton ...

on the

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the primary public transport agency in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operating the majority of the city's transit bus, bus and rail services. It is the oldest and largest of the urban transit service providers ...

's Bloor-Danforth subway line) stayed in the

campus radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...

charts in ''

Chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

'' for over 100 weeks. The album was most noted for a countrified cover of

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

's "

Back in Black ''Back in Black'' is the seventh studio album by Australian rock band AC/DC, released on 25 July 1980, by Albert Productions and Atlantic Records. It was the band's first album to feature Brian Johnson as lead singer, following the death of the ...

"."Lost Dakotas found some raunch on new CD". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...

'', January 20, 1994. In 1992 Faux left to focus work on his previous band Pig Farm and was replaced by Rick O'Brien and later by Tim Bovaconti. The band supported the album with their first full-scale national tour in spring 1993. Their third and final album, ''Sun Machine'', was released in 1993 on Cargo Records."Lost Dakotas find new sound going un-unplugged". ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunn ...

'', December 6, 1994. The album included a cover of

Ned Sublette Ned Sublette (born 1951) is an American composer, musician, record producer, musicologist, historian, and author. Sublette studied Spanish Classical Guitar with Hector Garcia at the University of New Mexico and with Emilio Pujol in Spain. He s ...

's "

Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other A cowboy is a professional pastoralist or mounted livestock herder, usually from the Americas or Australia. Cowboy(s) or The Cowboy(s) may also refer to: Film and television * ''Cowboy'' (1958 film), starring Glenn Ford * ''Cowboy'' (1966 film), ...

", 13 years before the song was made famous by

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

. At the 1993 Kumbaya Festival, the band performed the song live with rock singer

Lee Aaron Lee Aaron (born Karen Lynn Greening; July 21, 1962) is a Canadian rock singer. She had several hits in the 1980s and early 1990s, such as "Metal Queen", "Whatcha Do to My Body", and "Sex with Love". Early life Aaron was born as Karen Lynn Greeni ...

as guest vocalist. For their 1994 tour to support that album, the band was also joined by J.C. Orr, formerly of

King Apparatus King Apparatus was a Canadian third wave ska band, active in the early 1990s."King Apparatus: They're back" ...

, as a second guitarist. The band's final recording was a cover of

Bob Snider Bob Snider is a Canadian singer/songwriter. Snider grew up in Toronto and later moved to Bear River, Nova Scotia, Canada. Upon returning to Toronto in the 1980s, he befriended Bob Wiseman and other songwriters in the Toronto open stages at Fat ...

's "You" on the 1996 tribute album '' Poetreason: The Songs of Bob Snider''."How EMI signed busker Bob Rags-to-records tale brings Snider to Yellow Door". ''

Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

'', November 4, 1995. McConnell went on to form Stratochief, but died in 1999. He was replaced by Scott Bradshaw, who performed as the band's vocalist on both of their recorded albums."Scott B. Sympathy lets in a little light". ''

Brantford Expositor The ''Brantford Expositor'' is an English language newspaper based in Brantford, Ontario and owned by Postmedia. It provides the readers with coverage of local news, sports and events to the community as well as coverage of provincial, national ...

'', May 23, 2002. Erella Vent, now Erella Ganon, continues as an illustrator and writer. Adam Faux currently leads two bands with drummer Topher Stott, Hot Fo Gandhi and The Tiny Specks.

Discography

Albums

* ''Love to Play'' (1990) * ''Last Train to Kipling'' (1991) * ''Sun Machine'' (1993)

Other Appearances

* ''

Kumbaya "Kum ba yah" ("Come by here") is an African-American spiritual of disputed origin, known to have been sung in the Gullah culture of the islands off South Carolina and Georgia, with ties to enslaved Central Africans. Originally an appeal to ...

Album Nineteen Ninety Four'' (1994) - includes a live recording of "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly" * ''Poetreason: The Songs of

'' (1996) - includes a live recording of "You"

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1989 Musical groups disestablished in 1996 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian alternative country groups Canadian buskers 1989 establishments in Ontario 1996 disestablishments in Ontario