The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir were a Canadian

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band that formed in 1985 in

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History

The band consisted of vocalist

Kate Fenner Kate Fenner is a Canadian musician, currently based in New York City. The ''New York Times'' describes her vocal stylings as having a "lusty, alternative, Joni Mitchell-ish sound." She was one of the primary singers and songwriters for the Canad ...

, vocalist and organist

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. A Pop music, pop and hip-hop-influenced contemporary R&B, R&B musician who works in a variety of genres, he has been called the "Honorific nic ...

, vocalist and guitarist

Andrew Whiteman David Andrew Patrick Whiteman is a Canadian musician and songwriter. Forming the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir in Toronto out of high school, he eventually left the band in 1993 after eight years. Whiteman went on to record ''Fear of Zen'' in 1995 w ...

, guitarist Chris Miller, saxophone and vocalist Chris Plock, bassist Jason Mercer, drummer Gregor Beresford, and guitarist and vocalist Peter Mercier when all of the founding members were high school classmates."Bourbons cling to the high ground". ''

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 ...

'', August 21, 1995. Vocalist Dave Wall joined the band in 1988, and vocalist and saxophonist

Gene Hardy Gene Hardy is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. He performs on saxophone, violin, musical saw and theremin. Career Hardy's early music training began in Victoria, British Columbia—first on violin at age 9, then on saxophone a yea ...

joined in 1989. They released three independent cassettes: ''First Taste of Bourbon'' in 1987, ''If Hell Had a Houseband'' in 1989 and ''Sister Anthony'' in 1990. The single "Put Your Head On" b/w "As Right as They Want to Be" (1990), produced by

Bob Wiseman Robert Neil Wiseman (born 1962) is a film composer, songwriter, author and music teacher. Wiseman discovered or produced many artists including Ron Sexsmith, The Lowest of the Low, Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall, Anhai, and former Canadia ...

and recorded at

Metalworks Studios Metalworks Studios is a music recording studio in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1978 by Gil Moore of the Canadian rock group, Triumph (band), Triumph. Since 1978, Metalworks Studios has expanded into a six studio facility ...

Mississauga, Ontario Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

, attracted the attention of film director Bruce McDonald, who included it on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

to his 1991 film '' Highway 61''.Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, '' Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995''.

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canada, Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholar ...

. . Both songs were later available on the CD reissue of ''Sister Anthony'' in 1995, although the original version of "As Right as They Want to Be" was replaced with a live version. With the exposure they gained from "Put Your Head On", the band signed to the independent label Yonder Records, and released ''Superior Cackling Hen'' in 1992. The singles "Make Amends", "Afterglow" and "Original Grin" were all hits on campus and modern rock radio stations in the next year. Following the release of ''Superior Cackling Hen'', Whiteman left the band in 1993. After leaving the Bourbons, Whiteman recorded as a solo artist, and subsequently became a member of the bands

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Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band and musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) in 1999. Alongside Drew and Canning, the ...

and

Apostle of Hustle Apostle of Hustle was a Canadian indie rock group, formed as a side project in 2001 by Andrew Whiteman, who has also been in Bourbon Tabernacle Choir and Que Vida. He currently plays as the lead guitarist for the indie supergroup Broken Socia ...

. Beresford left the band in 1994, and performed drum tracks on

Tom Cochrane Thomas William Cochrane ( ; born May 14, 1953) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician best known as the frontman for the rock band Red Rider and for his work as a solo singer-songwriter. Cochrane has won eight Juno Awards. He is a member ...

's 1995 album, '' Ragged Ass Road''; Tom Bona replaced him in 1995.

Howie Beck Howie Beck is a Canadians, Canadian musician, mixer and producer based in Toronto, Ontario. He has been nominated for three Juno Awards in Canada on three occasions for Adult Alternative Album, Engineer of the Year and Producer of the Year (2017). ...

and Daniel Barnes played with the band during this era. In 1995, the band released ''Shy Folk'', which featured contributions from

Ani DiFranco Angela Maria "Ani" DiFranco (; born September 23, 1970) is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums. DiFranco's music has been classified as folk rock and alternative rock, although it has additional influenc ...

and was produced by

Michael Phillip Wojewoda Michael Phillip Wojewoda is a Canadian record producer and musician. He has been nominated for eight Juno Awards and has received one for Recording Engineer of the Year and one for Producer of the Year. History Wojewoda began recording bands in ...

, and which featured the singles "All Peace" and "Be My Witness". Despite strong critical reviews, however, an expected mainstream breakthrough did not materialize, as the band's manager pursued a strategy of keeping them off the road at first, in the hope of allowing market demand for their live show to build up so that he could book the band into larger venues than they had previously played. Instead of having the intended effect, the strategy merely reduced the album's sales to barely half those of ''Superior Cackling Hen'', and effectively derailed the band's commercial momentum. In addition, when the band did finally tour they maintained a policy of refusing to play venues or music festivals, including

Canadian Music Week The Departure Festival + Conference, formerly known as Canadian Music Week, is an industry conference and music festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.David Friend"Canadian Music Week buyers rename event Departure Festival, expand its scope" ...

, which involved sponsorship by

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companies, which further limited the number of venues available for them to play. A CD reissue of ''Sister Anthony'' was also released in 1995. Following ''Shy Folk'', the band relocated to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to make its final bid for commercial success in the larger American market, but instead the band soon broke up.

Post-breakup

After the breakup, Brown and Fenner continued to record and perform as a duo. Jason Mercer played with DiFranco's band and continues to tour with

Ron Sexsmith Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born January 8, 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the songwriter of the year at the 2005 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own material in 1985 at age 21, and has ...

as his bass player. He lives in Brooklyn, NY and works as a producer. Dave Wall recorded two albums (''Lozenge'' and ''The Spell I Was Under'') as a solo artist, performed in a duo with Marilyn Lerner and performed as a member of the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band and Both Ends of the Earth. Chris Miller worked in film post-production. Hardy, Bona and Plock became session musicians who have played on albums by a wide variety of Canadian rock, pop, jazz and blues musicians, and Beresford joined David Wilcox's band. A retrospective album, ''Simply the Best 1985–1995'', was released in 2000. In 2008, the band played a reunion show at the

Hillside Festival The Hillside Festival is an annual three-day, five-stage (including one kids' stage) summer festival occurring in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, hosting musicians, spoken word artists, workshops and more. The Hillside Festival occurs in late July on Gu ...

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as The Royal City, it is roughly east of Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Ontario Highway 6, ...

on July 26, 2008 at the insistence of the festival's director Sam Baijal."Hillside Hits Its 25th B-Day". ''

Guelph Tribune The ''Guelph Mercury Tribune'', formerly known as the ''Royal Tribune'' and the ''Guelph Tribune'', is a twice-weekly newspaper serving the city of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. History The ''Guelph Tribune'' was founded on September 30, 1986 as the ...

'', July 28, 2008. He felt it was important that they headline the festival's 25th anniversary. The reunion lineup consisted of Brown, Fenner, Miller, Mercer, Wall, Hardy, Whiteman and Bona.

Discography

* ''A First Taste of Bourbon'' (1985) * ''If Hell Had a Houseband'' (1987) * ''Sister Anthony'' (1990) * ''Superior Cackling Hen'' (1992) * ''Shy Folk'' (1995) * ''Simply the Best 1985–1995'' (2000)

References

External links

Bourbon Tabernacle Choir
unofficial website {{DEFAULTSORT:Bourbon Tabernacle Choir Musical groups established in 1985 Musical groups disestablished in 1995 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian alternative rock groups 1985 establishments in Ontario 1995 disestablishments in Ontario