The latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine has a lot of people talking. But it's not just because Saskatoon's Sheepdogs are on the cover. Inside, the article discussing the band is getting mixed reviews. Some say the writing is less than flattering for the City of Saskatoon.
The lengthy article depicts The Sheepdogs as a group of guys who've had their fair share of struggles before hitting the big time. But it also talks about the experience the Rolling Stone writer had in Saskatoon with the band last month.
The journalist writes about the "squat downtown skyline," the "toothless degenerates" in a local bar and the crappy entertainers on stage. These comments and more fueled a lot of debate on online forums.
Craig Silliphant is a music critic, who says that agree or not, Rolling Stone has done nothing wrong. "There's been a lot of people on both sides picking sides, one side is grabbing the pitchforks and the torches and think we should take everybody down while the other side is acknowledging that Rolling Stone doesn't work for Tourism Saskatoon so they're under no obligation to make us look good."
Lead singer Ewan Currie's brother Shamus says his mother was a little put off by some of the comments in the story, but overall, they're one proud family.
"It shows them to be a real authentic rock-and-roll band, which they are. Maybe the article does kind of does play up a backwoods town a little bit but they don't actually say anything negative about Saskatoon," says Currie.
That's almost true – one band member is quoted as saying that Saskatoon's "got nothing but hookers and hockey players." That statement didn't sit well with some local readers. But others, like Jeff Nachtigall, say the band isn't responsible for making Saskatoon shine. "I don't think The Sheepdogs are ambassadors for Saskatoon, they're rock stars. They're ambassadors for themselves."
With only a few hundred copies of the magazine distributed in Saskatoon, many have not yet read the article. Time will tell whether there's any love lost over The Sheepdogs, or if they're simply what rock and roll is all about.
