Almonte Musicians Get National Exposure

by Jennifer Eldridge. Published Nov 9 2007 in the Mississippi Mills Weekender

There are many famous Canadian bands, but none as coveted as The Tragically Hip. The band is well known amongst rock fans and has spurned many followers, fans and tribute bands that passionately play The Hip’s music. Little Bones is such a tribute band.

Little Bones is named after a cat in one of The Hip’s songs and is made up of Ottawa Valley residents, including lead singer Dan Hilts and guitarist James Frew from Almonte. After playing gigs in the Ottawa area for numerous years, the band is now going to have some recognition in a four-part documentary called Tribute Bands that is currently airing on E! on Sunday evenings.

The idea for Tribute Bands was developed by Allison Grace and Michelle Metivier, of Good Company Pictures, and focuses on various forms of tribute bands.“For each episode, we tried to find bands that have a different approach to being a tribute band,” said Grace of the choice of bands to portray in the episodes. “They are each different bands and have different reasons for doing it.” The documentary has focused on four legendary rock bands: Rush, The Police, Queen and The Tragically Hip. While most amateur bands play covers to become noticed, the documentary looks at bands that have dedicated their musical talents to recreating the music of others.“It’s really hard [for a band] to get hired to play original music,” said Metivier, “and it’s not going to draw a large crowd. With a tribute band, there’s an immediate audience and they get paid.”

In the final episode of the documentary, airing on Nov. 11 at 7 p.m., Keeping Up with the Hip focuses on three Tragically Hip tribute bands from Ontario, The Practically Hip, The Wheat Kings and Little Bones. Aside from the draw of learning about tribute bands and listening to music by the Tragically Hip, residents from Almonte will be able to see some familiar scenery. Scenes were shot throughout town, at the drive-thru at Tim Horton’s and at the homes of the band members.
Frew thought that the whole experience was sort of surreal.

“They interviewed me on a lawn tractor with the kids playing in the back,” said Frew, who mentioned that another band member was filmed while sitting in a canoe. “It was cool.”“[The film crew] followed me to work and shot me going through the drive-thru at Timmy’s,” said Hilts.

Little Bones, which is made up of five members, just like the Hip, and a sound guy they bring to gigs with them, has been together for about 15 years and has played over 300 gigs, including a sold out show at Barrymore’s in Ottawa and a pre-game Ottawa Rough Riders’ show. By weekend these regular IT guys transform into crooning musicians. Hilts becomes the lead singer, Frew, a guitarist; Yvon Villeneuve, guitarist and backup vocalist; and Don Richard, drummer and backup vocalist. Dave Schroeder, their bassist, is the only one that is a full-time musician, and right now he’s in Florida working on his master’s degree in jazz bass performance. The band also brings along Trevor Souliere, an audio technician, to all of its shows to do the sound mixing.

Just as Little Bones is a tribute to The Tragically Hip, the band members of Little Bones are fans as well. They are very adamant that they are a tribute band and do their best to play the Hip’s music as the Hip plays it.“We do try to tribute the band,” said Frew. “We try to lift everything off the albums and play [the music] like it was recorded in the studio. We don’t try to look like them because we don’t.”“A clone band tries to look the part,” said Hilts of the difference between cover bands and tribute bands. “It’s more theatrical, we’re not. We’re us, but we love playing the music.”

Frew said that they play the music consistently too, “We do the same thing every show. It’s their music. We try to play it the way they recorded it.” Hilts also made it clear that Little Bones is about enjoying the music.“We’re not in it for fame and fortune,” said Hilts. “When I close my eyes and hear these guys behind me, I feel like I’m at a [Hip concert]. This is our release. It’s something to take our minds off of work.”

Of the three bands featured in the episode, Little Bones is the band with the most years in the business.
“These people are quite skilled musicians,” said Tribute Bands producer Metivier of the band. “Dan’s voice is really amazing, he prides himself on getting his voice exactly like Gord [Downie’s, lead singer of the Hip].”

The band also knows each other so well that they haven’t had a practice in six or seven years.
“We know each other so well that we can follow each other,” said Frew.“I learn the [words of the] song, and then we just jam the song together,” said Hilts. The band did that in the episode too. The director wanted to tape some footage of them learning a new song, so they taped Hilts singing in his car on the way to work. Then during a jam session, the band played the new song for the first time almost flawlessly.

One question that Hilts and Frew have always wondered was how the Tragically Hip felt about tribute bands.
Hilts got his answer at the Vancouver airport last February. As Hilts wandered to his terminal before a flight home, he saw “the boys.” After introducing himself and some nonchalant chitchat, Hilts asked Gord Sinclair his opinion of tribute bands.
“He said, ‘Thanks for doing that,’” said Hilts, with a smile.