There is a lot to be said for honing your craft on the cover band circuit. It’s a place to learn your art, both as a player and as a stage performer, it’s a way of making a living and it certainly opens up more doors than original bands might be welcome at. But there comes a point when an artist feels the need to express their own thoughts and feelings through their own writing. And that is exactly what was running through Dwight Koenning and Keith Hambrook’s mind when they formed “The Prairie Dogz”. Covering other peoples music can, after all, only get you so far.

So after meeting and bonding whilst playing the top end of the cover band circuit, these two seasoned musicians decided that they needed their own musical vehicle. A vehicle that they could use to talk about their own lives and experiences, the crazy times that only come with being a musician, the short but extreme highs, the longer, lingering lows, the broken relationships, the enduring friendships and everything that comes part and parcel of their chosen career.

Musically their route was a natural one, the blend of Dwight’s bluesy vocal delivery and Keith’s harder-edged guitar work, plus their rural formative years growing up on the prairies, albeit those of Southern Alberta, took them down a pathway that effortlessly blended country, blues and rock and from tender, intimate ballads to celebratory, foot-on-the-monitor rock and roll. Songs such as Don’t Remember Last Night drives with a boogie groove that ZZ Top would bite your hand off to get their teeth into whilst 40 Dollars is indicative of their smoother blues direction, one built from accessible melodies and intricate guitar textures.

It’s country with a kick, blues with a sultry swagger, rock without the cliche. It’s just the shot in the arm that all three genres didn’t know they were waiting for. As a wise man once said “sometimes you might find, you get what you need.” Prairie Dogz is just what the world needs right now.