Bentwood Rocker double down and live it up with the first instalments of their new video album — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
“This is the first time in our over 40 years together that the band has been recorded live!” marvel the Ontario vets, who are treating fans to new concert recordings of their songs I’m Not Taken and Give Her An Inch. The quintet rockers have five additional songs to follow, all professionally captured via Empire Theatre’s Music City Mondays series — a pandemic-related initiative by the Belleville venue.
The showcase is just the latest milestone for long-serving members Dan Thompson, Eric Baragar, Mike Goettler, Barry Haggarty and Steve Smith. Since staking claim to their rightful spot on the Canadian music map a generation ago, the course of their career has seen them serve countless albums and singles. Meanwhile, they’ve shared the stage and studio with the likes of Randy Bachman, Bob Dylan, Sass Jordan, Tom Cochrane, producers Jack Richardson (Bob Seger, Alice Cooper), Terry Brown (Rush), engineers Dennis Hetzendorfer (The Bee Gees, John Mellencamp), Mike Jones (Bryan Adams, Blue Rodeo) and more.
The band started as a studio project in the late ’70s. After more than a decade of performing mostly cover material under the name Sands of Time, they added vocalist Thompson to the mix and set off to create original lyrics and compositions. Their debut album Not Taken arrived in 1979, followed by Take Me To Heaven in 1982. The self-titled Bentwood Rocker came in 1996, with The Works box set in 2000. In addition to their eight albums, the band reconvened in the studio in 2017 to rock out an EP trilogy — aptly titled Take One, Take Two and Take Three. In 2020 they delivered the single Hold On. Speaking of holding on, they note they now have “over 40 years of recording and performing together as a group, with all original members … That’s what sets us apart in the world of popular music.”
Watch I’m Not Taken and Give Her An Inch above, hear more from Bentwood Rocker below, and connect with them on their website, Facebook and Instagram.
