New Release – Bear With Us (album) by Red Dirt Skinners
With male and female harmonies blending together as one voice and Sarah’s trademark soprano saxophone solos, you will be swept along by the refreshingly different sound of the Red Dirt Skinners.
Red Dirt Skinners won countless awards in the UK and spanned several genres before capturing the attention of the Canadian music press in 2015.
Within just two years of their first ever tour of Canada, the Skinners were invited by Canadian Immigration to become permanent residents under the “Performers of a World Class Level” category. Rob and Sarah Skinner were thrilled and honoured and accepted the offer immediately, turning their world upside down in what has turned out to be an extremely positive decision both personally and professionally.
The band’s upcoming album ‘Bear With Us’ is a collection of ten original songs drawing on such hard hitting subject matters as dementia, homelessness and narcissistic abuse, whilst still managing to produce soaring choruses, catchy lyrics and the ever present award-winning sound of Sarah’s saxophone solos. ‘Bear With Us’ is an extremely full sounding album from two highly skilled multi-instrumentalists and straddles multiple genres. This album is a triumph to positive thinking and a further development of the bands signature sound.
What are your favourite memories of writing and/or recording the album?
“I can remember the exact date we started writing some riffs and a few lyric ideas for this album. It was March 14, 2020! We’d flown to Edmonton for a show and the moment we landed we got a call from the venue to say that the show wouldn’t be able to go ahead because of breaking news about some virus or something! We spent three days holed up in the hotel, trying to stay away from people (plus it was -37 outside and we only had our show clothes and footwear with us!). It was a lousy hotel and it would have been a miserable time of endless re-runs of Everybody Loves Raymond if we hadn’t pulled the guitar out.”
What does the album’s title reveal?
“It’s funny – the title just had to happen! For the past couple of years on social media, without shows to talk about we had to come up with something. So we started taking a giant stuffed bear with us and posing him in silly locations. It became a real thing that Bear was always with us. Add in the fact that any time anyone asked if we were working on any new music we always said “yes, Bear With Us” the title just wrote itself.”
Does the whole album fit into a particular musical genre, or does it borrow from multiple forms?
“We’ve always been both praised (by audiences) and criticised (by the genre police!) for crossing many genres. We like to keep our audiences on their toes and we don’t like to stick to a genre. We’ve won National awards in blues, country, folk, roots and alternative genres but I honestly wouldn’t say that we’re any of those! It would be fair to say that if you’re a fan of Supertramp, Pink Floyd, ELO, Alan Parsons or that era of music then you may well like Red Dirt Skinners as these are the bands we’ve been most likened to.”
Are you planning any videos for your music?
“So far there are three singles from this album. “
‘Bear With Us’ will be the band’s seventh album. It will be released on October 22nd. A pre-save is available.