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Artist
United Steel Workers of Montreal
12+ albums
Alt-countrybluegrassCanadiancountryfolk
about
United Steel Workers of Montreal (or USWM) are a six-piece alternative country ensemble based in downtown Montreal. At present, the band consists of Gern F (vocals/acoustic guitar), Felicity Hamer (vocals/accordion), Sean “Gus” Beauchamp (vocals/acoustic guitar), Matt Watson (electric guitar), Eddy Blake (bass) and Kevin McNeilly (banjo/mandolin). Their debut album Broken Trucks and Bottles was released in April 2005 and featured Sean Moore on banjo, mandolin and guitar. Shortly after the album's release Moore left the band and was replaced by Kevin McNeilly, while session man Roger Dawson also became a member. The new formation followed with Kerosene and Coal in 2007. That same year, a Montreal Mirror readers' poll voted them the third best act in the city. The band is currently signed to Toronto-based indie label Weewerk. In 2007 Dawson left the band and was replaced by bass player Eddy Blake. http://www.uswm.ca/ User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
why this is interesting
# Why This Matters This ensemble demonstrates how alternative country can flourish outside traditional Nashville frameworks. Working from Montreal's downtown core, they blend accordion and banjo with electric guitar in ways that feel neither nostalgic nor forced—genuinely curious about how these instruments might converse. The six-piece arrangement creates textural possibilities rarely explored in the genre, while their vocal harmonies suggest folk sensibility married to something more experimental. Their debut captures a moment of genuine exploration, where craft serves genuine artistic questions rather than commercial formulas. It's worth hearing what happens when musicians approach country music as an open conversation rather than a fixed tradition.
