Search - Stampeders :: Sweet City Woman

Excellent CanCon music!

David Hugaert | Honolulu, HI United States | 07/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Sweet City Woman" contains a collection of songs by Canada's premiere country-rock group, The Stampeders. This Calgary-based trio, fronted by Rick Dodson, Ronnie King and Kim Berly, saw major success in the U.S. with their hit single "Sweet City Woman", which cracked the Billboard Top Ten in 1971, and is one of the songs featured in this collection. Of the fourteen tracks (on the Collectables Records edition) featured on "Sweet City Woman - A Golden Classics Edition", twelve of them are pure CanCon (Canadian Content) radio classics. The Stampeders are more than just a country-rock band, as the songs in this collection signify. There are R & B standards ("Gator Road", "I Didn't Love You Anyhow"), as well as ballsy rockers ("Only A Friend", "You Got To Go", the bouncy "With You I Got Wheels", "Man From P.E.I." - the initials of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island). Among the noteworthy Stampeders country-rock standards on display here are "Carry Me", the group's first entry onto the Canadian charts, "Train To Nowhere", "Gator Road", the melancholic "Oklahoma Country", which has a snappy mandolin intro, "Sunday Prayin'" and "Tuscaloosa Woman" are among the many favorites here. Unlike the selections as listed above, the "Golden Classics Edition" of "Sweet City Woman" contains two bonus tracks - the delightfully sinful "Devil You" and a remake of "Hit The Road Jack", featuring an appearance courtesy of Wolfman Jack via telephone. The latter two tracks also saw minor American chart success as well. With so much wonderful music on display here, you're bound to like what you hear. "Sweet City Woman" is just one of the many CanCon delights you'll want to have in your collection!"

Fine collection of early-70s Canadian country-pop-rock band

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 12/14/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This Canadian (Calgary, Alberta) band found fleeting U.S. fame with 1971's "Sweet City Woman," but there was more to their catalog than one-hit wonderdom. As part of a wave of Canadian bands infiltrating the American charts in the early-70s, the three-piece Stampeders offered a more varied array of music than one might suspect from their hit single.Their first entry in the U.S. singles market, "Carry Me," was a truly superb piece of country-rock pop with a lyric that is at once nostalgic in its memories of the protagonist's Alabama home, and of-its-times with references to war. The melody and guitars provided the same sort of memorable hooks as "Sweet City Woman." The Stampeders spun out these sort of tunes with surprising ease, mixing elements of country music with the sort of sunshine pop production prevalent in the early 70s.Having seasoned themselves in the bars of Western Canada, however, the Stampeders could also put out convincing swamp rock ("Gator Road"), bluesy pop ("You Got To Go" "I Didn't Love You Anyhow"), and rock ("With You I Got Wheels"). Their two U.S. chart follow-ups to "Sweet City Woman" ("Devil You" and "Hit the Road Jack") found them leaning towards glitter (e.g., Slade-type pop) and novelty rock.Like so many bands whose output intersected U.S. popular taste for only one song, there's a deeper, more interesting story to be heard. Collectables fourteen track collection does a fine job of surveying The Stampeders' work, with good sound quality accompanying the label's typically frustrating liner notes (Mark Marymont does an excellent job of describing numerous singles sides that aren't included!). Highly recommended for fans of early-70s sunshine pop, and anyone who loved "Sweet City Woman.""

Sweet City Woman

Wayne J. Adams | Coopersville Michigan | 10/21/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The whole album is fairly upbeat and simple. It is just an easy disc to like. It crosses several music genres, so it does appeal to country and rock and roll lovers."