Live Review The Sheepdogs Steve Hill - La Belle Angele Edinburgh 12th September 2026

The Sheepdogs have been working hard and gigging relentlessly since 2006, including regular trips to Scotland, but surprisingly, they haven’t come by Edinburgh before. They know it’s the capital but, as Ewan Currie said “we don’t base our tour schedule on where the government is at - like those guys are rock & rollers, right?” Smartly, they had booked a day off after the gig so that they could enjoy Scotland’s most beautiful city and the gods rewarded them with a fine chilly but sunny day. The cold never bothered them anyway – they’re from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.



Before the ‘dogs, there was their friend Steve Hill. Like Leo Sayer, he’s a one-man band, and he delivered some very fine award-winning blues rock all on his own. He’s quite a sight to see; playing both snare and bass drum with his feet and tapping on the cymbals with a drum stick which is fused onto the head of his flying-V guitars. There was also a tambourine positioned about waist high, and I did wonder what he was going to use to play that, but he didn’t.

Steve is far from a novelty act though. He makes a very fine noise and rips up a storm with hard-riffing guitar work, a bit of slide and some fine soloing, backed up with authentic and impressive vocals. He has a Juno award in the cupboard and a very good selection of songs including some from his most recent ‘Hanging on a String’ album and ‘Out of Phase’ from his first album. He finished with ‘Voodoo Chile’ to wrap up a very interesting and cost-effective set.

The Sheepdogs bring some impressive facial hair and a big fat five-piece sound to the stage. It must take a lot of effort to make music like this seem effortless. They have a huge arsenal of retro-style rock songs, incorporating shades of The Allman Brothers and other Southern stars in their soulful and rootsy Canadian sound.

They are youthful and modern but I did hear one guy in the crowd say “these guys are great but they should have been born fifty years earlier”. He needn’t have worried; the band are doing just fine in the modern era and have a hatful of Juno and other awards, including for the song ‘Feeling Good’, which is their signature tune.

Ewan Currie handles the vocals and front-man duties with aplomb and is probably the best dressed Sheepdog, inter-playing well with lead guitarist Ricky Paquette. Ewan’s brother Shamus Currie is a bit of a secret weapon. He mostly adds keyboards and backing vocals, but steps up to be part of a triple-threat guitar attack on songs like ‘Nobody but You’ and, in the city where ‘Sex Education’ actor Ncuti Gatwa went to school, he is also a ‘tromboner’ on one song.

They mix memorable and punchy songs with meandering showcases for their musicality. Briefly, it gets a bit ‘Aristocats’ jazzy and it might have needed an actual sheepdog to get them back in the pen, but they get down (Shep) with the best of them. ‘Southern Dreaming’ and ‘Downtown’ are highlights, as is the title track of their newest album ‘Keep Out of the Storm’ which is well-represented in the setlist.

I hope the Saskatoon boys enjoyed it as much as the Edinburgh crowd did and there was certainly more than ‘one man and his dog’ in the club that had a great time. it would be great to (sheep) dip into their music again if they come back to these parts.