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Four years after the Co-Dependents’ live album became a runaway bestseller at indie record stores in Alberta, a second disc is on its way to retail.
Simply titled Live At The MeccaCafe Vol. 2, it captures the high-voltage ensemble slicing through the annals of vintage rock ‘n’ roll with the kind of aplomb and integrity that sets them apart from other North American groups who’ve chosen to mine that particular vein.
Putting a hammerlock on tunes that were hits for the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, John Lennon, chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, lead singer Billy Cowsill was in exceptional form that night. Unfortunately, their venue, a double wide café that sat on the westerly outskirts of Calgary, went up in flames a year later in July 2002.
Cowsill, who has not been able to commit himself to any kind of performance schedule for the last few years due to health problems, had played the role of mentor to bassist Tim Leacock, drummer Ross Watson and Steve Pineo for a number of years before they all came together as a group in the mid-‘90s.
By the time tape rolled for these dates, the Co-Dependents were arguably the tightest roots music outfit in Western Canada. Streams of spot-on harmonies and background vocals cinched choruses or stacked the intros on tunes like Only The Lonely, Return To Sender and Chains. Pineo also lays down a couple of streamlined guitar solos in the 18-song collection that unearths a remake of Think On It, which carried over from Cowsill’s days as driving force in the Blue Shadows, Live at the Mecca Café Vol. 2, is available at Megatunes on Whyte Avenue.
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