The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir were a Canadian alternative rock band that formed in 1985 in Toronto.

History

The band consisted of vocalist Kate Fenner, vocalist and organist Chris Brown, vocalist and guitarist Andrew Whiteman, guitarist Chris Miller, saxophone and vocalist Chris Plock, bassist Jason Mercer, drummer Gregor Beresford, and guitarist and vocalist Peter Mercier when all of the founding members were high school classmates. Vocalist Dave Wall joined the band in 1988, and vocalist and saxophonist Gene Hardy joined in 1989.

They released three independent cassettes: First Taste of Bourbon in 1987, If Hell Had a Houseband in 1989 and Sister Anthony in 1990. The single "Put Your Head On" b/w "As Right as They Want to Be" (1990), produced by Bob Wiseman and recorded at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, attracted the attention of film director Bruce McDonald, who included it on the soundtrack to his 1991 film Highway 61. Both songs were later available on the CD reissue of Sister Anthony in 1995, although the original version of "As Right as They Want to Be" was replaced with a live version.

With the exposure they gained from "Put Your Head On", the band signed to the independent label Yonder Records, and released Superior Cackling Hen in 1992. The singles "Make Amends", "Afterglow" and "Original Grin" were all hits on campus and modern rock radio stations in the next year.

Following the release of Superior Cackling Hen, Whiteman left the band in 1993. Despite strong critical reviews, however, an expected mainstream breakthrough did not materialize, as the band's manager pursued a strategy of keeping them off the road at first, in the hope of allowing market demand for their live show to build up so that he could book the band into larger venues than they had previously played.

A CD reissue of Sister Anthony was also released in 1995.

Following Shy Folk, the band relocated to New York City to make its final bid for commercial success in the larger American market, but instead the band soon broke up.

In 2008, the band played a reunion show at the Hillside Festival in Guelph on July 26, 2008 at the insistence of the festival's director Sam Baijal. He felt it was important that they headline the festival's 25th anniversary. The reunion lineup consisted of Brown, Fenner, Miller, Mercer, Wall, Hardy, Whiteman and Bona.

Discography

  • A First Taste of Bourbon (1985)
  • If Hell Had a Houseband (1987)
  • Sister Anthony (1990)
  • Superior Cackling Hen (1992)
  • Shy Folk (1995)
  • Simply the Best 1985–1995 (2000)

References

  • Bourbon Tabernacle Choir unofficial website