The Smalls
| The Smalls | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
| Genres | heavy metal, Hardcore Punk |
| Years active | 1989–2001, 2014 |
| Labels |
Cargo Outside Music |
| Associated acts | Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans, Hobbins (Dug Bevans) and Secret Rivals (Terry Johnson). |
| Website | thesmalls |
| Past members | Mike Caldwell Corb Lund Dug Bevans Terry Johnson |
The Smalls are a Canadian hard rock/metal band formed in 1989 in Edmonton. They were influenced by jazz, hardcore punk, speed metal and country music. They were one of the most prominent Alberta bands in the second wave of performers that came out of the Canadian west coast DIY scene that was first ushered into Alberta by the iconic hardcore punk band SNFU in the mid-1980s.
Formed in 1989, the band featured original members Derek Bevans and "Carigh" Brown until 1990. Later on, the line-up consistently included vocalist Mike Caldwell and bassist Corb Lund from the town of Taber, Alberta, guitarist Dug Bevans from Leduc, Alberta and drummer Terry Johnson from the northern Alberta town of La Glace. The four met while attending Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton, where Caldwell, Lund and Johnson were taking classes in music, and Bevans was taking art courses.
The band showed unusual technical ability right from its inception, and was known for the buzzing speed guitar attack of Dug Bevans and arching vocal style of lead singer Mike Caldwell, whose wide vocal range is well showcased in the band's cover of Natural Woman as it appeared on their last release, My Dear Little Angle. Caldwell was known for his considerable vocal skills as well as his unassuming stage manner and refusal to banter with audiences. Corb Lund is more recently known for his work with his roots and country project Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans.
The band was probably best categorized as a hard rock or metal band, but because of its association with the DIY Punk Rock scene of the 1980s and 1990s the band never shook the Punk Rock label. In spite of this label, every album featured a straight jazz number or faithful covers of rock standards such as Middle of the Road (Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde) and songs featuring a variety of styles including country, swing and salsa style jazz breaks that were embedded in the band's signature hard rock/metal sound.
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