DOGZ UPDATE:

So here we are, already thinking about 2010 and our new tour -
UP CLOSE AND PERISCOPE (for a list of dates so far click here ).

On a personal note, this has been an interesting and surprising year for all of us
- we are all now unexpectedly on dry land, having spent many years
living on boats on the Grand Union canal. John's boat sank (yes,
seriously!) and Willy and Mary have been travelling back and forwards to the
UK from Portugal and France. We are all looking forwards with no small
degree of interest to where life might lead us next......

On a professional note, recording of the new album, ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD,
is coming along well and we are all very excited about the filming of
our first 'proper' DVD, which we hope will be on sale during our Spring tour.

For those of you who already know (and love?) what we do, we hope to see
you at one of the gigs lined up for the Spring.

For those of you who haven't got a clue what we are about, have a read of the
early review below - we find it is easier to let other people interpret our performance
style and this piece seems to sum us up quite well. If you want to know more you can
check us out on MySpace, or better still .......... COME AND SEE US LIVE!

Sleeping Dogz @ The Plough, Great Torrington, by Dave Gibbons:

"Willy Barrett says he isn't "Wild" anymore: just livid. Those that turned out on a Thursday night to see his band Sleeping Dogz were split fairly evenly between those who knew what to expect and those who frankly didn't have a clue but nevertheless found themselves on the receiving end of a thouroughly entertaining and highly original performance from three seriously talented musicians.

Barrett himself is still best known for his previous partnership with the equally indefinable John Otway ('Beware of the flowers 'cos I'm sure they're gonna get you', for example) but he has moved on since the heady days of the 70s. He is, however, one the most accomplished multi-instrumentalists working today and played amazingly dextrous blues, neo-spanish, jazz, rock and folk with aplomb, barely sneaking a look at the fretboard of his guitar as he did so.

But it's a band. The classically trained Mary Holland plays cello, keyboards and sings wonderfully whilst fielding her bandmates' rather twisted sense of humour and John Devine, when he is not fixating on nurses and mooses (best not to ask) matches Barrett's fluency on uilleann pipes, flute, keyboards and an array of percussion.

The stand out for me was 'Train had Gone' with its audience participation shout of 'chicken', but it is hard to single out individual pieces. 'Please don't throw me to the Christians' is a corker, as is 'Gypsies Too', but even the most straight forward songs have a twist which renders them special. 'Old Joe Coral' is a white boy's mountain blues about bookmakers - and mighty fine it is too. And for sheer panache, you can't beat doing the encore before the last song in the set .....

It is a shame there weren't more people at the Plough to see this but with any luck by next time the word will have spread and more of us will be there to witness the godfather of grunge folk. Or is it acoustic punk? Even Livid Willy Barrett doesn't know, but he's open to suggestions."

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