Lost Dakotas was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

alternative country Alternative country, or alternative country rock (sometimes alt-country, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative), is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that differ significantly in style ...

band in the 1990s. The band originally consisted of vocalist Paul Dakota and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Greg McConnell (formerly of Absolute Whores), who began in 1989 as a

busking Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...

duo at the corner of Yonge and Dundas Streets in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Ontario."Dakotas get off street ... and hit highway". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', March 11, 1993. Dakota and McConnell added

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

ist Adam Faux and drummer Ron Duffy for their 1990 debut, ''Love to Play''. Initially released as a limited edition cassette, the album completely sold out in just two days."Gregarious Greg McConnell", ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', May 19, 1999. The band's visuals, including

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

s, album art and animated video clips, were created by artist Erella Vent. 1991's ''Last Train to Kipling'' (a reference to

Kipling station Kipling is the western terminus station of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth of the Toronto subway system. The station is served by buses and subway trains operated by the Toronto Transit Commission and is adjacent to the Kipling GO Station on the Milton ...

on the

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...

's Bloor-Danforth subway line) stayed in the

campus radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produce ...

charts in ''

Chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

'' for over 100 weeks. The album was most noted for a countrified cover of

AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...

's "

Back in Black ''Back in Black'' is the seventh studio album by Australian rock band AC/DC. It was released on 25 July 1980 by Albert Productions and Atlantic Records. It is the band's first album to feature lead singer Brian Johnson, following the death of ...

"."Lost Dakotas found some raunch on new CD". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'', January 20, 1994. In 1992 Faux left to focus work on his previous band Pig Farm and was replaced by Rick O'Brien and later by Tim Bovaconte. The band supported the album with their first full-scale national tour in spring 1993. Their third and final album, ''Sun Machine'', was released in 1993 on Cargo Records."Lost Dakotas find new sound going un-unplugged". ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...

'', December 6, 1994. The album included a cover of

Ned Sublette Ned Sublette (born 1951 in Lubbock, Texas) is an American composer, musician, record producer, musicologist, historian, and author. Sublette studied Spanish Classical Guitar with Hector Garcia at the University of New Mexico and with Emilio Puj ...

's "

Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other" (1981) is a song by Latin music (genre), Latin country musician Ned Sublette, whose music, according to Howard Cohen, features a "Swung note, lilting West Texas waltz (3/4 time at about 60� ...

", 13 years before the song was made famous by

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (197 ...

. At the 1993 Kumbaya Festival, the band performed the song live with rock singer

Lee Aaron Lee Aaron (born Karen Lynn Greening; July 21, 1962) is a Canadian rock singer. She had several hits in the 1980s and early 1990s, such as "Metal Queen", "Whatcha Do to My Body", and "Sex with Love". Early life Aaron was born as Karen Lynn Green ...

as guest vocalist. For their 1994 tour to support that album, the band was also joined by J.C. Orr, formerly of King Apparatus, as a second guitarist. The band's final recording was a cover of Bob Snider's "You" on the 1996 tribute album '' Poetreason: The Songs of Bob Snider''."How EMI signed busker Bob Rags-to-records tale brings Snider to Yellow Door". ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', November 4, 1995. McConnell went on to form Stratochief, but died in 1999. He was replaced by Scott Bradshaw, who performed as the band's vocalist on both of their recorded albums."Scott B. Sympathy lets in a little light". ''

Brantford Expositor The ''Brantford Expositor'' is an English language newspaper based in Brantford, Ontario and owned by Postmedia. It provides the readers with coverage of local news, sports and events to the community as well as coverage of provincial, national a ...

'', May 23, 2002. Erella Vent, now Erella Ganon, continues as an illustrator and writer. Adam Faux currently leads two bands with drummer Topher Stott, Hot Fo Gandhi and The Tiny Specks.

Discography

Albums

* ''Love to Play'' (1990) * ''Last Train to Kipling'' (1991) * ''Sun Machine'' (1993)

Other Appearances

* ''

Kumbaya "''Kum ba yah''" ("''Come by here''") is an African American spiritual song of disputed origin, but known to be sung in the Gullah culture of the islands off South Carolina and Georgia, with ties to enslaved West Africans. The song is thought ...

Album Nineteen Ninety Four'' (1994) - includes a live recording of "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly" * ''Poetreason: The Songs of Bob Snider'' (1996) - includes a live recording of "You"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Dakotas Musical groups established in 1989 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian alternative country groups Canadian buskers 1989 establishments in Ontario Musical groups disestablished in 1996