Saltydog, Duluth’s funky psychedelic improvisational sextet, has one of its biggest shows yet this Friday, headlining Turf Club in Saint Paul with Chicago’s jam rockers Hot Like Mars and Duluth duo Between Howls.
Owen Mahon, the band’s singing drummer, chatted with Jam in the Stream via FaceTime Monday about the band’s upcoming plans, which include dropping the band’s third LP at Friday’s show, efforts already underway to plan their next album, and confirmation that the band would be restarting a month of Monday night shows at Duluth’s Bent Paddle Brewing in February.
Chicago’s Hot Like Mars have impressed a lot of folks that know good improvisational rock when they hear it — including Owen Mahon. PHOTO PROVIDED BY HOT LIKE MARS
At the heart of Saltydog (formerly New Salty Dog) are the brothers Mahon — Owen and guitarist Jacob. They bring a folksy, cowboy sensibility to the project that has some modern Little Feat and The Band vibes, among many other influences.
Rounding out the band are guitarist Sam Deters, bassist Calvin “Calzone” Lund, keyboardist Gavin St. Clair, and the band’s elder, percussionist Bryan “Lefty” Johnson.
Owen Mahon said Runnin’ Again — the follow-up to 2024’s Pepper — has nine songs, all of which the band has debuted live in recent years. At least two of those songs — “Slippery Dog” and “Get Set” have been played live regularly.
Friday’s release is somewhat of a soft release as the album will only be available via a limited CD run and via digital codes. The album won’t be available on the streaming services until Feb. 2, he said.
The cover of Runnin’ Again. Artwork by Heidi Feroe
“The plan is to eventually get vinyl pressed,” he said.
The album was recorded a year ago by Charlie French.
“I think Lefty says this a lot: It is hard to please the six-headed dragon,” he said. “There are six different people with different tastes about how this is supposed to go. We did what we could in working together. A reason why it took so long is we wanted to make sure everyone is happy.”
The band already had a planning session for the next record scheduled this week.
“I have some tunes I am going to bring,” he said. “Jacob has a shitload of tunes that he could bring. We are always trying to experiment with writing as a group and jamming.”
That begged a question that I have had for a while now, having listened to several of this band’s live shows on Bandcamp and having seen them dozens of times in recent years: How many songs do they have that are just unpublished? They have a deeper well of original material than a pair of LPs would suggest.
“It would be hard for me to know that exact number,” he said. “There are songs that we have played only a handful of times.”
He noted that an early iteration of this band was Jacob Mahon and the Saltydogs, which did release an album that is not available for streaming but has Saltydog staples such as “Done and Done” and “Old People.”
Owen Mahon at The Cabooze on Dec. 26.
As for Friday’s show, Owen was pretty stoked about Hot Like Mars, a band that has really blown a lot of people away in a short amount of time down in the Chicago area.
“They are funky,” he said. “They are inspiring. I got to see them at the Driftless Music Gardens. My socks were completely knocked off — I had to go find them in the woods. They were gone. … I am excited we get to share the night with them. A lot of people don’t know about them. We have been telling our friends.”