SOMETHING For Kate frontman Paul Dempsey and Canadian rockers The Sheepdogs have joined the line-up for next year's Gum Ball music festival.
Dashville's premier festival returns to Lower Belford in the Hunter Valley on April 21 to 23.
The second line-up announcement also includes atmospheric Melbourne songstress Ainslie Wills, Brisbane jazz sextet First Beige, Western Australian old school psych-rockers Datura4, Melbourne punk trio Cable Ties, Newcastle's Ben Leece & Left Of The Dial, Sydney psych band Velvet Trip, funky Novocastrians Saylor & The Flavor, and the 10-piece SPUZ.
They join the already-announced '90s US grunge legends Mudhoney, Party Dozen, The New Christs, Full Flower Moon Band, Darren Hanlon, Flowertruck, Wilsn, Turtle Skull, Rum Jungle, Boomchild, Trip Fandino, Tall Shaun & The Resolution Blues, Cormac Grant Band and Daphzie.
Dempsey is well known by Hunter music fans as the songwriter of one of the most acclaimed Australian bands of the late '90s and 2000s. Something For Kate's many hits include Monsters and Deja vu.
Dempsey has also enjoyed success as a solo artist through his ARIA top-five albums Everything Is True and Strange Loop.
The Sheepdogs may be less known by Australian audiences but they'll arrive at Gum Ball with an impressive pedigree. The band was formed in Saskatoon in 2004 and famously became the first unsigned band to feature on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Across their seven albums The Sheepdogs have won four Juno Awards (Canada's version of the ARIAs) and scored 11 top-20 songs including three No.1 singles in Canada as they've impressed with their '70s-style southern rock which is inspired by Crosby, Stills & Nash and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
They last toured Australia in 2012, supporting Creedence frontman John Fogerty.
Meanwhile, Dashville will be getting in the festive spirit on Saturday as they host the Dashville Christmas Weekender.
Along with markets, picnics and Santa photos, there will be a day of all-local live music, featuring Ben Leece, Johnston City, Piper Butcher, Lachlan X. Morris and more.
