Steel Toe Boots
Good old boys from the North shore - North Shore band Steel Toe Boots (left to right: Dave Hartney, Steve Costello, Torben Brown, Garett Vergides, David Borys) recently released their first album, Cross the Line.
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Updated: July 02, 2009 11:46 AM
For the past eight years David Borys drank with the crowd at one of Canada’s largest country music showdowns — but this year he’ll be on the other side of the stage.
The 27-year-old Lynn Valley native, along with his four Steel Toe Boots bandmates, will be playing in front of 9,000-plus festival-goers at the Merritt Mountain Music Fest on July 9.
Since the country-rock band’s formation three years ago, the group has annually applied to play at the musical bonanza but with no luck.
“Third time’s a charm,” chirped Borys, the band’s acoustic guitar player.
Borys, electric guitar player Dave Hartney and bass player Garett Vergides are all North Shore boys.
When they turned 19, they hit up Langley’s country bars for gigs. Clubs like Roosters Country Cabaret in Pitt Meadows bustled with dancers and drinkers, and live bands were the heart of the frenzy, a factor that drew Hartney to the music genre. Two years after university the two Daves put together a five-piece band, with Steve Costello on drums and Torben Brown singing and playing the guitar and banjo.
Since then the band has played at bars and fairs across Western Canada.
In March the band released its first album “Cross the Line.” The band’s CD debut is chock full of songs about love, drinking and traveling — “life stuff,” Borys said, adding that is the staple of country music.
While rock and roll focuses on weekend events, country captures the weekdays, he explained.
On Thursday, July 9, at Merritt the band strikes its first cord at 1 a.m., when the outdoor music festival should be in full swing. The stage is set beside the beer garden, Hartney noted.
Once they’ve finished he plans to be in the thick of it, the only logical step for a band that proudly boosts to have been created during an alcohol-fueled trip to Whistler.
“Literally we are going to put the gear in the car and enjoy the show like everybody else,” Hartney said.
To learn more about Steel Toe Boots, visit thesteeltoeboots.com.
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