Throw on a Grady record and you’ll hear rock, country, metal and the occasional accordion.

And not just on one album – often it’s within the same song.

“It’s just really the stuff we dig,” said front man Gordie Johnson. “This is the stuff I’m around every day.”

Johnson, the former front man for Canadian rock band Big Sugar, headed south to Texas about six or seven years ago. Caught up in the daily collision of music genres – Austin boasts a music scene that caters to cowboys, metalheads, rednecks and punk rockers simultaneously – Johnson took those influences and formed Grady.

With “Big” Ben Richardson on bass and Nina Singh on drums, the trio belts out a sound which the industry can’t categorize and writers and commentators have dubbed cowboy metal, cowpunk and – wait for it – shredneck.

But Johnson said it’s not about hitting any random music style out there – you’re not going to hear a Japanese instrument thrown in for no reason.

“We just cover the ones we like,” Johnson said.

Grady heads out on a seven-week tour in support of their new album, Good as Dead, set for release on Oct. 20. The album pays homage to Johnson’s Alberta roots and covers the classic Tragically Hip song Boots or Hearts.

Johnson wrote Alberta Bones while sitting on the porch at his home in Alberta – patriotism for his birth country is never something Johnson’s been shy about.

“If I play O Canada, I’ll play it really loud,” he said. “Texas really suits my personality that way.”

Good As Dead was recorded at Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Studio in Spicewood, Texas.

“His family just gave me a key to the place,” Johnson said. “He’s [Nelson] just not nice to us, he’s nice to the entire human race.”

Grady covered Nelson’s Whiskey River, which Johnson says is considered sacred ground in Texas. Rather than play it Nelson’s way, they went an entirely new direction and “de-Grady-ed” it.

“We sent it to him,” Johnson said. “We haven’t heard back, which is probably a good thing.”

Grady brings their new songs – and selections from their two previous albums – to the Queen’s tonight (Oct. 8). Johnson’s reputation for cranking the volume goes back to his Big Sugar days.

“That’s the kind of show I like,” he said. “I just want to get an entire body stone from it.

“Or I could stay home and listen to the album on the stereo.”

Johnson also hosts a free guitar clinic at Long and McQuade on Metral Drive at 6 p.m. Johnson plays Gibson guitars and the clinics allow fans to know more about his guitar choice and playing style.

“People can’t really ask me questions at the shows,” he said. “At some of these things I just sit and talk.”

For more information on the guitar clinic, please call 250-390-4771.

Tickets to Grady are $18/advance from Lucid, Tranceformations, Music Maxx and the Queen’s, or $25 at the door.

Please visit www.shadygrady.net.

arts@nanaimobulletin.com