TORONTO, April 21,2011 –Take one of Canada's hottest country fiddle players, a guitarist that’s a cross between Tom Morello and Kevin Breit, a percussionist that plays saw blades and cookie sheets, and the most versatile double-bass player in Canada and you get New Country Rehab. With their debut album released in Canada on January 11, 2011, and upcoming cross Canada festival tour as well as U.S. fall dates and a January 2012 European tour,  Toronto’s New Country Rehab is ready to take new audiences by storm.

Formed by John Showman, Ben Whiteley, James Robertson and Roman Tome, the band’s unique outlaw indie-country sound channels Hank Williams Sr. as much as Arcade Fire, creating exciting new music that’s winning a rabid and rapidly-growing fan base. As Tom Power, host of CBC Radio’s Deep Roots show explains, “They’re one of the few bands that the hardest of old-folkies and the hippest of hipsters can agree on. Combining virtuosity with taste, they’re poised to be the ‘next big thing’ in Canadian Music.”

The self-titled album, recorded by producer Chris Stringer (Ohbijou, Timber Timbre) highlights the group’s strong original compositions and deep musical palette. The song-writing is defined by themes of death, love and loss, written in the folk-country storytelling tradition. John Showman weaves songs together often based on real people he has encountered in his life.  Bury Me is a dying man’s lament for a grave next to that of his true love. Cameo, tells the story of a woman who escaped Nazi Germany on skis, through the mountains, which is paralleled by her granddaughter’s later escape from an untenable situation. The Last Hand recounts a gambler’s final game as he crosses paths with “The Cowboy”, a colourful and notorious figure that John came to know in Southern Florida.  The band takes the listener on a boisterous journey, from the Queens-of-the-Stone-Age-meets-Doc-Watson original track Angel of Death to the menacing State Trooper (an interpretation of the seminal Bruce Springsteen song, complete with Police sirens and car crashes). New Country Rehab move with ease through Post-modern surf-rock in The Houses In This Town Are All Falling Down, dub reggae in a 7/8 reinvention of Hank Williams Sr.’s Ramblin’ Man and disco-imbued instrumentals in the once old-time Appalachian tune,Train 45.