Shotgun

Shotgun were a country band from Oshawa, Ontario, and in the early 1980s they were the main attraction at The Corral, the Oshawa club where they worked as house band. By the end of 1983 they had held the job for more than a year. The Corral booked name headliners now and then, but Shotgun on their own could pack the room.

There was no frontman. Every member sang, lead vocals moved around the stage, and the band slid from country ballads to rock and roll, two-steps and the Nova Scotia shuffle, changing the set to suit whoever was on the dance floor. They dressed sharp and played like a show band. One early champion was Joe Frechette, program director at CHOO in Ajax, who had sung with the Beaumarks and run Beechwood Music in Canada before moving into radio.

The early lineup was Brian Twaites on bass and vocals, Rusty Walker on steel guitar, Cam Kingelin on drums and Roy Penney on guitar. Penney, born in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, in 1935, had been one of the most admired country guitarists in the country since the 1960s, first with the Blue Valley Boys and then on a long run of Arc Records sessions. The four also worked together away from the Corral, backing Newfoundland singer Billy Dinn on his 1984 album Buttons in the Wind.

Pat Riccio Jr., a Durham Region local who was then music director for Anne Murray, produced Shotgun's first session in 1983. The first release was 'Shotgun', an instrumental by Walker and Penney that became the band's signature. Country programmers liked it enough that when Twaites's 'Love Bandit' came out that November on the band's own Double Barrel label, 'Shotgun' went on the flip. 'Love Bandit' was already a Corral request. Riccio also recorded Twaites's 'Fool in the Palm of Your Hand' at the Grange in Toronto; the recording was later included on Turning Point.

By 1985 Penney had moved to guest status, and Shotgun were Twaites, Walker, Kingelin, guitarist Neal Mattice and keyboardist Steve Woolhead. That June they teamed up with Cyril Rawson, a Peterborough songwriter and old friend who was starting to make his name in Nashville. Rawson brought a half dozen songs, most of them written with J. Gulley, and his publishing partner Tony Migliore, a Nashville session keyboardist, produced the sessions at Chelsea Studio. Rawson and Penney played guitar on the record alongside Nashville players Jim Peccia, John Maydem and Jerry Kroon.

Turning Point appeared on Double Barrel in 1985. Twaites, Walker, Kingelin and Woolhead all took lead vocals, the two Toronto recordings were folded in, and the album closed with 'Shotgun'. Frechette wrote the liner notes, dated June 25, 1985, confessing that in 27 years as a musician, songwriter, record executive and broadcaster, Shotgun were the first act to make him a fan. The band promoted the record with dates at the Yellow Rose in Cambridge and the Birchmount in Toronto.

How long Shotgun lasted after Turning Point is not yet known. Rawson went on to a long songwriting career in Nashville. Rusty Walker has since died, and Roy Penney died on June 6, 2025, at 89.

-Robert Williston