Loverboy guitarist's old band releases 54-year-old album

It's been more than 50 years since Paul Dean's old band, once called Canada, also called The Fox, were together. 

Now, they've returned to the Canadian music scene with a new name and their old music. Canada-Fox has just released a self-titled album recorded about 54 years ago. 

The group, which formed in 1969, toured around Canada, opening for acts including Steppenwolf and The Guess Who, getting to play as part of Festival Express, where the musicians involved travelled across Canada by train. The tour featured Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead and had dates in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary. 

They would eventually go on to their own projects.

Brian Newcombe became a successful session bassist. Clyde Harvey became a jazz musician in Vancouver. Billy McBeth drummed for groups like April Wine and The Guess Who, and Dean became a founding member of the Canadian rock group Loverboy. 

As a pandemic project, Dean decided to resurrect and restore his old band's music, releasing it as a full album this spring. 

Newcombe describes their sound as a little bit rock, a little bit R&B and a little bit psychedelic. 

"We were a bit of everything," he said. 

The group recorded 10 songs in a Toronto studio in 1970 after being picked up by label RCA Canada, but they were quickly dropped.

They officially disbanded in 1971.

McBeth kept the original lacquer acetates of the album, and he later copied it onto a CD. He plays it every three years or so — and he said he's always impressed with the music. 

McBeth called up Dean, who was able to isolate the vocals and instruments from the original two-track stereo, and when it was finally ready, SONY Music agreed to distribute it to streaming services.

"It's like a time capsule that's just been opened," Harvey said. 

"It captures our our youth. It captures the music we were doing at that time, which was pretty energetic, pretty exciting."