CATALPA SONG OF THE DAY: “THE WAY IT IS” BY THE SHEEPDOGS

The Sheepdogs should bring warm feelings of Woodstock to Randall’s Island when they play the Catalpa Festival on Saturday afternoon. The bluesy psychedelic rockers, who hail from Saskatoon, Canada, know how to keep on choogling with their rollicking good-time music, as they’ve shown on such records as 2007’s Trying to Grow and 2010’s Learn & Burn and an exhausting touring schedule. But singer-guitarist Ewan Currie, guitarist Leot Hanson, bassist Ryan Gullen, and drummer Sam Corbett, LP lovers all, took a giant leap forward last summer when they were voted onto the cover of Rolling Stone, the first unsigned band to achieve that honor. The victory came with an Atlantic Records contract; their eponymous major-label debut is set for release September 4, but the first song, “The Way It Is,” is available now. The Sheepdogs will be taking over the 2nd Stage at Catalpa at 5:00 on July 28, following the Demos and before Umphrey’s McGee. For an interview with the festival’s founder, Dave Foran, go here.