• Posted on Jun 28th 2011 4:00PM by Kenneth Partridge
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Rolling Stone

Provided Larry the Cable Guy knows how to work a computer, the Sheepdogs can count on at least one vote in the final round of Rolling Stone’s Cover Contest, an epic battle to decide who graces the front of the venerable rock rag’s Aug. 18 issue. Voting ends at midnight on July 1, and the winner — who also gets a deal with Atlantic Records — will be announced Aug. 1 on ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.’

“Sheepdogs look right out of 1971,” Larry recently told Fallon, right after the Canadian five-piece went head to head with singer-songwriter Lelia Broussard, the Rolling Stone contest’s other finalist, on the talk show’s ‘Battle of the Instant Bands’ segment. “They were awesome. I love them.”

Days earlier, Broussard and the Sheepdogs made their cases by performing atBonnaroo, an opportunity they earned by surviving three elimination rounds and outlasting the 14 other acts picked by Rolling Stone editors from an initial pool of 1,200. As the field has shrunk from 16 to eight to four to two, Broussard and the ‘Dogs have remained crowd favorites, beating out rappers, rockers and everyone in between.

For the benefit of swing voters still unsure of who to vote for, here’s one last rundown on the candidates.

Broussard is just 21 years old, but the folk-pop songstress has already been through the industry ringer. Although she’s enjoyed a publishing deal, released four albums and auditioned for “just about every label there is,” as she told Spinner, she’s yet to catch her big break. Also of note: She used to play shows with a pre-fame Lady Gaga, and while she’s yet to don a meat dress, she’s got a thing for war paint. At Bonnaroo, her “Team Lelia” supporters showed up rocking facial stripes of their own.

Rolling Stone contributing editor Toure has praised Broussard’s charisma and sweetness, and guest judge Patrick Stump likes that she smiles a lot. She’s got a song called ‘Hipster Bitch,’ but she’s too busy singing to put anybody down.

The Sheepdogs come from way up north, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, but they rock like they’re from way down in Dixie. Playing “spot the influences” with these guys is easier than hunting moose with a bazooka, but singer Ewan Currie makes no bones about his love for the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

“You’ve got to play in the style that inspires you,” Currie told Rolling Stone contributing editor Christian Hoard. “We try to replicate sound and things from the songs that we love. I feel that we do it very genuinely, because it’s from a place of love.”

At Bonnaroo, Currie didn’t inspire anyone to show up with face paint, but he bummed a lighter from a fan in the front row and used it to open beer, demonstrating some rock-star cool and old-fashioned prairie resourcefulness.

Later, drummer Sam Corbett told Rolling Stone he’d like to one day play Bonnaroo’s main stage, where one can imagine the Sheepdogs following fellow modern-day Southern rockers My Morning Jacket. “We never knew anything like this was possible,” Corbett said, “so anything’s possible.”