CANADIAN Roots and ragtime band My Sweet Patootie will play Dorchester Corn Exchange tomorrow. (12).

The gig will feature Canadian folk music award winners Sandra Swannell and Terry Young along with Devon percussionist John Jackson.

This show is a split bill with the FB Pocket Orchestra.

My Sweet Patootie embraces the fun that makes live music so intoxicating. With a sly wink and a grin, they draw you into a world of carnival barkers and nostalgic romantics, making you feel like you're a part of it all. Shades of vintage country blues, folk, ragtime and swing collide in an uplifting vaudeville-style show performed with tight vocal harmonies, instrumental virtuosity, and humorous storytelling.

It's a unique musical experience that transcends the borders of the acoustic-roots genre, promising to entertain music lovers of all kinds.

The group's sound is heavily influenced by the likes of Chet Atkins, Stéphane Grappelli, and the Andrews Sisters. Throw in the group's penchant for a fierce fiddle tune, lighthearted satire and their love of artists like Patsy Cline, and you get a sound that has been compared to American groups like Dan Hicks & His Hot-Licks and The Squirrel Nut Zippers.

How did a band from Canada find a drummer from Brixham? “We met online,” laughed the group’s fiddle player/vocalist Swannell. “It was like an online dating service...but for musicians.” At 6’5", percussionist John Jackson towers above his Canadian bandmates, who take great delight in grandly introducing him to audiences as “the World’s Tallest Patootie”.

The band's name My Sweet Patootie is a slang term of endearment which became popular in North America the 1920s meaning a 'hot dame' or a 'sassy sweetheart'. The name was chosen to capture the vintage flavour of the band’s music as well as the satirical edge in much of their songwriting. Several ragtime titles from the jazz-age use the expression, but most significantly for Young and Swannell was "Sweet Patootie Blues" (1928) by Arthur "Blind" Blake, who was well known for his complex and intricate fingerpicking, much like Young’s own guitar style.

*My Sweet Patootie, Dorchester Corn Exchange, Wednesday September 12, 8pm. Contact Dorchester Arts for tickets.