One Hundred Dollars could nickname its current jaunt through Western Canada the Better Late Than Never Tour.

The Toronto alt-country outfit released its critically acclaimed, Polaris Music Prize long-listed debut, Forest of Tears, in 2008 and has been gigging around the GTA since 2007, but this is the first time the band has brought its moody, hyper-literate country tunes to our neck of the woods.

The tour has been a long time coming for founders Ian Russell (guitar, vocals) and Simone Schmidt (vocals). You see, shortly after the pair began writing songs together and things began to pick up steam for One Hundred Dollars, Russell received some life-changing news; news that also changed the trajectory of the band.

"We were invited to play SappyFest in Sackville, NB in 2007 - then I got diagnosed with leukemia," Russell, now 32, recalls. "I had to go to the hospital immediately. We wrote songs as best we could at the time, and we actually wrote most of Forest of Tears when I was really sick from chemotherapy."

Determined not to be completely benched by illness, the duo, along with veteran pedal steel player Stew Crookes, continued to play shows whenever possible, as soon as Russell became an outpatient. 

Still, performing wasn't easy on Russell - or on audiences.

"I think it was hard for people to see someone so sick perform," he says. "I had no hair and bug eyes."

"He lost so much weight he had no bum, either," Schmidt, 28, adds with a laugh.

As tough as it could be, keeping up the band provided a much-needed outlet for both Russell and Schmidt during a difficult, frustrating time. (Russell is now in good health and is done with chemo.)

"I think Ian had a good coping release," Schmidt says. "He was focused on creating something outside of the illness. He did it with such grace and it was really cool to watch."

And the perseverance paid off. After catching a show at Toronto's Music Gallery, Rick White (Eric's Trip) offered to record Forest of Tears. Russell recruited his old bandmates from country rock outfit Jon-Rae & The River - Paul Mortimer (bass, guitar), Jonathan Adjemian (organ, wurlitzer) and Dave Clarke (drums) - to help fill out the songs, and the sextet recorded the album live off the floor in a brisk, 13-hour session at White's Elder Schoolhouse studio.

"It was really cool," Russell says. "I'd been a fan of his for years, and I knew he wasn't doing much recording lately."

"I didn't know him at all," Schmidt says. "I had no real assumptions or presumptions. I never really had the ambition of recording an album. I think the way we did it, live off the floor, was better than clocking time in a studio and stressing out because we were playing $60 an hour or something."

"This was good because we wanted to showcase the songs themselves," Russell adds. "We're glad Forest of Tears worked out like this. It's just this band playing these songs."

One Hundred Dollars is touring in support of Forest of Tears, but it's also promoting its new, super-cool Regional Seven Inch project, the second instalment of which was just released on Oct. 13. The singles in the series will be released throughout the country on a variety of labels, each dealing with a subject linked to the region in which a particular label is based (think Fort McMurray's oil industry or Vancouver's gentrification). The songs are meant to open discussion.

"We don't want people to think we're trying to talk for someone else," Schmidt says. "These songs are from the perspective of someone who grew up in Toronto. What do I think about Vancouver? What do I think of when I think of Alberta? It'll be interesting to see what the response is."

ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS
Oct. 29, Pyramid Cabaret