The 'T' in The Trews could stand for “tireless.” With four albums in seven years, two of them gold; 10 Top10 singles, two of them #1 and one gold; multiple awards for best single, video and live group; and, close to 800 live shows under its belt, including support slots for the Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, Guns N’ Roses, Nickelback and KISS, the Canadian rock band never rests.

The Trews — comprised of lead vocalist Colin MacDonald, his brother, guitarist John-Angus MacDonald, cousin/drummer Sean Dalton and long-time friend, bassist Jack Syperek — keep pushing themselves in the studio and onstage, always ready to give an intuitive and intense rock ‘n’ roll show of songs that have killer hooks, such as “Hold Me In Your Arms” from the band’s latest studio album No Time For Later. The song, whose video rose to #1 on national television station MuchMusic, achieved gold status for sales of 20,000-plus digital downloads. The U.S. Indie Music Awards declared it 2009’s Best Hard Rock Song.

“If you want to keep making records that are at all interesting or fun to listen to, you gotta go places,” says John-Angus of how the band steadily increases its fanbase year to year, album to album.

And go places they have. Following No Time For Later, The Trews decided to do something totally different — an acoustic CD/DVD. Recorded at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Theatre over two days, Friends And Total Strangers reinvents their classic hits and intersperses some unreleased rarities and new songs. Released in October 2009, they backed it up with a 30-date sold-out acoustic tour and the DVD was just nominated for a coveted Juno Award (Canada’s Grammy’s).