Carl Carlton and the Songdogs are a multi-national band with band leader Ca… Read Full Bio ↴Carl Carlton and the Songdogs are a multi-national band with band leader Carl stating clear, "The Songdogs" are subject to change and it's just the name for fellow musicians who join on his musical trips.

Carl Carlton, born 1955 as Karl Walter Ahlerich Buskohl in Irhove, Leer, Germany started his career soon after his 18th birthday and played guitar for wellknown and less-known bands and artists throughout the years: dutch band Vitesse, Manfred Mann's Earth Band,Robert Palmer, Eric Burdon as well as long term working relationships with German Top Artists Peter Maffay and Udo Lindenberg. He names Keith Richards, Ronnie Lane, Ron Wood, Mother's Finest as his main influences, amongst many others.

He also had several own band projects like The Raiders Of The Last Corvette, later called The Raiders or New Legend (produced by Dieter Dierks who has been working for a long time with the Scorpions), who received good critics and had some minor success.

In the early 90s, Carl relocated to Dublin where he lives today part-time, not far down the road from Ronnie Wood. In the beginning of the 00's, Carl used to work with Robert Palmer who finally kicked his ass to start his own project again. Carl Carlton and the Songdogs were born in 2000, releasing their first album in 2001.

The inner circle of the band consists of Carlton, guitarist Moses Mo, bassist Wyzard (of the Atlanta funk group Mother's Finest), and Pascal Kravetz. Temporary Songdogs have included Sonny Landreth, keyboardist Ian McLagan, Levon Helm and Garth Hudson.

The band's first album, Revolution Avenue, was recorded at Dockside Studios in Louisiana. A second LP called Love & Respect was released in 2003 and supported with an extended Radio Promo Tour in Germany.
With more of an international membership than before, the band this time consisted of, in addition to its core members, Robert Palmer, Levon Helm, Sonny Landreth, Jon Smith, The White Trash Horns, Bobby Keys and Xavier Naidoo. Love & Respect was also recorded at Dockside Studios. Martin Huch, a multi-instrumentalist from Hannover, Germany, was soon hired along with Wayne P. Sheehy (a drummer from Dublin, used to work with Ronnie Wood and Cactus World News) for live performances.

It was at the end of the Love & Respect tour that Carlton collapsed from exhaustion due to an unrelenting work schedule. The incident was caught live by television cameras. Several weeks later, in the midst of doing PR for the Drive album, Robert Palmer died suddenly. His last live performance was a guest appearance at a Songdogs concert in Münster, Germany. Originally it was a "rehearsal" gig for the next day's Rockpalast show, where Carl collapsed.

The next Songdogs album, Cahoots & Roots (a live record containing two of Robert's guest songs), was released in 2004.
Carlton began making a fourth album called Songs for the Lost and Brave, whose fifteen tracks explored the many bitter blows dealt to Carlton in recent years. This included a divorce from his second wife. By this time, Zack Alford, a drummer who had played for both Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie, had been added to the band, which was invited by Levon Helm, one of Carlton's closest friends, to record the new album at Helm's studio in Woodstock (NY). One of the album's tracks, a cover of Stephen Stills' classic For What Its Worth, included the voices of Carlton's son, Max Buskohl (finalist in Germany's Idol-version "Deutschland sucht den Superstar"), and Eric Burdon. Carlton and his son also joined together for a track on Klaus Voorman's album called A Sideman's Journey (Voorman is a bassist, graphic designer and former Beatles' sideman). In 2011, Carl Carlton & The Songdogs are again slated to record their latest album at Levon Helm's studio in Woodstock.

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