In a career that started in Vancouver’s independent music scene of the early 1980s, Doug Andrew has shared bills with everyone from The Ramones and The Replacements to Raffi and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Beginning with bands like Shanghai Dog he has continued to write songs and is today recognized as an accomplished singer-songwriter respected by critics, peers and music fans alike. The Edmonton Journal has described his songs as having "slightly twisted, always interesting storyline lyrics" delivered "with an energetic thrust that falls just shy of reckless abandon." SEE Magazine has said his songs "should shuffle him off into the Canadian musical songwriting hierarchy" and the Vancouver Province declared “Andrew is a great songwriter...while The Circus In Flames are his extraordinarily sympathetic band...a weird mix of musical eclecticism built on a dark folklore." Collaborating with Andrew to create The Circus In Flames sound are long time band members Brian Barr on electric guitar and Ed Goodine on drums while the latest musicians to run away and join The Circus are bassist Duncan Chambers and violinist Kenyon Alexander.

Andrew first formed The Circus In Flames when asked to play at a friend's St. Patrick's Day bash in the mid-1990s. Since then the band has toured a number of times, played several music festivals and released critically acclaimed recordings. Veteran Canadian music critic, the late Tom Harrison wrote of their last release, “Andrew’s songs are thoughtful and poetic, sort of like the late, great, Gene Clark...the band’s records are consistently good…Outside America stands as one of the best.” It joins their previous critically acclaimed recordings:

The Circus In Flames

- "Four-stars" (All Music Guide)

- "A strong argument for indie release of the year" (Dirty Linen)

A Little Bit of Gasoline

- "Brilliant. 9 out of 10" (Americana UK)

In 2007 The Circus In Flames joined such artists as Gordon Lightfoot, Blue Rodeo, Corb Lund and former Byrd, Chris Hillman on The Gift: A Tribute To Ian Tyson (Stony Plain Records). The group was honoured to welcome legendary steel guitarist Buddy Cage (New Riders Of The Purple Sage, Great Speckled Bird, Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks) to record with them. The Toronto Star chose their version of the Tyson classic, Someday Soon as the album's Top Track after rating the disc 3½ out of 4 Stars.

Pinning down The Circus In Flames sound can sometimes be difficult. Although there is a certain familiarity about the music, stemming from its roots in traditional country, folk, rock & roll and blues, it also resonates with the influences of gospel, R&B and punk.

“Sheet metal country,” Doug Andrew describes the music. “It bangs and rattles and booms, generally making a fair amount of noise, but it can also be light and quiet. It can go from sounding like a runaway locomotive thundering down the mountain without any brakes to a wind slipping through the forest at midnight.”

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