the bare hambones

When Mike Marshall was playing mandolin in the band, he would frequently come over on non-practice days for songwriting fun.  A lot of it we threw away and never even played with the rest of the guys.  But every now and then, something would work out.  One beautiful day in the Spring of 2016, we moved my piano outside and he and I fumbled around with a few song ideas on my back patio.  With beers of course. 

I would say we played around with four or five songs that day.  One of his we really liked, and at…

So we're about to release our first single, "Rise and Believe" this week.  The full album release will happen at a live show on Oct 15th at The Brauer House in Lombard.  Recording an album can be quite the process.  There are five steps really: writing, recording, mixing, mastering and packaging.  We feel like we took the longest route possible with all 5 steps.  If you're interested as to why, here's the story.

Step 1: Writing

In July of 2016, we released our 1st album, "Time for Kicking."  Within a week…

So how did this band get started?  I get asked this from time to time, so here it is; for the record.

In June of 2011, I was on vacation with my wife in Australia of all places.  South of Melbourne by about 45 minutes in a condo that we found out upon arrival was in wine country.  After visiting the Winter Wine Festival that day (and passing a sobriety test on site before leaving...Australians really think ahead), we had made dinner in the condo and were enjoying some of the local wine, meats, and cheeses…