Rock that could only be formed in the isolation of northern Minnesota

12 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Roots Rock, ROCK: Americana



Details:
Our band has had more names than gigs although we've played together, in one incarnation or another, for the past decade. None of us live in that little Minnesota town anymore. None of us even live in the same town. Making rock 'n roll music has become more like fishing or building model trains or bowling; none of us intend to make it something it's not. We're not going on the road. We're not on the radar. That said, we bowl 200 plus and this record of ours will, in fact, reach out and touch you. We make rock 'n roll music for the same reason that people take up the piano during middle age, for the same reason that people have porches, for the same reason that people have feasts.
Because it's important to have interests and influences that nobody has ever heard of. Not for the sake of obscure knowledge, but instead because your unknown interests and influences enable you to have strange, new ideas about the music you like. We want to be your strange, new idea.
The Merlot Sessions represent the work of three years, several basements, gallons of wine, and the notion that making rock 'n roll music is its own reward. We recorded the songs across time zones: mailing our guitar tracks back and forth until we had paired them with drums, bass, auxiliary noises, and more wine. Finally, we reconvened at Rock-O-Matic Records (Jake's fledgling studio) in Red Wing. Our friend Michael from 'Sleeping in the Aviary' contributed most of the vocals. Then we barbequed along the river.

Ari: Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Percussion

Nart: Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Percussion

Michael: Vocals, Percussion

Jake: Drums, Bass, Keys, Programming