**IMPORT** A Roots/Rock supergroup with Joseph Parsons, Todd Thibaud, Terry Lee Hale & Chris Burroughs. Each have deals in Europe and tour frequently on their own. This project brings them together to forge a new desert style of acoustic music.

13 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Roots Rock, FOLK: Folk Blues



Details:
Chris, Todd and Joseph have a number of albums released in Europe by Blue Rose Records, and Terry Lee has albums out on Glitterhouse. They have all been leaders of their own bands for years and toured Europe extensively. And they are four very different personalities. They knew it would be a challenge but everyone got on with the spirit of a band. None of them can recall exactly when or how they agreed to do this thing together, but they are pretty sure it was all Joseph's idea.

That idea was floating around for a couple of years, and through various meetings and European tours together, the four of them decided to come to Tucson and make a record. It started off fun. Lot's of fun. Todd, Joseph and Terry Lee flew to Tucson to make the record at The Studio, a building at Chris's home that he converted into a recording studio in the summer of 2001. The paint was still drying when everyone converged in Tucson.

So they headed for a Mexican restaurant and got very drunk and joked and laughed all night. All night. That was the night of September 10, 2001. On September 11, of course, the world changed. Like everyone else, they were glued to the TV for most of the day. None of them wanted to play music. But it was their job to make this record, and they only had ten days to do it before everyone flew home. They figured if taxi drivers and bank tellers had to work, they did, too. And screw those bastards, anyway, they can't stop them from doing what they have to do. So late that night they started learning each others songs. And over the next ten days they rehearsed and recorded the Hardpan album.

It was a unique experience for all of them, subtly adapting to each others styles. They recorded every track virtually live. Every lead vocal is live. Most of the back-up vocals and almost all the guitars are live. And even the percussion is live except for one song (no drummers in this group). A couple of songs are even first takes with no overdubs. They are proud of this. Each morning they were still glued to the TV, and nobody slept well for days. And they have to say that they probably drank more than they normally would have under normal circumstances.

Well, maybe, hard to say with this bunch of guys... But they came together and played their best and captured the event. The album has four distinct moods, depending on who is doing the singing. It all worked because they were all playing together, backing each other up as best they could, and putting the world out of their minds for a while to make good music. The next step, of course, is the Hardpan tour, which will begin in Europe in September, 2002. The tour will be mostly in Germany, Italy, Belgium and Holland, maybe France and Scandinavia. This album is being released by Blue Rose in July, 2002.

We can't say yet whether there will be a second Hardpan album, their solo careers keep each of them very busy.