Six years have passed since I last posted on my website and a lot has changed since then. Most notably over the past six months I have been playing bass guitar for a new band in town called Camp Atlas & The Counselors. In the time since last posting on this website I have spent a lot of timing singing and playing guitar on my own at various venues, most often the local farmer’s markets where I ran into Atlas Rudder, who also featured several Grateful Dead songs in his farmer’s market sets. One day last fall he sends me a text asking if I knew anyone who played bass and wanted fifty bucks for a gig. A quick response letting him know that I myself would like to fill the bill and I was in the band. Atlas had already pulled in pianist Claire Kerschner and drummer Rodrigo Cuya, fitting me in as a piece that made for a complete musical group.
The October gig at The Fairfield in the basement Barrel Room went smashingly and we continued to play together into the winter months, learning some songs Atlas had already written, one track that I wrote several years ago, sitting on it until the right group came along to help me put some meat on its bones, and writing a few new songs as an ensemble. In February we spent a long Saturday at Plum Tree Audio in the snowy Indiana countryside, recording the first two tracks of our first release. Our first songs as a band. Kick Rocks and Touch the Sea feel like two sides of a coin, both contain the vivacity this group holds and each is a unique piece unto itself. I am personally very happy with how these songs turned out and I hope you are too.
I feel like we are making the music that I have been wanting to hear for the last decade or so. There’s something about the energy in the room when we play, the way we are able to key off each other and know what to play simply because it’s what should be played. I’m writing this right after we finished recording an episode of Meet the Music with Julia Meek to broadcast on 89.1 WBOI radio in the next six to eight weeks. It was another smashing success and I look forward to sharing that broadcast when it airs. Until then give a listen to our first single and get ready for the full album release this summer!
