Biography

Greetings Album Owner!

PF HotSeat here, ready to provide you with useful (?) information about the songs and tunes and general feeling of this new album. The album is called Stupid Mountain Too Big. Yup, that’s what it’s called. Ben came up with the name and idea, and I wrote the song to accompany it. I guess it started as an attempt to write a bunch of songs with faux nostalgia for the things that occupy the mindspace of oh so many country songs – home, trains, love, mountains, old time living, etc. It took a turn somewhere, and we basically have two albums in one – one that hits on this aforementioned conceit, and one that tells a general story of life, from procreation all the way to the inevitable realization of the inconsequential nature of existence. The second one contains some actual nostalgia and sentiment, something we have strayed form a bit as a band, but hey, we’re 17 years old now, on the edge of adulthood, and we have become reflective. Or shiny, we might just be shiny.

We had a lot to say, and hadn’t made an album in nearly 3 years, so it’s a long album, more reminiscent of those that we put out in 2002-3. You may notice some different instrumentation here, you may notice some stripped-down tracks as well. Being all spread out and busy, we have to be spry and improvisational. We tried different arrangements and brought new people into the studio to make up for those that couldn’t make the dates. We said to ourselves, “the time for banjos and accordion has come.” And the skies parted, and black rain fell at our feet. Nevertheless, we persisted.

What makes a band? Is it 5 pairs of legs with accompanying feet? Is it desire? The will to spend a lifetime together, crammed into a moving box or flying tube? Is it the name? It’s probably the name. We’ve had two names, one was questionable, the other one is too. What isn’t questionable is that we are a band, I’ve seen it in print. .38 Special is also a band. You ever heard Hold On Loosely? Or Hang On Sloopy? Never really understood how I could lose control if I was holding on tightly, not until I entered pubescence, anyway.

But hey, you’re not here for that kind of talk, you wanna hear about the songs, amirite? There’s an arc to some of the songs, a separate arc to others, and others stand alone as dots on a featureless plane. All told, I’m envisioning some kind of double banana situation with gnats flying around them, floating gracefully in the vacuum of space. I’d like to see .38 Special write a song about THAT!

Stupid Mountain Too Big.

Climb it if you want, it’s too big.


The Hot Seats:
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6 THINGS ABOUT US

1) We like to play music, stringband music. We call it stringband music because it's just too tedious to try and get into whether it's old time, bluegrass, ragtime, country, or general freakout music.

2) We have done so since 2002, mostly based out of Richmond, VA.

3) We've been lots of places, including all throughout the USA, the UK, Ireland, and a little piece of Europe. Some of our festival highlights have been: Tønder, Celtic Connections, The Shetland Folk Festival, The Orkney Folk Festival, South By Southwest, Floyd Fest, Bristol Rhythm and Roots Festival, The Watermelon Park Festival, The Northeast Kingdom Music Festival, Didmarton Bluegrass Festival, Maverick Festival, HebCeltFest, Speyfest, Leicester Summer Sundae and multiple occasions Edinburgh Festival Fringe (including a Herald Angel Award in 2006).

4) We like to: play fast, be funny, spasm, herk and jerk, eat exotic and frightening things, and ride in a van.

5) We love each other, we love you!

6) We are Ben, Graham, Jake, Josh, and Ed (and sometimes Rudy and/or Will).