Words from Jon (Archive April 2001)

alright . it musta been 1993 . in the spring . i'm walkin down larchwood avenue in west philly and i see this tall skinny guy with a richard thompson t-shirt on . turns out he's mike brenner . frontman of the low road, one of philly's best bands at the time . we strike up a conversation based on that t-shirt and a couple weeks later, we're roommates . i'd been living down in texas, playing music . moved to philly to go to school . anyway, the low road practiced in this big house of ours on larchwood . i used to stand at the top of the basement stairs and listen to 'em . sounded pretty wicked .  i don't think mike even knew i played music . i'd stashed my trusty gibson underneath my bed figuring it would only interfere with my academic pursuits . one night,  however, i drank six or seven too many whiskeys and ended up in the basement with mike and some of his musician buddies . slogged our way through a bunch of hank williams and hag covers . a real good time .

 a couple years later (1995), the low road was winding down . mike and i bumped into each other at a peter rowan/jerry douglas gig at the tin angel folk club in philadelphia . of course, peter played guitar and played some of the most beautiful songs we'd ever heard . and douglas dominated his dobro . mike's jaw was on the floor . a couple weeks later, mike and i agreed to get together and try that rowan/douglas thing . me singing and playing guitar . mike just getting started on dobro . first time we played was at mike's parent's house on delancey street . first song we looked at was "dark eyes" by bob dylan . we quickly developed a huge repertoire . mostly covers . hank williams, hag, butch hancock, jesse winchester, steve young, dylan, springsteen, gene clark . inspiring material .

 soon enough mike and i started gigging around town under the name "john train and friends" . played every dive bar that would have us . including bob and barbara's lounge on south street . they hissed at us there . i couldn't blame 'em 'cause we'd interrupted al green on the juke in favor of our urban approximation of "hello stranger" by the carter family . one night, we borrowed a DAT recorder and made a little tape in mike's bedroom . called it "all of your stories" . some covers . some originals from my pile of songs written down in austin .

 in early '96, we played a gig at doc watson's . opening for a great band called "burn witch burn" fronted by rodney anonymous of the dead milkmen . nobody played much attention to us except for the witch's bass player and mandolin guy . steve demarest and bill fergusson, respectively . they stood right up against the stage, staring at us . a few days later, we decided to join forces and become a four piece . many gigs follow .

fall of '96, we head up to boston and record a demo tape with joseph payne, world renowned classical organist . also the father of my college roommate . we cut dozens of songs in the vestibule of their dorchester house . end up putting out another cassette . all originals this time . no title .

 more gigs continue . sometime in '97, we are joined by flying fish recording artist, origami expert, fiddling maestro jay ansill . we start a residency at the northstar bar in fairmount .every wednesday for two years straight . three or four sets a night . tip hat and a couple burgers is the pay . a lotta fun .

 in early '99, we release our debut album on the record cellar label out of bala cynwyd pa . "angels turned thieves" . recorded at longview studios with mike producing . mike brings in some of his low road associates including drummer mark schreiber . "angels" expands our audience . opens some doors . including a performance at the appel farm folk fest in the summer of '99 .

 northstar closes down . so we move our wednesday gig to jack's firehouse which continues to this day . we just completed a new record called "looks like up" . should be out real soon . 

stay tuned .

Jon Houlon, April 2001

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