americana

Long before rising to prominence as leader of the insurgent country group The Jayhawks (and the all-star collective Golden Smog), Gary Louris grew up in Toledo, OH, where he took piano lessons as a youngster. When he was 14, his mother gave him a classical guitar, suggesting he could bring the instrument to parties and become more popular. He started writing songs in college, but it wasn't until he had graduated that he purchased his first electric guitar.

Formed in 1975, although not actually born until 1976, Steve McCormick is the result of a night of passion (or, quite possibly, a perfunctory fumble) between his parents. Just over thirty years on this planet, and over half of them with a guitar in his hand (although not constantly - going to the toilet, bathing, driving, etc. would be difficult). Steve McCormick is a singer/songwriter based near Carlisle, Cumbria, England who wears his musical influences on his sleeve and doesn't try to fit into an idealised image of what any genre should sound like.

Todd Daniel Snider is a singer-songwriter born October 11, 1966 in Portland, Oregon. Best known for his wry humor, Snider has been a fixture on the Americana, alt-country, and folk scene since his debut on MCA, entitled Songs for the Daily Planet, named for the bar where Snider used to play regularly in Memphis. On that album were the minor hits "Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues", a folk song about the early '90's grunge scene, featuring a band that "refused to play", and "Alright Guy", which later became the title cut of Gary Allan's 2001 album.