Jon and I started the Trout Band on the steps of Spanky's in Chapel Hill in 1993. We recorded the original Trout Band tape with 8 songs in 1994, Alan Spruyt joined on drums halfway through the project, and stayed with us on drums for the next 3 years. We played constantly in Chapel Hill, and did a little bit of travelling. Doug Largent and Justin Meyer played bass on the first record, and Doug has worked with us on all of the other recordings. In the early days when Doug was playing bass with us, we would start off most of our shows with what we called a Living Largent, where Doug would get a bass line going, and we would get ourselves warmed up with it.

 

Chris Seagle joined us as our bass player in 1994, and played with us through 1997. In 1996, we recorded the CD Amphibious, which continued our quest to play lot's of styles of music. During this time we continued to play at Spanky's, did several shows at the Cat's Cradle, played at the Festival for the Eno, and several other clubs around NC. We continued to play until 2000 with Tom Daly as our bass player, finishing a CD of live material, and trying out songs for the next recording.

 

Dawson Roark joined the band in 1997, and though we only played a few shows through 2000, we started working on the first Boot record. Jon moved to Austin in 2000, and would return to NC to play shows now and then. We decided to change the name of the recording project to Boot, figuring we were moving into a different phase of music. Live shows definitely favor a fair amount of improvisation, extended solos, etc. While recording, we have the chance to experiment with lot's of different instruments and sounds.

 

The recording of Steel Toed Clown Boot started in 2001, and we finally released the record in November of 2005. Doug returned to play bass on half of the record, and Peter Kimosh joined to play bass on the rest of the record. We played our CD release party in Raleigh in 2005, with John Friberg joining on guitar.

 

Dawson and I started recording the next Boot record (currently called Lunch) in March, 2006. We expect to be finished in March, 2008. Most of the same cast will be returning to play various instruments. Nelson Nunalee has joined on providing vocals and piano help. You learn a lot over the course of time, we are really happy with what we have been getting on tape, or hard drive that is.

 

We all love recording, and playing live especially. Thanks big time to all of the people who have come out to support us over the years.