Band Bio
Steph Gunnoe: guitar, vocals Sean McCollough: guitar, banjo, mandolin, vocals Maria Williams: bass, vocals Steve Corrigan: drums, glockenspiel Lissa McLeod: accordion, keys (Scroll down for individual bios.)
The Lonetones are a Knoxville, TN band that plays original, Appalachian, roots-based music that goes well beyond the "tradition." They’ve been called modern folk, Americana, folk rock, "an Appalachian Belle and Sebastian….” They’ve been accused of having a unique sound and strong song writing.
They have three albums to their credit that have garnered national attention. They have opened for Sam Bush, The Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Amazing Rhythm Aces and have appeared at the Atlantis Music Conference, Bristol Rhythm and Roots, Americana Crossroads Live, and The Bluebird Café (see website calendar for more).
Their music has been played on radio stations around the world and enjoys regular play on Knoxville stations. They have several songs that have appeared on compilation CDs including, most recently, on a CD of topical songs about mountain top removal that also includes songs by Kathy Mattea and Del McCoury.
Their most recent album Canaries has been included on several top 10 lists for 2009 including Wayne Bledsoe's of the Knoxville News Sentinel and boBee Sweet's of KDHX in St. Louis Mo.
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I’ve starred in a million dreams Oscar winning only made me mean How it hurts to be eclipsed We’re all stars in our apocalypse. (from “Trickle Down,” Canaries)
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To some, the Lonetones new album, Canaries, has the feel of a soundtrack. Perhaps it’s the lush musical production with layers of contrasting colors. Or maybe it’s the lyrical themes – songs for a “new Appalachia.” It’s not a soundtrack (at least not yet), but if it were, perhaps it would be best described as a soundtrack for life in modern Appalachia – an ode to a post-Oh-Brother-Where-Art-Thou era.
The album, and the band’s music in general, speaks to the conflicted nature of a region steeped in tradition while blighted by Walmarts and stripmines. It speaks to generational conflicts and the inner struggles of those whose hearts and souls are tied to the mountains but also want to be set free. But the album is not simply a lament. Rather, it is a hope that the old and the new can work together as a symbiotic partnership.
In the song “West Virginia Soundtrack” Gunnoe offers her assistance in this task: “I’ll be your midwife dark and alone, I’ll help you bear what’s never been born.” And in “Here In The South,” she promises to this end that “here in the south, ain’t gonna shut my mouth.”
The production of the album also reflects the conflicted nature of modern Appalachia (and contemporary “Appalachian” music). The band still has the partial look of an old-time string band with acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin and upright bass. But even these instruments aren’t always played in a traditional manner and the addition of drums, accordion, keys and vibes takes the music in new directions.
In a recent Knoxville News Sentinel interview, Gunnoe stated that "people expect you to be an old-time band when you have these instruments. Sean and I are always taking issue with people putting Appalachian music in a box. We want it to be something that's living and breathing." To this end, on Canaries, they also mix together electronic and found sounds (dissonance at times) with acoustic instruments.
Steve Wildsmith of the Maryville Daily Times describes it this way: “That dissonance may seem out-of-place on an initial listen to "Canaries," but repeated plays find McCollough and Gunnoe at a creative peak. The sound effects are understated -- sly and soft, contributing to a song's mood or melody in almost indefinable ways. The layers are arranged in gorgeous stacks, like the shimmering icing of a wedding cake -- intricate, detailed and personable. “
But amidst all of that, Gunnoe’s voice remains at the center of the band’s sound – of the mountains, but not satisfied to be just that. Jack Neely of Metro Pulse says of her voice that “its overt innocence sometimes seems to conceal some deeper melancholy beneath the surface, a singing through trauma.”
Gunnoe and McCollough still work closely together with the band to create the unique arrangements that they have become known for, searching for just the right instruments to compliment each song. Maria Williams still provides a strong backbone with her upright bass and harmony singing. And Steve Corrigan on drums and Lissa McLeod on accordion and keys provide fresh voices to round out the lush sound of band.