Ok, so now that I’ve dragged you from here to January and back, it’s time that I fill in some more of the blanks and connect various dots. I wanted to keep my reviews brief, and in order to keep each one from fracturing into a thousand new thoughts, I left some people and details out. I’d like to apologize to those that were left out, as almost none of the projects I reviewed could have happened without them.
It was rather difficult to do this in the specific order I had in mind without missing something, as all of the artists I’m covering are so prolific that I inevitably published something prematurely or without up-to-the-minute info. Additionally, other reviews and articles were being written and released simultaneously, behind or just ahead of mine, appearing as if we were all competing to break a story, when in fact we were operating in separate worlds with little or no knowledge of the other. See: Pitchfork, Post-Trash, Pittsburgh City Paper, Seven Days VT, to name a few.
Despite what’s been published so far, the details of who-does-what-with-whom-when-where-and-how remain rather nebulous, and there’s no simple way to explain it (at least without graphics, and even then I’m not so sure), but I’m going to try. I’ll start from the actual beginning, unlike last time. Here goes:
Lily Seabird Band: Lily (guitar/vox), Nina Cates (bass), Zack James (drums), Greg Freeman (guitar), and occasionally Scott Maynard on drums and Rick Soszinski on pedal steel and guitar (band and duet).
Robber Robber: Nina (guitar/vox), Zack (drums), Will Krulak (guitar), Carney Hemler (bass)
Dari Bay (latest lineup): Zack (guitar/vox), Nina (bass/vox), Joey Krouse and Zack’s brother Owen James (guitars), and Daniel Snyder on drums.
Greg Freeman Band: Greg (guitar/vox), Lily (bass/vox), Scott Maynard (drums), Cam Gilmour (Sax), Sam Atallah (Trumpet)
Vega: Molly Meehan (guitars, strings, vox), Carney (guitar), Cam (bass & sax), Ben Schnier (drums), Hannah Frances (vox), Cleo Fleming (cello), Nick Tansey (drums) and Benny Yurco (recording & mixing).
Beyond these crossovers, Greg often plays with Merce Lemon, and has also shared the stage with :
Lastly, Lily also supports Lutalo on bass periodically (UK tour later this summer - that was the original teaser in my first review!)
I’m certain that there are more levels and layers to the collaborations and special appearances, but at this point I think you get the drift. This thing is open-ended arithmetic; a living document of shared creativity that continues to evolve. As such, you can expect more and future updates on all of these projects from me as they happen (within reason), and I’ll continue to explore ancillary or adjacent art for sure. Thanks for playing along! 🥳