The Great Unknowns

Genre: Americana
Secondary Genre: Rock Washington, District of Columbia USA Contact

The Great Unknowns are an alt-country band whose first record, released on Indigo Girl Amy Ray's Daemon Records label, was a critical success, receiving positive reviews in No Depression, Performing Songwriter, Maxim and other publications. Their new record comes out January 10th.

Artist Information

Biography

Sometimes it seems as though The Great Unknowns are trying very hard to live up to their name. The female-fronted alt-country band recorded its first album in the basement of a college dorm in Boston on a shoestring budget in 2003, intending to press just enough copies for friends and family members. But the record found its way into the hands of Indigo Girl Amy Ray, who declared it "one of the best things I have heard this year" and released it on her independent label, Daemon Records.

The record sold beyond label expectations, and picked up glowing reviews from music critics who predicted that the band would soon invalidate the "Unknown" portion of its name. No Depression columnist Rick Cornell confessed, "I can't stop playing this disc", and named it one of the top ten releases of 2004. Maxim called it "unpretentious heartland rock."

Most bands would try to ride that sort of success to fame and fortune, but not the GUs. After 2005, they all but disappeared for five years, and band members moved on to other projects. During that time, singer and primary songwriter Becky Warren struggled with a marriage that had become troubled when her soldier husband returned from Iraq with PTSD. When the marriage ended in 2010, Warren realized she had a lot to say, and wrote furiously, penning 12 new songs about love, loss, and the life-altering effects of war.

The band--which, along with Warren, is Andy Eggers on drums, Altay Guvench on bass, and Avril Smith on guitar--re-emerged, and fans quickly showed they hadn't forgotten about the band during the five-year hiatus. After putting out a fundraising appeal to their now-dusty mailing list, the GUs attracted more than $8600 in contributions from people eager to hear a second album. This time, the band opted to record at Bias Studios near Washington, DC, where half the band now lives.

The new Great Unknowns album, Homefront, proves that the band can pick up right where it left off--with expertly crafted, country-tinged rock songs driven by twangy guitar hooks and powerful vocals. And Homefront proves something else as well: that if a band is truly great, no matter how far they run from it, the music eventually finds them.

Instrumentation

Becky Warren - Vocalist, Acoustic Guitar
Andy Eggers - Drums
Avril Smith - Electric Guitar
Altay Guvench - Bass

Discography

January 10, 2012: Homefront. Several tracks are receiving radio airplay on stations including: KOTO, WCNI, WHFC, WERU, KRVM, and WQBR. "I Wish I Was the Girl I Was" won the grand prize in the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest ("Birmingham" was a finalist) and the song "Homefront" came in second place in the Washington Area Music Association song contest.

December 2004: Presenting the Great Unknowns
All songs received some radio play, but "Round Hill" was played on Steve Earle's radio program and several other stations. "Abilene" and "When I Was Your Girl" were also radio favorites.

Links

Audio

Lyrics

Video

The Great Unknowns [full band, rock setup] performing "Homefront"

The Great Unknowns [Americana setup] performing "DIfferent"

Photo Gallery

Press

  • Album of the Week: HOMEFRONT by The Great Unknowns [+ Show ]

    One of the highlights of 2011 for me was discovering talented new artists and sharing them with ya'l...

  • Delving Into The Great Unknowns [+ Show ]

    Despite the slightly ironic nature of their name, The Great Unknowns have struck a chord in the hear...

  • Review of Homefront [+ Show ]

    We finish today, and this year, with the sole new album on the list - "Homefront" by The Great Unkno...

  • Review: The Great Unknowns' Homefront [+ Show ]

    Sometimes you back into the meaning of an album. I first heard the D.C.-based “Great Unknowns’ Hom...

  • CD Review: Presenting The Great Unknowns [+ Show ]

    There's nothing fancy about the Great Unknowns brand of Americana; rather, the emphasis is on solid ...

  • The Great Unknowns, "Presenting The Great Unknowns" (Daemon Records) [+ Show ]

    There are thousands of bands pounding out perfectly decent rock'n'roll in dank bars across this fine...

  • About The Great Unknowns [+ Show ]

    “Excellent songwriting in the Americana tradition. Really one of the best things I have heard this y...

  • Review of Presenting the Great Unknowns [+ Show ]

    "Warren's voice combines the earthy, Southern twang of Lucinda Williams -- especially on "Forever," ...

  • The Great Unknowns, "Presenting" Daemon /Koch [+ Show ]

    There's nothing fancy about the Great Unknowns brand of Americana; rather, the emphasis is on solid ...

  • The Great Unknowns, "Presenting The Great Unknowns" (Daemon Records) [+ Show ]

    "Unknowns"? Pretty much, although these children of the swampy side of the American South did a lot ...

  • Presenting the Great Unknowns [+ Show ]

    “The Great Unknowns are going to have to change their name. Because I personally am going to recomme...

  • The Great Unknowns, "Presenting The Great Unknowns" (Daemon Records) [+ Show ]

    Time to reorganize the CD library to make room for this alt/country debut release from the Northeast...

  • The Great Unknowns, "Presenting The Great Unknowns" (Daemon Records) [+ Show ]

    After a few listens, you'll be asking yourself where these musical messiahs were hiding. With lush h...

  • The Great Unknowns, "Presenting" Daemon /Koch [+ Show ]

    On the edge of country and steeped in the Americana tradition, The Great Unknowns jokingly made Pres...

  • The Great Unknowns, "Presenting the Great Unknowns" [+ Show ]

    The first thing to do about a minute into "Presenting The Great Unknowns" is to pick oneself off th...

  • CD Review: The Great Unknowns [+ Show ]

    Warren sings these original but quintessentially American tales of lost love and wandering souls in ...

  • The Great Unknowns, "Presenting The Great Unknowns" [+ Show ]

    We read about this disc in MilesofMusic and then chanced upon it in the used bins of our favorite lo...

Setlist

When I Was Your Girl
Round Hill
Abilene
Something to Do
Deliver Me Home
Don't Come Home
1000 Mies from Tennessee
Lexington
Dead River, Lake County
Bad Way
Wrong
Homefront
I Wish I Was the Girl I Was
Birmingham
I'm Gonna Get My Heart Broken
Love Song

Basic Requirements

Calendar

DateTimeVenueCity
Jun 3, 2012 Sunday 1:00 PM Herndon Festival , VA, US
Jun 28, 2012 Thursday 7:00 PM The Black Squirrel Washington, DC, US
Jul 14, 2012 Saturday 7:30 PM Black Potatoe Festival Clinton, NJ, US