Biography
The Wissahickon Chicken Shack is a confederation, an unlikely group of close friends who hail from a wide variety of musical, geographical and cultural backgrounds.
The Chicken Shack was truly built in a day when D'Agostino (bass) and Hinton (dobro/vox) posted a note on CraigsList looking for other folks who might share their interest in writing and performing some rootsy acoustic music. Against all seeming odds, the entire core of the band as it exists today showed up on the appointed Saturday afternoon at D’Agostino’s basement studio: the bond was immediate and undeniably powerful. With influences ranging from Bach to Hank Williams and Ralph Stanley to Jaco Pastorius, the group’s sound defies both convention and definition….good music for good people.
Despite keeping busy individual schedules, the group has managed to be very productive in the short time that they’ve been together. They recently completed their first record at Kawari Studios (Wyncote, PA) and continue to write, arrange and rehearse in preparation for a second effort. Byers, Brooks and Hinton handle the writing, arrangement is a group effort, and the size of their repertoire increases faster than the price of gasoline.
No mountain too high, no valley too low, any given evening might see the band travel through the high lonesome sounds of Appalachia, southwest through the funk of New Orleans, west on I-10 through the honky-tonk of Texas, then up the west coast to the bay area for a hat tip to the Haight...with detours through various unmapped territories along the way. It might also see them settle into a comfortable groove in any one of these or a thousand other musical locations and post up to get familiar. Part of the fun is that no one knows the route or the destination in advance, it’s an adventure shared between band and audience that leaves no one unmoved.
Based in the Philly area, the group keeps a busy schedule. In the last two years they have performed to accolades at such venues as the World Cafe Live, the Tin Angel, The Dawson St. Pub, Puck, Steel City Coffee, the Mermaid Inn, Burlap and Bean, Chaplins, the Sellersville Theater, the Northeast Pennsylvania Bluegrass Festival, The Fire, Dr. Watsons, The Clark Park Festival, Fergie’s Pub, the Grape Street Pub and the Khyber.
The group is grateful for the opportunity to swim in the amazing pool of talent that is the greater Philadelphia area, and actively works to foster local musical culture. They have taken pleasure, pride and inspiration in sharing the stage with such excellent company as Sarah Olson, Cowmuddy, Chris Kasper, Adrien Reju, Marc Silver, Carsie Blanton, The New Time, Mason Porter, The Fractals, The Estelles, Jeremy Hollis, Painted Blue, Hezekiah Jones, Matties Ramble, Emily Easterly, Boris Garcia, Delaware Rag, Bevin Caulfield, Irene Molloy, the Tin Bird Choir and Mason Porter.
Instrumentation
Bethany Brooks: Vocals, Keyboards, Accordion, Mandolin
Jack Byers: Vocals, Guitars
Philip D'Agostino: Upright and Electric Basses
Bradley Hinton: Vocals, Dobro, Guitar
David Lacy: Banjo
Gary Lebiedzinski: Drums, Percussion
Kiley Ryan: Vocals, Fiddle
Discography
Links
| http://www.wissahickonchickenshack.com |