Biography
Great Big Gone is a group of Triangle music veterans brought together by a passion for the many facets of American roots music. They were all members of the recently disbanded Brown Mountain Lights, a band which played regularly around the Triangle and the Southeast. Great Big Gone continues in the same style. Their repertoire is a carefully-crafted amalgam of styles from electrified porch picking and honky tonk to blues to Western Swing to roots rock, consisting primarily of original compositions. The result is a tasty mix of sharp songwriting, three-part harmonies and a classic Americana musical palette.
Janet Place contributes the lead vocals and songwriting talents. She was a member of the seminal D.C. alt.country band, The Slim Jims, before moving to NC in 1995 and forming the bluesy roots band, The Kickbacks and then the Brown Mountain Lights. No Depression magazine, said “Janet Place's voice, reminiscent of a huskier Patsy Cline ... drips with country hard luck and hard-won wisdom.
Greg Bower tosses in “high lonesome” harmonies, an increasing number of tasty original songs and the requisite guitar twang. Greg has played in several NC-based acts, including power popsters Bullwinkle Gandhi, the late lamented soul combo Balooka Roux, and in the honky tonk Panther Branch Boys. He gushed enthusiastically about the nascent Triangle alt-country scene as a writer for the Independent in the mid-90s.
Fiddler Miner Gleason can be found in several local bands, including the Second String Band. Drummer Bryan Sodemann can be found in Full Moon Pie and the Ruins. Bass player extraordinaire, Steve Webster has also played in many bands including the Hanks and legendary Day Room Monitors.
Instrumentation
Janet Place -Lead and harmony vocals, guitar, mandolin, bazouki
Greg Bower - Lead and harmony vocals, lead and acoustic guitars
Miner Gleason - Electric and acoustic fiddles and mandolin
Steve Webster - Bass
Bryan Sodemann - Drums and percussion
Discography
Threadbare Heart, July 2008