Biography
Equipped with an orchestral ensemble of banjo, accordion, trumpet, soprano trombone, shepherd harp, musical saw, a suitcase pump organ, cittern, guitar and dobro, double bass, foot percussion, various ukuleles and horned violins, Orpheum Bell performs an original "Country & Eastern" songbook of lullabies, stomps, dirt-road ballads, and gypsy suites and waltzes.
The band came together in 2005 when former Chicago bandmates (Serge van der Voo, Aaron Klein) reconnected in an old Michigan house to trade tapes and listen. Combing through the ruins of originals ideas and melodic fragments, they began to develop a lyrical, percussive sound driven by Klein's "downtrodden rural poetry" and van der Voo's fluid, Hot Club-infused bass lines.
Over the course of the next two years, several multi-instrumentalists coalesced around the core, creating a stark, darkly ornamented sound heard on their 2007 debut release, "Pretty As You".
Relying on old, acoustic instruments, the band's sound moves from chiseled, plaintive song stories to articulate, richly-played instrumentals. The members come at the music from different angles - a classically trained harpsichordist, a rural folk polymath, a church choir girl, one from Holland, another from Ukraine.
Merrill Hodnefield's drifting, tin-cup vocals provide both contrast and complement to Klein's thistled singing and her musical saw and autoharp leaven the mix further.
Annie Crawford, a classically-trained violinist with E. European influence has a sound that is alternately plaintive, pastoral, and brooding. Using traditional and aluminum-horned violins (Stroviols), she threads through fine and coarse textures.
Laurel Premo - equally accomplished on violin, banjo, dobro, mandolin and cittern - plays with a raw, driving folk intensity on everything from the band's rolling clawhammer numbers to tightly woven 3-part vocal harmonies.
Multi-instrumentalist Michael Billmire contributes a textural range of sound; delicate harp runs, open-air accordion swells, and gliding silver-trumpet melodies.
Orpheum Bell will be featured in several regional concert series and festival events in '09 and are expanding their touring throughout the Midwest. "Pearls", the band's follow-up album to "Pretty As You", was recorded by Jim Roll and is due out for release in December '09.
Instrumentation
Aaron Klein - vocals, banjo, ukuleles, tenor & regulation guitars
Annie Crawford - vocals, violin
Laurel Premo - vocals, banjo, dobro, cittern, violin
Merrill Hodnefield - vocals, violin, autoharp, saw
Michael Billmire - accordion, trumpet, soprano trombone, shepherd harp, mandolin, suitcase pump organ
Serge van der Voo - double bass, foot percussion
Discography
'Pretty as You' (debut release '07) and 'Pearls' ('09) co-produced with Jim Roll of Backseat Productions in Ann Arbor, MI.
Guest performers on 'Pearls' include Shaun Williams (accordion/banjo/clarinets), Drew Howard (pedal steel/mando), Matt Jones (drums), Colette Alexander (cello), Meg Bedwell (vocals) and Jim Roll, Billy Harrington, and Al Diblassio (percussion).
Links
| http://www.myspace.com/orpheumbell |