George Janouris Band

A little over five years ago, George Janouris began taking from the world all of the inspiration that he could reach, all that was given to him, and all that which seemed too divine at times to deny the gift in his own two hands. Soon enough, he found no better way to express those ideals, emotions, events, and relationships, than in the form of a song. Since then, he has been lucky to create and perform along side of, if not for, some of the best musicians and best of friends. Leading and collaborating for some time with two previous bands, a world renowned Beatboxer, and various other artists; George as a solo artist has developed himself and his songwriting into a smooth but progressive Bluesy/Pop-Folk/Rock alternative, and sometimes just a down-right funky creation.

Now the George Janouris Band, "GJB" for short, is bringing those original creations to life and to stage with an untouchable sound that comes from none other than a perfect matchup of six talented musicians and friends.

Here's the story of how GJB came to be...
It all started in July 2009, George had been performing as a solo artist for the last year and a half, and after a open mic performance at Hightopps Backstage Grille, a girl name Baby Love invited George to a drum circle at the Happy Hippy Haven to be held the following weekend.
It was at the Happy Hippy Haven that George met Chris Johann amongst many other talented musicians and beautiful, loving people. Being that Johann knows how to play every song that's ever been written, he quickly became the perfect and most talented accompaniment on the bass guitar.
Come December 2009, Scott Decker arrived at the Haven and in a collective jam he blew away all those hippies with his amazing harmonica skills. Rumor has it that he actually un-dreaded a dreadlock on someone's head in the next room. Needless to say, Scott melted some faces that night and George was quick to get him to continue playing along side of Johann and himself.
March 2010, George decided to take a spontaneous trip to Australia by himself to play music on the other side of world, study the Australian culture, and do some soul searching while he was there. By June, his search had brought him right back home to Maryland.
July 2010, Travis Winningham was on the back porch at a jam party, shredding bluegrass standards on the mandolin. It wasn't long after George sat down to jam with Travis that he had fell in love with the sound of mandolin in some of his own songs. Intrigued by the mandolin and Travis' talent, the connection was made and they have performed together ever since.
October 2010, Sean Bolan's Irish Pub in Bel Air, MD, George was warming up in the back of the bar when he recognized a familiar face. It only took two, maybe three awkward eye contacts before they had both jumped up to exchange names. It was John Fritz! Who played lacrosse with George in middle school days. In search of a drummer, and with a notion that John played, George asked of his current status as a musician. John explained that he was home and taking a break after studying jazz drumming for two years at Berkley, and that he would love to try out for the band. While performing at Sheffield Recording Institute in November, it only took one jam, one song to be exact, and George knew he had found the drummer that he'd been searching for all along.
Between the five of us, we had a very unique sound, but we all knew that there was something missing, a keyboardist! It was February 2011 and George was at Sean Bolan's Irish Pub after a band practice where the band had just discussed the urgency in finding a keyboardist. A man approached George at the bar and asked him how much he wanted for the EarthRag hoodie that he was wearing. Unwilling to sell to this jokester named Sonny, George got to talking to him about playing music. George asked Sonny if he knew any available keyboardists, and Sonny points across the bar and says "there's your man." It was Kevin Zeichner, and no later than a week after that meeting at Bolan's, he was now in GJB, and the band was complete.