The Pretty Darns

Lacey Mae Johnson's enthusiasm is contageous. Even the crankiest mood will be lightened immediately by her goofy charm and laughing eyes. And, in those first few minutes you will probably learn of her enthusiasm for Bluegrass music.
The 25 year old fiddler from Fountain Green, Utah moved to Salt Lake City after graduating from Snow College. Johnson and three picking pals, who came together from various areas of study in the music program at Snow, were ready for the big city and the big time. Their extraordinary vocals, tight harmonies and soul made their group, Maybelle's Music Box, something special. But, the band broke up, like bands do. Johnson wasn't deterred. She continued to hone her fiddle chops at camps and festival jams, play anywhere anyone would have her and assemble talent for another group. And. then she woke up one day in two bands.
“I have a friend and a band mate, Liz Whoolley, that had moved up (to Logan) and was going to school at USU,” says Johnson. “She invited me to come jam with these guys she met. We jammed every weekend and all of a sudden we were in the studio. I was surprised. I thought we were just jamming.” The Dry Lake Band put out their first album in the summer of 2010, with Johnson on fiddle, Whoolley on mandolin, Cory Castillo on guitar and Wally and Kelin Gibbons on bass and banjo. Their 2011 summer schedule continues filling with shows from Richmond, Utah to Pocatello, Idaho.
But, Dry Lake will have to schedule around the big tour. Johnson, Whoolley and Annemarie Neff on guitar make up The Pretty Darns, set to release their first recording next month and in the planning stages of a national tour this summer. They play a mix of their composit backgrounds in bluegrass, classical, jazz and country music, with vocals that pack a punch and strong original material. Last month they were able to get bassist Eric Thorin, on tour with the Matt Flinner Trio, to stop by the Why Sound studio in Logan to lay down 10 tracks for the CD. Landing one of the bussiest and most respected bass players for their self-titled debut album makes it something to anticipate.
Neff will move to Logan and stay with Johnson for the summer. June will be devoted to practicing and writing new material and in July the tour begins. Whether it's a few short trips out or one long ride across the country through August, their plan is to hit Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee and possibly New York. “We are going to try and camp, try to make it as low cost as possible. We just hope to find some gigs, house concerts, people to stay with. It will be an adventure.” says Johnson. “I think the real test of us was this album recording, which has gone fine. We all worked on the same page.” explains Johnson. “The next test will be us on the road.” - Valley Tan Magazine

Three girls, one car, two weeks and Harry Potter.
That in a nutshell, sums up the tour bluegrass band The Pretty Darns took last summer to Tennessee.
Oh, and throw their upright bass player Kelin Gibbons in there too.
"Three girls and Kel Kel," fiddle player and vocalist Lacey Johnson says, laughing.
"I think we wore Kelin out with The Pretty Darns" adds Liz Woolley, mandolin player and vocalist.
But if you ask Gibbons, he'll disagree.
“You’re making it sound like a good thing,” he says. “Three girls, one car and Harry Potter.”
What could top that? For The Pretty Darns the tour really was an adventure to remember. The band has been together for three years and originally formed in Salt Lake City with Johnson, Woolley and Annemarie Neff, three friends who met at Snow College and later discovered they love playing together. Gibbons joined the group last summer and went on tour with the girls right away.
During their trek across the country the group listened to Harry Potter on CD and made stops in St. Louis, MO., Asheville, N.C., Columbus, Ohio, and Franklin, Nashville and Knoxville, Tenn., to perform. They got to play in sports grills, coffee shops, house concerts and bars while promoting their first full-length, self-titled album which was released last June.
“I thought it was cool to see how we fit in the bigger musical scheme of things,” says Woolley, who lives in Cache Valley while studying at USU. “We played our few little shows, but we were in Nashville. We were in Nashville as a band and got to play there. And we did pretty well for ourselves.”
Neff, vocalist and guitar player, says she loved seeing a new part of the country and Johnson says she enjoyed seeing the places classic bluegrass songs were written about. “We would pass freeway off-ramps…and they were all in these old bluegrass songs.”
The Pretty Darns members blend their vocals and instruments creating lovely harmonies and songs about their lives, memories, mistakes and experiences. The rest of their tunes are comprised of ideas and made-up stories.
Since forming the band they’ve played several shows locally at various venues including Why Sound and Summerfest. Last summer they also performed at the Utah Arts Festival in Salt Lake City and at the Helper Arts and Music Festival in Helper, Utah.
Three of the members now live in Cache Valley with Neff being the only one left in the Salt Lake City area. The currently get together as often as they can to practice and in the summer they usually perform three to four shows a week.
“It’s a long-distance relationship,” Neff says, laughing.
All members of The Pretty Darns are also students trying to balance school with music and personal lives. Both Woolley and Neff will graduate in the spring (Woolley with a bachelor’s in music therapy and Neff with a master’s in music education from the University of Utah) while Johnson will continue studying artist management online through Berklee and Gibbons will continue working on his guitar performance degree at USU.
The Pretty Darns are also working on another album, Woolley says. They’ve written a lot of new songs over the last couple of years while they worked on their first album. They also dream of touring in Europe.
While graduation and upcoming internships may separate the group for a while in the future, Woolley says she hopes that will be temporary.
“We’re a pretty chill band,” she says. “We’re pretty good at what we do, we enjoy playing together and it’s fun. And if we make it big in the meantime, that would be awesome. But we all have our respective educations and different things to worry about and deal with so we take it as it comes.”
- Cache Magazine

Two videos of Northern Utah folk band The Pretty Darns at the festival. Yes, they are pretty and darn good. Pretty, pretty darn good. - Salt Lake Magazine