The Amity Front
Depending on who you ask...It's a story that has a few different versions of the truth. If you listen to it the way 23-year old, lead singer Erik Alan tells it, he was, "on a road trip from Detroit with my buddy and his dog...lookin' for some people to play with one night." Someone else will tell you, that after meeting some folks at an old-time session and having a, "rip-roaring good time" late-night jam...the finger-picking kid from Detroit with the huge voice never left. They didn't bother to ask him if he was serious when asked, "If I move out here, do you want to start a band?"Regardless of what really happened, Amherst, Ma-based The Amity Front has developed into one of the best old time-blues and americana band the Pioneer Valley has ever heard. The sound is a ride into America's past complete with Alan's finger-picking, lead guitar Levin Schwartz's dynamic solos and upright bassist Max Adam's low end walking bass lines. Whether it is a Kentucky work song, an Irish jig, blues from the Delta or one of their rock and roll-tinged originals, The Amity Front are intelligent, engaging performers and are backed by their solid debut release, Highway Bound.The early 2006 full-length release is produced by David "Goody" Goodrich (highly acclaimed collaborator and producer for such names as Peter Mulvey, Chris Smither, Jeffrey Foucault, Kris Delmhorst and Redbird) and recorded at the legendary Windham Hotel in Bellows Falls, VT. Highway Bound has a timeless sound that holds its own among the ancients and simultaneously reinvents the modern-day blues with old time sound. Of The Amity Front and Highway Bound, Goodrich says, "The Amity Front are one of the most exciting bands I've heard in awhile... sound and feel well beyond their years, with their ears to the ground."The story of a finger-picking, blues-singing Detroit native up and moving across the country to join a band and make music with may have been written before, but The Amity Front and Highway Bound are ready to have their take on it...no matter who you ask.