The State Room | A Live Music Theatre | Salt Lake City, Utah

From the outfit’s badass, backporch blues ode “Ten Feet Tall” – which is alive with three-part harmonies – to “Shades,” a wry look at barstool hugging daytime drunks, Pete, Lucia and Cooper create music that is pleasingly dissimilar to most other bands in modern music. Early critical praise of its self-produced recorded entry has earned comparisons to the likes of The Violent Femmes, Steve Earle and The White Stripes.

“I grew up listening to a lot of old blues music when I was young,” explains Pete, who was raised in rural Vermont and first befriended McBean in the eighth grade. “He was the only person I knew who was into the same style, although he leaned more toward the country side of things. When we started out playing, we were doing punk and rock.”

Fast forward a decade as The Devil Makes Three took shape in Santa Cruz, California. Pete moved west right out of high school with Cooper soon following suit. After first settling Olympia, Washington and playing in an ill-fated band, McBean – who by now had the name of his home state tattooed across his neck – again joined musical forces with Bernhard. In turn, they later teamed with New Hampshire-native and U.C. Santa Cruz attendee Lucia.

A spiritual fit, her enthusiasm made up of for her initial lack of ability. “Lucia had always wanted to play bass,” says Pete. “Cooper and I had already rented a stand-up bass for the group. And the main reason we were really excited about letting her give it a shot was because she didn’t know how to do anything we didn’t want her to do. And our music is simple, so the last thing that we wanted was someone who was overplaying for fear it would ruin the songs. She wound up learning really quickly, and it wasn’t long before she surpassed us.”

With the goal of being “an acoustic band but to play our shows like a rock show,” the band changed notions of what acoustic music could be. “A lot of it is really calm, and performances are sort of a ‘sit down, don’t talk, don’t move’ kind of an event. Thinking back to the old blues, ragtime and jug band music, it was house music, party music. That was what we wanted to do. And there really aren’t any other bands doing that.”

Cornmeal

Formed over 10 years ago, Cornmeal has grown from humble beginnings into a nationally recognized live music institution.  10 years together is no simple task these days, especially when the last five have seen the band spending over half the year on the road.  Heavily influenced by American roots and folk music, Cornmeal blends lightning fast tempos and impeccable harmonies into an unrivaled live performance that continues to expand upon the five-piece acoustic-electric groups’ vast musical repertoire.  While steeped in the tradition of the past, Cornmeal continues to forge their own path, pushing the boundaries of bluegrass, Americana and folk for a whole new generation of music lovers. With a rapidly growing fan base and ever-evolving sound, Cornmeal challenges the recipe of the bluegrass sound and live performance.

In the beginning of 2010, Cornmeal released their first live album, Live in Chicago, IL Vol. I, an album that pays tribute to the fans. For the first six years, Cornmeal performed each and every Wednesday in Chicago to small yet loyal crowds.  Throughout the winters of 2007-2009, Cornmeal returned to Chicago to pay homage to that tradition.  The album is for the fans as a thank you for all the years of dedication, for believing in Cornmeal, and for creating a wonderful community for them to come home to.  The album was recorded live throughout the winter of 2009 at Martyrs’ in Chicago, IL. Unlike Cornmeal’s three previous albums, Live in Chicago, IL Vol. I  captures the band in its raw, intense format, bouncing through song after song of fast paced, fierce originals and extensive improvised jams that showcase the immense talent and connectivity that have gained them so much fan appeal from coast to coast.