Album Notes

Equal parts folk, rock & roll, country, and American roots music, The 100s are a band from America's heartland that crosses several genres while tying them all together with a common thread of what the band likes to call "Rural Route Rock." Featuring a dozen-and-a-half instruments and multi-harmony vocals, these six seasoned Midwest musicians create a sonic landscape that's like a burst of fresh air through the back screen door of the big house that the industry machine likes to tout as "Americana" these days.

On their debut CD, "Take The Gravel Home," the band's original material blends an acoustic sensibility with a no-holds-barred approach to playing, and a solid rhythm section drives the point home, with the occasional wailing humbuckers when the situation warrants. Their songs address themes and subjects that are simultaneously distinct and universal: love and loyalty, rainstorms and redemption, drunkards and dreamers, better days and bitter harvests, the razor edge of life in the big city and the embracing of a simpler existence out on the county blacktop. The group's choice of covers - Joe Henry's "Fireman's Wedding" and "Annabel" by Detroit band The Volebeats - lends a decidedly alt-country flair to the folky side of things. "Take The Gravel Home" is a 13-song storybook that has a decidedly rural flavor to it. If you live off the beaten path and away from the glitz-and-greasepaint veneer of the metropolis - or just wish you did - you'll relate to where it comes from and where it's headed.

The day's too short to try and figure out to which pigeonhole this music belongs. The 100s sound is "folk" music in the best sense of the phrase, in that it's music for all folks - young and old, urban and rural, those hip and those who couldn't care less. But The 100s are not about to hang labels on themselves, nor their listeners. They've combined honest storytelling with artful musicianship to create a sense of place that's both strange and familiar all at once.

Whether you like countrified ballads, wistful vignettes, or all-out rockers, "Take The Gravel Home" by The 100s will fill the bill. And if all of the above categorizing still hasn't piqued your interest quite enough...well, maybe you just need to hear some of that "flanged banjo" on the title track in order to begin contemplating the possibilities...


The 100s are:

David Pedersen: vocals & percussion
Jeff Schmidt: guitar, harmonica
Ken Kemper: bass, banjo, backing vocals
Dale Beeks: acoustic & electric guitars, resonator guitar, fiddle, lap slide
Pete Raine: acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, backing vocals
Tim Looney: drums & percussion