Album Notes

Show of Cards took the long route to its formation in Western Massachusetts: ancestrally from Goa, India, Karen was born in Mombasa, Kenya and Joe and Mike in Claremont, New Hampshire. The three siblings converged in Amherst MA where they attended and worked in area schools while engaged in different musical pursuits: Joe as bassist for the hip-hop band Cold Duck Complex, Karen as part of a folk-rock duo, Chattering Magpies, and Mike in various jazz and reggae ensembles. Show of Cards thus foregrounds the sensibility of the singer-songwriter against band-driven improvisational musicianship--an inevitable hybrid given the intergenerational and genre mix around the family dinner table. Their music will appeal as readily to 30 and 40-somethings raised on Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell--who will enjoy the group's fresh take on Walter Egan's "Magnet and Steel"--as to millenials at home with Coldplay, Feist, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Outkast. Currently located in Amherst MA and Brooklyn NY, the released their debut album, "Leap Year," through startup label M.I.T.E! in September 2009.