Album Notes

Since 1999, Bay area's Chrome Johnson has been honing their distinctive blend of Americana, drawing on rockabilly, country, gypsy swing, hell-bent honky-tonk and rock'n'roll. Their live debut album captures the energy, songwriting and interplay that have won the band a large and loyal following in this notoriously hard to crack town.

"...the new kings of twang."
SF Bay Guardian, June 2003

"...songwriting that draws from the deep well of our shared musical heritage."
Independent Coast Observer, March 2002

Pardon me, where'd you learn how to pick like that?

Singer-guitarist and bandleader Danny Uzilevsky is a Bay Area favorite who has played with Jesse Collin Young, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Preacher Boy, and Chuck Day. A true original on the guitar with a throaty baritone to match, Danny's many voices are woven into songwriting that runs somewhere between the self-assured holler of Steve Earle and the wildly fanciful stylings of Tom Waits. In 1997 he began making solo recordings that would eventually pave the way for Chrome Johnson.

Danny met Josh Schneck, (guitar and trumpet) while auditioning and subsequently playing in the swing band, Lee Press-On and the Nails. One evening backstage, Josh overheard Danny Danny playing one of his own compositions.. "It was as if Django Reinhardt pulled up on the soundstage for the Good, Bad and the Ugly," recalls Josh. "I loved it from the get go." The two began jamming together during the band's frequent tours up and down the west coast, and plans for a group were soon hatched. "We didn't exactly know what to call it," says Danny, "but we knew what we liked, and thought we might find a few like-minded conspirators to come on board."

With no shortage of talent in the Bay Area to chose from, a call to complete the band was quickly answered, but Danny soon realized he'd found more than three top notch musicians. Pound for pound, Josh Schneck, Ben Pfeiffer (stand-up and electric bass), and Dana Miller (drums) may well be the sharpest backline this side of Nashville. Call it serendipity, these boys have the kind of musical chemistry that only happens when somebody upstairs isn't minding the wheel.

The name of the band refers to a beloved resonator guitar that has, alas, been set out to pasture with a broken neck.


Chrome Johnson is:

DANNY UZILEVSKY
lead vocals, guitars, lap steel, principle songwriter

JOSH SCHNECK
guitars, trumpet, vocals

BEN PFEIFFER
acoustic and electric bass, vocals

DANA MILLER
drums, vocals