Album Notes

Gifts or Creatures is the musical pursuit of husband-wife duo Brandon and Bethany Foote. The couple fuses a blend of midwestern folklore, old world history and cinematic soundscapes to create a conglomeration of antique Americana.

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Just days before our wedding I traveled south to the heartland of America to retrieve a 1970’s Wurlitzer electric piano as a gift to Bethany. We were about to embark... on a lifelong journey together and I wanted to instill the realm of music into our new home. Bethany had been playing piano since childhood and although still somewhat unexplored, I knew the possibility of a musical union was imminent.

Five months of marriage yielded a recording session that gave Gifts or Creatures its namesake. The moniker conjures up the ancient lake sturgeon, a shoebox of my early childhood action figures, and a forgotten corner of Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park workshop. The tunes that had been brewing in my head over the previous year were brought to life with the help of a legion of friends including Seth Bernard and Breathe Owl Breathe’s Trevor Hobbs. “Pilot House” was released in September of 2010 and proved to be a new preface over the traditional bluegrass and folk stylings I had soaked-up for nearly a decade.

A growing patchwork of fretted and keyboard instruments continue to shape the musical landscape in which we travel. Tales that provide a people’s history from our midwestern locale forge the melodic structure and stories we share. With the support of a vast community, Gifts or Creatures has performed throughout the Mitten State with notable acts such as the Red Sea Pedestrians, Seth Bernard & May Erlewine, The Ragbirds, Chris Bathgate and Frontier Ruckus.

A collection of new tunes are being meticulously crafted, arranged and tweaked with friends in hopes of a sophomore release.

Indebted to your ears,
Brandon