Album Notes

We, The Parish Festival, aim to please your ears with a sort of new alternative to the ClearStations and Fuse's of the world. It is a sound that is refined, respectful and a blend of all that is good. We wholeheartedly believe that we have achieved such a feat with our debut CD entitled "Handshakes and Heartaches," released on FutureApple Tree Records. We formed around two years ago when we all met in the same music theory and performance classes in college. Moving from studying music to applying those techniques to our own songs was really a natural progression. We have very diverse influences, as can be heard through Ryan’s Dixieland style drumming, Jamey’s gypsy influence or Andy’s formal jazz studies, but we have the typical verse chorus verse songwriting. We simply approach songwriting from a different perspective, oftentimes with instruments that are played in styles that they weren’t necessarily intended. We often get asked who are influences are, or what bands we would compare our sound with. The answer to this question is a difficult one to arrive at. While we may sound like one band, or have an obvious influence by another, we are the Parish Festival, and that is who we sound like.