Album Notes

Do you like Violins? Mandolins? Acoustic guitars? Three part vocal harmonies? Have you ever heard of a Peruvian percussion instrument called a Cajon? Well, perhaps RED is the band for you.
The history of RED goes back to the summer of 1997, when Karl Eisenhart and Chris Michels both found themselves “between bands” and, more importantly, tired of playing the same set of cover tunes that it seemed every cover band ended up doing. They started out as a three piece rock band with a fairly eclectic set list ranging from Wang Chung to Jethro Tull, but persistent drummer problems forced them to re-evaluate the band’s future before they even booked their first show. Chris’ abilities on multiple instruments lent themselves to a more acoustic-oriented project, so the “duo” era of RED was born.
Because of the unusual instrumentation--in those days including mandolin, violin, electric bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and guitar synthesizer—it was practically impossible to stay true to the arrangements of most of the cover songs they did, so they just stopped trying. Most songs were rebuilt from the ground up to suit the sound of the group. This turned out to be an extremely freeing approach to music and also great research and development for writing original music. The thing that first made the group stand out was that both Karl and Chris were completely unafraid to play solos at a time when that practice was frowned upon in popular music almost to the point of being a forgotten art .
Karl and Chris quickly realized that the songs that seemed to resonate with the audience the best were the more stripped down/strictly acoustic numbers, so a great deal of excess instrumentation and amplification was shed and a smaller, more nimble version of the band emerged. This new, stripped down group recorded a CD called Oracle in 2001. Long out of print, it is now a collectors’ item treasured by literally tens of people.
In 2006, RED was hired as the house band at Bear Creek Mountain Resort. This meant that they were playing in the same venue weekly and necessitated a much more varied set list. Within a year, the list of cover songs they played (still ranging from Wang Chung to Jethro Tull and beyond) had grown to well over 100 songs, and originals were developing fast. The group could now play three full nights without ever repeating a song.
Around this time, Ian Frey started coming to their shows. He saw RED play ten or twelve times before ever mentioning that he’d like to sit in with them. The band had a strict “no guests” policy because all the arrangement quirks in the songs usually led to disastrous miscues. But rules were made to be broken, and as it turned out Ian had been listening at the gigs he saw and was able to play the songs--even the originals--like he’d been playing them for years. He was never formally asked to join the group. Karl and Chris never even discussed it. They just gave him a schedule and he was in.
Their new album, Another Sun, marks the beginning of another phase in the development of the band. Applying the reverse of the irreverent approach used in learning cover songs, the trio took the opportunity to realize full-band arrangements of many of the songs that they had written as a three-piece acoustic ensemble. These originals take lyrical inspiration from such diverse origins as Dr. Who and Poet Laureate Robert Penn Warren and musical inspiration from practically everywhere. Two of the more obscure cover songs from the RED live set round out the album. “Silver” was written by John Wesley (Porcupine Tree) and “Dust” was written by Tony Carey (Rainbow, Planet P Project). Not wanting to say anything as self-satisfying and snooty as “genre-defying,” the music is best described as “progressive acoustic.”
Do the fuller arrangements on Another Sun indicate that the band may do a show every now and then as a full band featuring extra players? Rest assured, it’s being discussed. For now, RED continues to play as an acoustic power trio at many different venues throughout Pennsylvania and beyond as often as possible.
And no, they won’t play Brown Eyed Girl or Margaritaville.