ABOUT LOST POSSE		It continues to amaze me: when an obscure request is shouted out at a Lost Posse show, the guys will launch into it effortlessly. In these cases, they reach deep back to some past jam session or practice when they played the tune; or perhaps they have simply heard a song so many times that it just comes out naturally. Like myself, Andrew Albright is a recent addition to the Lost Posse. When Tom Philion took his bass and fine vocals to the band North Union, we turned to Andrew. Andrew had done some time with Brian in Hickory Switch, thereby proving his tolerance for bizarre music, but his solid traditional acoustic sound and his rich bowing (listen to St. James Infirmary ) are the real assets he brings to the band. Andrew describes himself as "a musical dilettante", having " done a lot of short terms with failed rock/blues bands and two seasons with semipro orchestras". He got his bluegrass chops playing with the Potsdam, NY band South of the Border (SOB’s) and currently plays with the Swinging Vermont Big Band. We recorded this CD to document our growth as a band ( not to mention the fact that we are plum outta copies of our last recording.) Motivation for this project has been a tag team effort, with each of us alternately pushing forward and then pulling back in fatigue ( or fear). But when Andrew took the project and put it the capable hands of Eclipse Studios’ Joe Egan, we found we were on our way. Joe’s professionalism helped us come together and give a strong performance that we are all proud of. We hope you like the results. Brian Perkins 31MAY96
It was 1975 when a young Chris Clark and his friend Mike Degree started playing bluegrass music together. Chris had a banjo, and he sold Mike a fiddle, so that they, and a guitar player named Brad Chaffee could play together at the Degree household in Colchester, Vermont. Mike’s 12 year old brother Bob would listen through the bedroom wall and try to play along on a broken-backed 3 string guitar. Well, bluegrass has a way of grabbing hold of you and in Bob’s words, "I worked hard, learning by listening to Pine Island, Banjo Dan, and Old and In The Way albums. By the time I’d been playing one year, I was the guy playing guitar with Mike & Chris." Thus was born the trio of Chris Clark and Mike & Bob Degree which has been the heart of Lost Posse ever since. The late 1970’s were a heady time for Vermont bluegrass. Pine Island, Banjo Dan & the Midnight Plowboys and Gordon Stone had recorded classic albums and were playing regularly at clubs and festivals. Bogus IDs in hand, the boys faked their way into bars to absorb the music and the energy (and to rub shoulders with the musicians). The three friends’ fate was sealed at a major festival at the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds when they were introduced to bluegrass legends Bill Monroe, Kenny Baker, Jack Tottle and Vassar Clements. As Bob would later say, "That was it. It was as if I just saw the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit." It was in 1994 that Mike, Chris, Bob and the current Lost Posse bass player Tom Philion, asked me to join the band on mandolin. I was just bouncing back from the unfortunate breakup of a punk/bluegrass band called Hickory Switch and I was curious about what these guys had to offer. In a word, it was "Roots". Whereas I had come to bluegrass later in life, these guys had grown up with it. I wasn’t unfamiliar with the Vermont bluegrass scene. I saw the light at the 1991 Belvidere Bluegrass Festival, bought a $15 mandolin and spent the next several years collecting old Banjo Dan and Pine Island records and marveling at the mandolin work of Jim Ryan and Willie Linder. But the Lost Posse pickers had lived through that era and had been immersed in the bluegrass style for decades.