Artists:Low-Tech Riff Raff

Low-Tech Riff Raff

It's all about the songs. That's what kept the group together for over 14 years. Otherwise, we might have killed each other years ago. John, who produces new song ideas more often than most people change underwear, is a martinet about rhythm structure. Sharon, she of the butterscotch voice, obsesses about getting the lyrics just right. Folly, the elfin folkie, secretly wants to be a glam-rocker. Tony, who listens to everything, spends much of his time as a translator between other band members. It's probably those differences that produce the fire and passion in the songwriting process. When things are flowing, the creation process resembles nothing so much as having fiery 4-way sex and delivering the baby on the same night. We've produced a lot of those babies over the years. Good thing they don't eat too much.

We've got our own approach to learning how to play. We simply write stuff that's too technically difficult for us to perform properly. Then we learn how to play it. Then we repeat. Over and over again, the songs have dragged us into doing what we never could before. We make plans for what we're going to work on next. It never happens that way. The songs are in control.

What does the band sound like? You tell us. Over at GarageBand, reviewers have compared our sound to Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills & Nash, America, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, The Beatles, Heart, Peter Paul & Mary, Chris DeBurgh, The Carpenters, Bob Dylan, Phish, and The Grateful Dead. We know, some of those don't even sound like they belong in the same paragraph. That was based on just 4 of our songs. The comparisons would have been even more varied if they heard more of our songs. We call what we do "retro-new" folk fusion, and it's always changing.