Artist Information

Biography
James Curley was a 'Singular Songwriter' in the acoustic loner mode when he met bandmates Bill Benson, Mark Deleon and John Hasbrouck. Each of these unique musicians added an exponential element to James' compositions and resulted in a package sonically familiar to lovers of original American music and yet lyrically more engaging than most fare in the current pop-country pantheon. Songs like 'Poet Laureate' (inspired by 9/11/2001) and "TV or Not TV" stand as insightful social commentary while songs like "I Jumped Bail" and "Cowboy on the Subway" provide postmodern humorous undertones.

John Hasbrouck's fingerstyle technique is flat out awesome, evidenced by his debut cd, ICE CREAM, being cited by Acoustic Guitar magazine as one of the TOP CDs OF 2002. John's sweet slide tones on both Telecaster and National guitars are reminiscent of Ry Cooder's 'Little Village' work. James has a signature guitar style ranging from travis and 'pianistic' fingerstyles to percussive flatpicking and is playing 'clean' vintage Telecaster sounds on electric and flat and fingerstyle on acoustic guitar. Coupled with the veteran Chicago area rhythm section of Bill Benson and Mark Deleon, a unique 'strumless' sonic wall of guitars, bass and percussion are beneath James' lead vocals and Bill's vocal harmony, resulting in a highly original sound.

James continues to perform solo acoustic shows as a performing songwriter, sometimes accompanied by John Hasbrouck on guitar.

Thank you for taking time with us today!

You mention in your bio you were playing solo for a while, how long was it that you played solo?
On and off for 20+ years in Philadelphia, Houston, Austin and then Chicago. I took a 5 year - hiatus from performing when my daughter was born 15 years ago and then was in a duo for a brief period with a songwriter/guitarist/mandolinist named Kenny Schiff. When Kenny moved to the east coast, I plowed ahead on my own again. I released ‘Tom’s Café’ (CD) in 2002 and played solo until 2004 when I teamed with the band, initially with Bill and Mark, then later John.

When was it that you met up with Bill, Mark and John? Tell us how you came to meet up with them…
Did you meet them all at once or separately?
How long were Bill, Mark and John playing before meeting you?
I met John at the Folk Alliance Convention in Nashville in 2002 through some mutual friends when we were all down there promoting our various recording and performing projects. We connected personally and realized we shared much musically (both fingerstylists, and very into ‘Americana’ in all its incarnations) but didn’t play together. In early 2004 I met Bill at McCormick Place; we were both working day-job gigs at a food trade show and somehow got to talking about music. I promised I’d call him and I did. He had been working with Mark in several bands for about six years at that point and the three of us hit it off and began rehearsing. We had another guitarist we weren’t happy with and Bill posted an ad on ‘Craig’s List’ looking for a guitarist. Oddly enough John responded to the ad, and when Bill told him it was the ‘James Curley Band’, John called me and said “why didn’t you tell me you needed a guitarist?” It was a surprising and serendipitous piece of ‘small world’ karma. John also has a solo career and is a great fingerstyle interpreter and composer of country blues, ragtime and other traditional guitar styles.

Did it take long to perfect the sound each of you created?
It’s still very much being created as we go. We’re all involved in multiple projects, musically and otherwise, so our sound is evolving with each performance. We’ve learned we’re very much a live band and are stretching inside my compositions to be a little more improvisational and a little ‘jam band’ leaning. I’m still trying to sculpt my tone on Telecaster since I hadn’t played electric guitar in over 20 years, so that’s great fun as a work in progress. The other guys are ‘tweaking’ their parts and their instrumental tone on each song but basically they’re well ahead of me. I still feel most comfortable with an acoustic guitar though I don’t strum. I have this aversion to what I call the ‘singer-strumwriter’ trap so my songs mostly have a ‘pianic’ fingerstyle approach. I’ve coined the term ‘strumless sonic wall’ for the music John and I make inside the songs; most of them at least. I use a flatpick on a few songs but I still don’t outright strum. We’re thinking of adding another percussionist to add some more rhythmic element instead of guitar strumming which is what many songwriters use as a core rhythm anchor. I’d also like to find the right keyboard player/vocalist to add to the band but it would have to be someone channeling Garth Hudson, Dr. John and Al Kooper so I don’t know if that will happen.We like how the band sound is progressing but I’m also open to expanding our sonic palette.

What types of subject matters do you sing about?
Basically things that interest me about modern life. I don’t write any ‘you broke my heart’ songs – I’m happily married for 26 years and can’t ‘gin up’ a genuine tearjerker anyway. The closest I come is a song called ‘The Time I Broke Your Heart’ which is a tongue-in-cheek send-up of typical country ‘you broke my heart’ songs. I’ve got a song called ‘Poet Laureate’ that asks a question about the meaning of the events of 9-11-2001; another song called ‘TV Or Not TV’ that uses Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a backdrop to criticize television programming in a humorous way. ‘Free Agent Deities’ is a song about the abuse of religious belief. ‘Tom’s Café’ is a nostalgic remembrance of my Irish Catholic neighborhood in South Philly. ‘Flies’ is a song about eating flies. We do a song I wrote called “There’s a Cowboy on the Subway’ which is based on a true event I witnessed on the train from Midway Airport. I guess I’ll write about anything that comes to mind, as long as I can make a good lyric and melody from it.

Is there a chief songwriter in the band?
That would be me. That’s why it’s ‘The James Curley Band’ – we’re essentially showcasing my songs. I’m very lucky to have found players who are willing to craft a sonic backdrop to my lyrics and melodies. I’m grateful every day for these guys.

Do you manage the band or have a manger?
We all co-manage in a sense. We’re all involved in booking and promoting gigs, etc. We all look for openings to get booked and then check with each other regarding calendars, etc. We’re all busy guys, but it’s working pretty well so far.

Have you played outside of IL? If so, where?
As a band, no. I have as a solo, especially in Texas and on the east coast, and John has as well in many places including recently at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England. We’re just getting into the Chicago circuit with a few gigs at Fitzgerald’s and we’re hoping to expand to places like Schuba’s, Martyr’s, The Abbey Pub, etc. After that, we’ll push the geography a bit.

What else would you like to share with us today about you and the band?
I think that fans of what has been labeled ‘Americana’ in the past few years would enjoy what we do a lot. Although I don’t really like the term ‘Americana music’, I recognize that it’s always been hard to classify some artists that write and perform across a wide spectrum of American roots music styles. We fall in that camp. I joke that we play ‘FolkRockCountryBlues’ when people ask what kind of music we do. I mean how would one describe the music that The Grateful Dead performed and still performs (sans Jerry Garcia)? It’s not rock, it’s not country, it’s not folk; it’s all that and more. It’s ‘cosmic cowboy swamp boogie blues hootenanny’ music…and I guess so are we. At least I hope so.

What does the future hold in store for you, Mark, Bill and John?
We have so many unrehearsed songs to learn still, and we plan to record sometime in early 2006 – we’ll do about 12 songs or so that we’re perfecting live and release a band CD. We’d like to have 4 hours of live originals and 1 hour of cover songs in our back pockets so we can vary our set lists and keep fans interested. We’ve only got about 2 total hours of live material worked up so we have a lot of ‘woodshedding’ to do in the near future, and hopefully a successful record and gig schedule in 2006. We’re pretty keen on doing the outdoor festival scene in summer 2006 and are ramping up for that now. Beyond that, we’ll see what the universe brings us.

Well, thank you very much for sharing your time with us, we greatly appreciate it!

To find out more about James, please visit his official site at: http://www.jamescurley.net/