Over the course of almost 15 years, half a dozen albums, and more notes than you can shake a stick at, the ever-evolving Dreadnaught has carved out a musical niche unlike any other. This is because, very simply, we're totally and utterly deranged.
And I can say this for the equally simple reason that I'm partly to blame.
Today, at the start of a new decade,
Dreadnaught -
bassist Bob Lord (the guy writing this), drummer Rick Habib, and guitarist Justin Walton - can be heard daily performing the theme song for New Hampshire Public Radio's flagship radio program "The Exchange."
Since 2005, Dreadnaught has been the house band for The Music Hall/NHPR series "Writers On A New England Stage" (for which I'm the Music Director), and we've composed and arranged music for writers such as John Updike, Stephen King, Madeleine Albright, Ken Burns, Alan Alda, E.L. Doctorow, Dan Brown, Mitch Albom, Elmore Leonard, and Gregory Mortensen, among others.
But this isn't the whole story.
Utterly uncompromising multi-movement prog-rock opuses, gritty bar-band Americana, experimental electronic music, even a music for orchestra... all this and more can be found by just clicking that nice little "Launch Audio" link up there.
We've played in more than half the states of the union and along the way we've shared the stage with artists (and band influences) like John Entwistle, Tony Levin, NRBQ, and a ton of others. Our records have won awards and we've won acclaim, but nothing interests as much as just doing what we love to do: make music that confounds every single expectation one could possibly have.
Really - what is the point of doing what has already been done? We'll leave that to the other folks. Duck for cover... head for the hills... here comes Dreadnaught.
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///Febrary 2010. Work has begun on a couple of new recording projects, including a "Writers On A New England Stage" album featuring pieces composed, arranged, and performed for the series. Stay tuned for more details.
///January 2010. This spring brings the new season of the acclaimed "Writers On A New England Stage" series from The Music Hall and NHPR, featuring Dreadnaught. Writers include Jodi Picoult, Michael Lewis, and the legendary magic realist Isabel Allende. Visit www.themusichall.org for more information.
///January 2010. Related news: Bob's company PARMA Recordings is the parent organization of the Navona, Big Round, Ravello, Capstone, and Soundbrush label imprints. PARMA's work spans classical, jazz, rock, blues, family, film, custom audio, and more, and its releases feature artists such as Grammy-winner Richard Stoltzman, Pulitzer Prize-winner Lewis Spratlan, renowned session and live drummer Steve Gadd, Pixar/Randy Newman orchestrator Jonathan Sacks, singer/troubadour Raffi, NY Philharmonic concertmaster Glen Dicterow, and coming in 2010, Pete Townshend. PARMA and its companies are exclusively distributed by Naxos.
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"Country-rock, avant-garde blues, prog-funk, experimental rock - any and all of these labels are accurate, yet each only begins to brush the surface of the band's style." (ALL MUSIC GUIDE)
"This is Art. This is the realization of a dream. This is intention and ambition married to execution and creativity... This is lights-off, lying on your bed, staring into the blackness stuff. Or something to have weird sex by. Your call." (THE PHOENIX)
"Talk about nuts - who else would have the stones to kick off their CD with a reference to Isaac Asimov ("R. Daneel Olivaw") by bouncing tinkling ivories over a thudding industrial beat? Or to name a song after a feisty freshwater game fish ("Northern Pike”), haul out that industrial beat and layer it over with whimsical harmonica, twangy blues guitar, and zippy strings? Gots to be Dreadnaught." (PROGRESSIVEWORLD) |
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HIGH HEAT & CHIN MUSIC (2LP, 2007)
PUCKA PUCKA WITH DREADNAUGHT (EP, 2006)
LIVE AT M OJO (2LP, 2005)
MUSICA EN FLAGRANTE (LP, 2004)
THE AMERICAN STANDARD (LP, 2001)
UNA VEZ MAS (LP, 2000)
DREADNAUGHT (LP, 1998)
DREADNAUGHT (EP,1996)
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