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Thanks to everyone who came out and made our summer tour a real success for us and a lot of fun. We hung out with friends, family and lot's of new listeners!

Michael Beazley Phillips grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, and was drawn to Chicago because of the blues! What's that Beat poem, "When you’ve come to the place, where the days are black and you’ve gone too far and can’t come back, then you’ve come to the place where the blues begin"!

Beazley says "I lived and drank the blues as the millennium came to a close, and I was lucky enough to play with some of the best known players on the Chicago Blues scene like Erwin Helfer, Jimmy Burns and Aron Burton" and hanging out with his idols like Pinetop Perkins, Barrel House Chuck and Ann Rabson. These players were steeped in the influences of the old Chicago sounds of Jimmy Yancy, Memphis Slim, Brother Montgomery and Floyd McDaniel. By 2003, after a gig at the Chicago International Blues Fest, Beazley decided it was time to put out his own record, he says, "I never knew if I was a Beatnik poet, a folk singer, a rock piano player or a blues man."

The first album, Shooting Ghosts, came about during a blues recording session, when the engineer, Blaise Barton suggested that he put out an album of original music; that record is now going on it's second printing and the circles keep spinning out wider and wider.

Bring the Angels Down is the groups' sophomore album and was recorded with new band mate, Philadelphia-born songwriter, Pete Nocito on drums and back-up vocals and E. G. McDaniel again on bass. The new album reflects the energy of their live shows while still maintaining its integrity as a studio album; the album is a "raucous, piano-driven rock record that highlights both Beazley and Pete's energy as well as their sense of harmony". Engineered by Acme veteran, Blaise Barton, and co-produced by Beazley and good friend and drummer from Shooting Ghosts, Eric Hill.

2008 was a busy year for the band and saw them on the road, playing shows both locally and across the US. We played with some great players over the year including Brian Ostyn on bass for our East Coast Tour and Wes Gould on bass for some of our local and midwest shows, both guys brought a lot to the band and we hope we'll be seeing a lot of both of them in 2009!

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"We've had a lot of new listeners this past year from all over the world, so thanks to you all for showing up at our shows, downloading our tunes and supporting us on tour and at our shows, these songs mean a lot to us and it's been great to share them with so many folks! Come hang with us at our next show and we'll share a pint and a shot of Jack!"