Elana Belle Carroll (vocals, guitar, ukulele, viola)
Nicholas Leopold Hedley (bass, ukulele)
Miles Read (synthesizer)
Marlon Battad (drums)
Nathaniel Humphreys (vocals)
Melanie R. Snyder (vocals)
Influences
Gary Davis
Skeeter Davis
Lou Reed
Karin Dreijer Andersson
COMING SOON: ALBUM AVAILABLE ON CD BABY IN MP3 AND CD FORM
For the past eight years Elana Belle Carroll has been writing and
performing her music, crafting a group of songs that are both
heartbreaking and beautiful. Finally she has taken these songs and
recorded them as an album. Various incarnations of a band have been formed around her material, while the record contains contributions from Nico Hedley, Melanie Snyder, Marlon Battad, Miles Read and Nathaniel Humpreys. It is
through this recording collaboration that Carroll’s songs were realized beyond
mere guitar and voice. The collaboration itself has been named The Checker Chance after the house of the same name that provided the space for them to play music together so often. Without this space, the music never would have happened.
Some of the songs are from her earliest days of songwriting while still others were created more or less the day of the recording. “About Traveling” was a random occurrence during a studio session with Hedley
and Battad that was born out of the three artists committing to random
elements that they had been fooling around with separately for weeks.
“Crying and Cold”, originally a solo acoustic blues ballad employing segments of pulled time, is given
new strength and power with Battad providing tear inducing drum drops, and Hedley re-spelling chords with his intuitive bass playing.
Finally support of "the Checker Chance" can be heard on “Once Before,” giving the song a new vitality with Read's colorful synth line, and "Moving Song", where the voices of Humphreys and Snyder are so precise and balanced that at first listen, you barely notice how essential their role is in the unfolding of the song.
"Fuzz" is a recording that Carroll made in her bedroom at age fifteen, with a guitar, a slide, a tambourine and about five vocal tracks on Garageband.
This inclusion, though it is from some time ago, is fitting because it exhibits, as do the other tracks, the primary influences in Carroll's sound with the Checker Chance: Americana–a take on American roots genres, including country and blues–and rock.
Alongside the band, producer John Froats, and sound engineer Joe
Johnson, Carroll has crafted an album that is both familiar and new.
In her arrangements you can hear a distinct sense of Americana, but
never is the music tied to only this. Instead each song is as timeless
as is it is powerful, and the album is a window into the growth and
current place of a young and brilliant artist.
hey! it's a lovely myspace you've got here, myspace-friend! hey, i like that myspace picture you've got up there! whoa, i can add a photo to this myspace comment too? i think i'll do just that!
Hey! I just spent some time listening to your tunes on here. Green Cabbage will probably be stuck in my head for the next month. I like it a lot. I'm excited to get the CD.
Well I got a new cellphone number, I'll message it to you cause you dunno what creepers are jerkin it to your voice. I also found old notes from 9th grade as I cleaned out my room. HOW WEIRD.
elana you herb my goodbye to you on friday was pretty weak. i was kinda out of it and being lame. anyway you probably start school soon so idk ill probably see you around. chill session 5000
thats great, it's cool to know we have fans of all ages, were playin music that everyone can enjoy and just trying to keep rock n' roll alive. were in the works of setting up some of our own shows, but for now were always looking.
hey i listen to the cd and really liked what i was hearing, this is the link to the lix myspace, all of the recordings were done in the guitar players home recording studio but our official cd should be out soon.
elana!! we also came up with a real cool idea and it would be iiilllll! you would do an amazing cover with your voice and everything. anyway such great heights by the postal service. DO IT! yeah <3 your fan
ok so me and my friend aimee were listening to you and you should come down for a few days and find some gigs down here cause you so could. and also i have a couple of your songs on my itunes so ill make you some cds to give out or something. CAUSE WE LOVE YOU!
