sam knutson
Nate Bassinger
David Bassinger
Wes Phillips
Ryan Bernamen
Adam Bernamen
Tim Phillips
Marty Christiensen
Darren Matthews
Randy Davis
Jonathan Crawford
Sean Haskins
two girls with the same name
"THE LAST DRAG"
LIVE @ MISSISSIPPI BREW CO. 2005
C/O EXPLORATION IOWA
"SOMETIMES ALL ALONE"
C/O EXPLORATION IOWA
Influences
joni mitchel
wilco
dinosaur jr
greg brown
steve earl
bob mould
screaming trees
jeff buckley
jaco pastorius
kathryn musilek
buckner
neil young
tom petty
the band
alex chilton
the replacements
townes
all the songwriters i have actually talked to about writing songs
lovesexy
Sounds Like
someone said it was roots rock, someone else called us "real country" we have come to kick all the other bands asses in a melodic and stylistic way that will leave them unchanged until they have been able to process.
feel the love.
DISCOGRAPHY***************************************************************
tape-only-releases*************************************************************
1994-DAVID******************************************************************
1995-UpandDownBrown********************************************************
1996-Spent******************************************************************
1999-TootSuite***************************************************************
2001-Velvetine-and-Bourbon[available-soon-on-cd]**********************************
CDs************************************************************************
1997-Mudfence-Turnaround[reprinted-1999]****************************************
2000-sam-knutson-Shame-Train-and-the-Devil's-Square-Quilt*************************
2001-Shame-Train-'GONE'******************************************************
2005-Shame-Train-She-Knows-the-Score******************************************
2006-pending-release-of-Splendor-locally-soonish-shopping-for-label*****************
Compilations&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
1999-M.U.S.E.[Englert-theatre-benefit-cd]******************************************
2005-Freedom-[Mud-River-Music-Festival-compilation]********************************
2005-I.C.Y.C.live-2005[yacht-club-compilation]*************************************
2006- It Came From Studio One [KUNI live from studio one compilation]
2008-splendor???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
8
8
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in 1997 I finnished a record called mudfence turnaround and it got good reviews as a diy disk. I didn't get a production run of them made until 1999. I went to the west coast a lot that year ['99]. Sean [Haskins, see members] was booking for a club called the Showbox out in Seattle and I was managing a restaurant called the Sanctuary in Iowa city where Sean had done some college. He booked me out there and the idea of traveling and playing went from fantasy to reality, kind of, in that there wasn't a band until after that year and there really never has been a consistant band. and touring or even three days out with a band is a lot more complicated and expensive than sleeping in the Honda.
A band came together to record a record-sam knutson Shame Train and the Devil's Square Quilt. They insisted on me putting my name on it cuz we werent really a band. it took months. Wes Phillips [Speed of Sauce, Ticonderoga] and Marty Christiensen split duties as bass player in the recordings. Nate Bassinger [Diplomats of Solid Sound] played organ and accordion, Randy Davis [Deathships]came in late as guitarist and stayed with the band for four years eventually moving to bass, Jon Crawford [Head of Femur] played drums- it ended up sounding all alt country. we openned for Richard Buckner, Slobberbone, a bunch of those chicagoland alt country thirty something bands, Scott Miller and the Commonwealth. It was a fun year.
Next came GONE. Crawford had moved to chicago While the shows were going .. DSQ. Adam Bernemann who had played with Speed of Sauce with Wes took over on drums and Wes played drums too on this one. Marty and Wes split bass duties again and Randy Davis had fully come into his own as a guitar player. GONE took a year to make and is a great record. buy one on line right now. Nate really had a lot more to do with arrangements and there are some awesome performances on everybody's part all over this record and almost an equal ammout to the ammount on the disc of tunes in the scrap heap. we spent two years chipping away at another record with the same band. Then marty quit and wes moved to Raleigh with the guys from Speed of Sauce and formed Ticonderoga. Darren Matthews formerly of High and Lonesome moved back to town and so did Sean Haskins, Randy switched to bass and it became this sort of 4 peice Rock outfit, with bourbon and blow and fucking and touring and hotels and all that. We made a record called She Knows The Score. It was very fun and very debaucherous and blasted all of us away from each other. Darren Got married. Randy Quit the band. Sean had long since moved out to new york and Adam was back behind the drums. there were three showss left on the schedule before winter of 2005-6. At best we could pull off a three peice and Adams brother Ryan came on board. He already had an accoustic guitar show going and he played some of my tunes. He was a perfect fit and learded back-up vocals. The shows were great. I wrote a lot on the front porch and we started putting together the new record with renewed furvor. Horn sections [ryan plays trombone to]. Wes's little brother plays trombone, and Nate's brother plays barritone saxaphone. Ryan did a string arrangement for the last tune and we arranged vocal harmonies. frinally arriving in stores the end of march 2008 and being officially released to the local and internet public may 2nd.
presently finnishing an accoustic e p of love songs and ruminations on relating. it gets longer every week
songwriter's disease is a strange and beautiful affliction.
You are the shizzle! I tell people, "Sam is a Renaissance man...great singer, songwriter, cook, can make love to a woman with one arm tied behind his back, etc. " Keeping on rocking out!
Good luck at the cd release. would love to make it, but not sure if I'm going to be able to. I just noticed you guys are going to play at Lonn's on my birthday! Yay! Wouldn't miss it!
I'll be at the Mill in spirit on May 2nd. Would love to hear you live. Perhaps you could do a Southwest tour. I know a bunch of places you could play. Peace
Sam - heard you on kuni last night driving home from Dubuque. Your voice and the new songs --- way way wonderful - it sounded really great! Amazing new work! - sandy
lucky for me i know miss bree and miss lunden! i remember meeting u, sam, at mudriver the year before last. good to see u again! keep up the good tunes! peace and love, -miss jessi
ha! i'm afraid i'm going to get an F for Fired or Flunked, for i only stayed at the show a good 15 minutes, talking about how you weren't there and where to go next. we settled on a little joint up the hill called 'the whiskey'. yes.
That sounds like a helluva good time but after our late night geography lesson, i realize that's also a helluva long trek! :) You guys have fun, be safe and let me know when you're back in Nash-Vegas!
