MySpace a place for friends

When I was a child way back in the hills, I laughed at the men who tended those stills, But that old mountain shine, it caught me somehow, When I die tear my stillhouse down. Oh tear my stillhouse down, let it go to rust. Don't leave no trace of the hiding place Where I made that evil stuff. - Gillian Welch

Stillhouse Burning takes its name from an old West Virginia family story, when one night Granpa Trentadue , Great Uncle Max and their neighbor, John Lassak, burned down the Lassak family still on No. 9 Mountain back in the 40's. See, John Lassak built a moonshine still in a shed behind the Lassak family cemetery up on No. 9 Mountain, and he'd have his buddies come on over and help him bottle batches of moonshine. Bottling moonshine is tricky business because the first liquid that comes out of the still is almost pure alcohol and deadly to drink, while the last is almost 100% water, so moonshiners use a process called "backing," in which the first bottle is mixed with the last, the second with the second-to-last, and so on. On that fated evening, working by lantern-light, Granpa Trentadue, Great Uncle Max, and John Lassak were busy backing the shine into one-hundred clear glass bottles. Things got out of hand after the three men backed the first bottle, got drunk on the second, and spilled the third. A lantern on the floor ingnited the moonshine, and Granpa, Max and John had to run to safety in the Lassak family cemetery, where they watched the stillhouse burning.

The four members of Stillhouse Burning came west from rustbelt cities Cincinnati, Toledo and Detroit, then settled in Colorado. Bassist Nate Baker and guitarist Dan Kern cut their musical teeth together with Ohio jam-veterans Halias, while drummer Jeremy Brieske toured with Kalamazoo blues-rockers Fluent Blue. After trying his hand in Nashville, James Bentley adds his roots songwriting and raw vocals to the band's driving country sound. Together, Stillhouse Burning combines gritty, outlaw country instrumental work with thoughtful songwriting. The music is original, kinetic, and, while paying tribute to the alt-country tradition, Stillhouse Burning breathes fresh air blown from the southern and grunge rock influences they grew up with. It's volatile musical moonshine, homebrewed, enjoyed, and burning out of control somewhere in the American night.