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I (Bruce) wrote most of the songs we performed. In addition to the 3 tunes posted here, other titles included "Baseball Annie", "The Other Man", "Black Blue Jeans", "Nameless Love", "That All Night Train", "Columbus Avenue", "39 Buckaroos" "Mylena", "Roundhouse" and "Cool".

We also did a number of songs that turned up on later albums of mine: "Gypsy Cab" and "On Seeing the Light" from 1994's "Perhaps Other Lives"; and "Towards Alberta" and "Joe Sawyer" on the 1998 cd "Vaudeville". Several other songs from that album were written with the Nor'easters in mind.

There were also covers pulled out at various shows: Brenda Lee's "Let's Jump the Broomstick"; Johnny Burnett's "All By Myself"; Woody Guthrie's "I Ain't Got No Home" (I recall doing Clarence Henry's song of the same name, too); the fiddle tune "Whiskey Before Breakfast"; a re-vamped "Samson & Delilah" by Rev. Gary Davis with a new last verse that he channeled into me; and a fast-as-lightning bluegrass version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" (yes, I'm told others have done it since but legend has it that we were the first and the best. And I wrote that legend myself).

The band played country, swing, blues, folk, rock & roll, old-timey, fiddle tunes and acid rock. Somehow it all worked together. The so-called EP (really just a demo to get gigs) focused on what we thought might appeal to the wonderfully intelligent, decent and honorable folks that booked acts for clubs in NYC. We kept it pretty straight, I guess. Unfortunately, it doesn't reflect the eclecticism of the band (a word that now gets thrown around like a badge of honor, but back then was the kiss of dearth).

The response? Very few gigs. Why? Well, either we stunk (you judge) or, maybe, it might have had something to do with politics. A well-known club that booked country/Americana type acts (still standing, so no names please) wouldn't even listen to the tape. Despite the fact that 3 of the band members had frequently played there in other line-ups. It was something about just booking friends and known acts... Then there was another club, also still standing, that was downright hostile before we ever got there. Don't know what we did (our mamas raised us all to behave right) but they hated us, even though we filled the room. When they paid us at the end of the night the attitude was so snotty I thought they were going to throw the money on the floor and make me pick it up.

So I guess we stunk. Despite having a regular, growing and enthusiastic following. We always had good turnouts.

There were other horror stories - that new, little coffee dive in the Village that we packed to the rafters and made them more money than they'd ever seen. They paid us... $30 for the night. Divide that 4 ways, boys & girls. Alas, they folded a year or two after, their business acumen quotient only slightly ahead of their common decency quotient.

Then there was the club, I forget what it was called at that point, but it was formerly the Speakeasy (aka Speaksleazy: but that's another miserable tale to tell). We booked a gig and rocked the joint - they loved us. We had celebrities in the audience! Good turnout, good performance, good all around. They booked us right away for another gig and were talking to us about doing something regular, maybe a weekly thing. They really loved us. We were ready to go, ready to prove ourselves at that next gig. Jump-cut: one hour before that next gig I get a call from the booker: the club's closed down. Just the night before the place got padlocked shut. Gone forever. One hour notice.

We also were asked to record a song for the musical magazine "Fast Folk" - "Nameless Love" - which got released... never. You guessed it, "Fast Folk" folded right around the time our issue was due to come out. We don't even have a copy of the cut, otherwise we'd post it here.

Detect a pattern? Don't be surprised if myspace folds up soon.

The best gig we had was at Two Boots in Park Slope. We played there many times. The place itself wasn't much for music but a lovely woman who did the bookings, Piper was her name, was always nice to us, always paid us gladly, fed us well and gave us free beer. We made better money there than at any other club gig we'd gotten (though there was one NYU party gig that paid quite handsomely). Yeah sure, the sound system sucked, the "stage" was right next to the always-swinging kitchen door and we sometimes got asked to play "Happy Birthday" (which we whipped up into a New Orleans rhythm, sang 2 verses, then transmogrified into a bastardized version of Jimmy Soul's "Take Me to Los Angeles"). But you know, being treated nicely goes a long way. Especially by a pretty girl.

Anyway, it eventually just fell apart. Arti got a regular paying gig on weekends (we once tried a fill-in bassist - Jennifer something - but I spent the whole gig singing into the mic with my body turned away from the audience, showing her the chord progressions and calling out the changes. My neck still hurts). David had his own career going, Andy decided to go back to school. I considered pulling other people in to do the same type of line-up. But that was the group that felt right. So it ended.

Since then Andy became an audiologist - (there's a musician joke in there somewhere) but he still plays when he can. David's quite successful, doing lots of playing and recording, as well as making instructional guitar videos. Arti played with David's band for a while in the late 90s. At some point I lost touch with him. I just recently heard from him again, which brought all this back. He's now playing with George Kilby, Jr., among many others, and has been working steadily through the years. In the meanwhile three of us became fathers, which takes up a little bit of time and energy, lemme tell ya. But everyone's well and, to varying degrees, still playing.

Andy and David have appeared on 3 albums of mine (if anyone wants to throw money into it I have lots more stuff waiting to be recorded - cult status has to pay off someday). My most recent album, the 2006 release "The Peaches of August", has Andy on lots of songs and David playing pedal steel on one. David's a known entity but Andy's still one of my favorite players in the world.

So, there you have it. The bio lasted longer than the group. Now we exist again, out here in the ether. We never even had a group photo done, so you can close your eyes and picture us as being far better looking than we really were. 4 nice guys, no arguments, no ego-games, no bull. Great rapport, on and off stage. I'm really glad we played together, however briefly. It was a pretty good band.

POSTSCRIPT: After creating this page I discovered that the apostrophe in "The Noreasters" completely screws up any possibility of finding us via My Space's horrendously unforgiving search engine. We are now, in fact, The Nor& 39 ; easters". Which only adds to our obscurantist appeal and our eternal mystique, n'es pas?

POST-POSTCRIPT: Artie is in a new band, the Blue Greens (with Simon Chardiet, co-star of another great dead NYC band, Joey Miserable & the Worms). Check out the Blue Greens - they sound great!