The earliest roots of The Theater Fire run all the way back to 1995, when songwriter Don Feagin and bassist Mark Castaneda formed Vena Cava with a couple of friends. In the next five years, they would recruit multi-instrumentalist Jesse Brakefield, songwriter Curtis Heath, multi-instrumentalist Sean French, and drummer Nick Prendergast. After a few months playing and writing with this lineup, the band realized how quickly the sound had progressed, and how little the new songs and sounds resembled what had begun as Vena Cava. With a debut release and many shows on the horizon, they decided to change the name, and start anew. Their self-titled debut was released on Christmas Mountain Records in 2003.

The Theater Fire has a knack for spinning yarns about drifters, hangmen, brothers, and lovers grappling with their own honor, trust, guilt and loss. These tales are woven together by arrangements that include weeping pedal steel and violin, strains of accordion, mandolin and xylophone, plucked banjo and guitar, sorrowful brass and the clip-clop of found percussion. The songs combine influences as diverse as zydeco, bluegrass, mariachi, country, gospel and rock and roll - yet somehow remain unmistakably The Theater Fire.

Information from the band's site

Musicians

• Don Feagin: banjo, guitar, lead vocals, violin, vocals
• Curtis Heath: accordion, guitar, mandolin, vocals
• Nick Prendergast: drums, percussion
• Mark Castaneda: bass
• Sean French: accordion, banjo, guitar, pedal steel guitar, percussion, xylophone
• Jesse Brakefield: harmonica, percussion, trombone, trumpet

Influences

Yo la Tengo, Will Oldham, Velvet Underground, Johnny Cash, Baptist Generals, Kenneth Patchau, Tom Waits, My Morning Jacket, Neutral Milk Hotel, East River Pipe, Richard Buckner, Kingsbury Manx, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Belle and Sebastian, Lambchop

Albums

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