Three years ago 7 established musician friends (Barney Bentall, Shari Ulrich, Angela Harris, Wendy Bird, Colin Nairne, Rob Becker and Eric Reed) got together to play and sing some Classic Bluegrass songs over good food, fine wine and lots of laughs.
It was so much fun that they did it again, and again, and again until one day, they all decided to share some of these fun old time tunes with their family, friends and community, and booked the Starlight Room at the Eagles Club in North Vancouver, BC. To promote the show, they needed a name so Barney came up with The High Bar Gang which the whole Gang loved. So they announced their double debut concert dates and to their surprise, both shows sold out.
Then came a few anchor dates, special appearances, press coverage and tours with more sell outs. Good folks kept asking when The High Bar Gang might be doing a record, so the Gang thought perhaps they should go ahead and record some of the songs they loved to play.
They got together and headed to Barney’s house on Bowen Island, BC. They set up camp in his living room where they recorded 14 songs (with Eric engineering) over four days – in between napping, eating, drinking fine wine and laughing a lot of course.
The record was then mixed by Eric on the beautiful Neve 8078 that he reconditioned (www.ericreed.org)at Hoke’s place in North Vancouver, BC and just as it was going off to be mastered, the Gang was offered a record deal by True North Records. This came as a big surprise to the Gang cause who knew that a record with 14 Classic Gospel Bluegrass songs (selected by the heavy influence of Ry Cooder) would catch the ears and interest of a record label such as that!
Anyway, they secured the deal and a booking agent with Macklam Feldman which leads us to today!
Crazy story right? Yep! But that’s the music biz for ya. One never knows what’s just around the corner. All ya can do is enjoy the music, put yourselves our there and play to your hearts content. The rest will come as it may.
So as it is, The High Bar Gang are ready to celebrate the worldwide release of their debut record LOST & UNDONE: A Gospel Bluegrass Companion with all the good folks who
enjoy hanging out and having a good time over fine wine, good food, laughs and of course, Classic Bluegrass songs.
If you are one of those folks, and would like to hear The High Bar Gang live in concert, grab your ticket (which includes a swag bag w/ CD) and join us for the party!
