Artist description Singer/songwriter Jeff Stachyra’s continually evolving project, which cultivates the dirt from the rolling hills of upstate New York, maintains both feet firmly planted in the Alternative Country/Americana/Roots Rock genre, currently known as Dirt Farm.

Music Style Americana, Alternative Country, Adult Alternative, Rock

Artist History When singer/songwriter Jeff Stachyra (pronounced Sta-HAR-a) decided to release a CD of his work, he looked no further than his ever expanding archive of demos. Most of the material harvested from the past 3 years was initially written for his current band Spook The Horse (www.spookthehorse.com) or to be shopped to other Americana artists. When the band shelved the idea of releasing their debut album in 2000, Stachyra decided that his music shouldn’t be rotting on the vine (or his studio hard drive as the case may be). The 12 songs contained on "Somewhere Near Itaska..." were assembled not only for their common lyrical threads but for the ebb and flow of the song sequence which works beautifully from track to track. The album states: written, performed and recorded by Jeff and definitely show cases his excellent production values and seasoned arranging skills. As a multi-instrumentalist he performed almost all of the initial tracks and subsequently, guest musicians were brought in to replace or enhance the original parts. "I was looking to give things a little less me when I decided that this group of demos could actually become a full length project." The musicians who join him are both friends and family and the credits read like a who’s who of musicians in the rolling hills of Upstate New York. Some of those credited include Mike Ricciardi (The Burns Sisters) and Bobby Twining (John West, David "Rock" Feinstein, The Rods) as well as some lesser known talent such as Todd Kapeghian on the steel guitar or avant-garde pop artist Rick Iacovelli on the bass. Jeff had been a drummer for several regional touring bands for over 15 years before strapping on an axe in 1990. He has also worked as a live sound engineer with such diverse artists as David Torn/Bill Bruford, Kim Simmonds, Duke Robillard and Eek-a-mouse. In 1997 his cover of Neil Young’s "Out Of My Mind" appeared on a tribute disc distributed by members of Hyperrust the on-line Neil Young news group. He has owned and operated New Clear Productions recording studio since 1986.

Group Members Jeff Stachyra and assorted friends and relatives (Bob Damiano, Jim Dwyer, Rob Stachyra, Scott Harrington, The Ricciardi Brothers, Bob Twining, and Dan Martin just to name a few).

Albums Somewhere Near Itaska

Location Binghamton, NY - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).