Artist description We are called Brian Lillie and the Squirrel Mountain Orchestra (which wouldn't fit in the "band name" area) and are a five piece mostly acoustic group with tons of deputized partial members culled from the rich Ann Arbor music scene. Our line up includes a full time drummer and a full time percussionist, a string section, upright bass and guitar. Our sound skirts around the edges of roots and folk rock, chamber pop and the dreaded "singer-songwriter" thing. Not that being a singer and songwriter is a bad thing-- it's just that that name has come to sort of stand for a self-obsessed style of writing that drives us all insane. We hope that even our most "personal" stuff comes across as being more about the listener than about us. Know what I mean?

Music Style Folk Rock

Musical Influences Dylan, Springsteen, Morrison (Van), Elvis Costello, Nick Drake, The Stones, Ferron, John Prine

Similar Artists see above

Artist History The four core members of the Orchestra (Brian Smith, Al Smith, Rich Griffith and Brian Lillie) used to be a loud, weird rock band called The Maitries (MY-trees), who bashed it out in the college underground scene for a bunch of years, ate at a million Waffle Houses throughout the Midwest, and put out one album called Death Fliphead Monkey Boy on Ethos Records. A couple years after splitting up, we decided to re-form in a more rootsy, acoustic format, and have grown into a fairly lush, orchestrated sound. We have three albums out on Thursday Records, our own small label: Good Luck Fire Chief, Rowboats, and Waking Up In Traffic.

Group Members Barney Culver: CelloAl Di Blassio: Percussion, harmony, mandolin, guitarBrian Di Blassio: Drums, pianoRich Griffith: BassBrian Lillie: Vocals, guitarDina Maccabe: Viola

Instruments guitar, drum kit, conga, acoustic bass, strings, piano, mandolin, organ

Albums Good Luck Fire Chief (2000), Rowboats (1998), Waking Up In Traffic (1996)

Press Reviews These are about Rowboats: ***...As the name suggests, the Squirrel Mountain Orchestra has a shuffling, leaping but lush Americana feel, as danceable as swing, as meditative as a prayer. A month ago I was lucky enough to hear Lillie play all but solo. His songs struck me for their freshness, the swaddled warmth and openness-to-life of a young Alex Chilton or Matthew Sweet, Beatle-pop-based in their melodies but often extending into redolent autobiographical narratives.- RIVER FRONT TIMES, St. Louis ****** Brian Lillie is a guy who knows how to have fun. This 1998 release should have been reviewed sooner but it got stuck in my car's CD player. Stuck, metaphorically speaking, because I kept taking it with me on trips to the store, to work, and on vacation. This is an immensely fun disc from a singer-songwriter with a great voice and a huge sense of humor. Straddling country, folk, and roots rock, Lillie evokes the likes of Loudon Wainwright III and Steve Goodman, while the Squirrels serve up delicious yet spare orchestrations behind Lillie's voice and guitar.- ACOUSTIC GUITAR Magazine ****** This double album is full of the kind of folkified ditties that make you alternately want to get up and dance and sit down and cry, and in the end they play with your emotions just enough to make you really love life.- DETROIT METRO TIMES ****** Brian Lillie is that rarest of songwriters whose work is possessed of that most elusive of qualities: grace. He avoids all the prosaic formulas and angst-ridden cliches that are the currency of most of his contemporaries with reflections on love, friendship, the sad, crazy whims of the heart and the mysterious paths of fate that are cut with a deeply worn wisdom most writers don’t acquire until they’re twice his age, if they’re lucky.- Byron Bull, Manager of Schoolkids Records ****** Rowboats is such a fine record: one that crawls inside, rooting itself in the very place where music encounters the human spirit. It speaks in empathy from Lillie’s experience and perspective, to your own. It is impossible to remain unmoved.- Thom Jurek, CURRENT ***

Location Ann Arbor, Michigan - USA

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