Artist History After studying violin for close to 15 years, Bemis picked up his mother's old Silvertone guitar during his freshman year at Wheaton College and began teaching himself to play it. He lost every pick in the case, was too cheap to buy more, and was relegated to playing using only his fingers. He soon developed a fingerpicking style and rhythm of his own, which is vaguely reminiscent of some older ragtime and traditional mountain styles. Eventually, a musical friend and comrade, Stephen Sequeira, gave Bemis a pawnshop classical guitar named Melanie, and Bemis mailed the Silvertone steel-string off to his older sister in Michigan. He wrote new songs in his head while delivering mail in Glendale Heights, Glen Ellyn and Wheaton, IL and tested them and honed his style at the weekly open-mic at Fitzgerald's, in Berwyn. Through the Fitzgerald's open-mics, Bemis met Ric Salazar and R.D. Roth, with whom he began playing fiddle regularly throughout the Chicago area. His first quasi-public solo performance was at a house party in Chicago featuring R.D. Roth and Paul K. in the summer of 2001. Nobody kicked him out, and he's been playing in front of folks ever since. When he was 21 years old, Bemis left college and opened an independent recording studio, Ground Vinyl Records, in downtown West Chicago. The studio was equipped largely with professional analogue audio gear he had been fixing and collecting for a number of years. While most folks were partying into the New Year late in the evening of December 31st, 2001, Bemis was alone in his recording studio with a pipe of tobacco and two scavenged microphones and a guitar and a shot of Glenlivet, recording 18 of his own ruminations on love, death and beer. He mixed the songs the following day, and sent them for duplication the next. In honor of its humble origins, Bemis simply titled the album "...plays past his bedtime". Word spread quickly about this collection of songs, with titles like "Huck Finn", "Eine Kleine Elevator Muzik", and "Jenny Kiss'd Me", and Bemis was soon traveling throughout the Midwest by thumb and by motorcycle playing past his bedtime at coffeehouses, clubs, under bridges and at festivals. Alone, or with his loose collection of musical ragtags & ne'er-do-wells, "the Forty Thieves", backing him on mandolin, banjo, washboard, kazoo, harmonica, bullfiddle and the kitchen sink, Bemis' music often drew comparisons to that of Leon Redbone, the Lovin' Spoonful and some old lovesick cowboy. Although he does cover a selection of songs which are not his own, and readily admits to borrowing from others, Bemis primarily considers himself a songwriter, and his attention to the art of songcraft is immediately apparent through his timeless-sounding lyrics and melodies. More recently, Bemis received a Deering banjo, also from Stephen Sequeira. He's been practicing real hard and serenading folks at the South Haven Farmers' Market in exchange for fresh fruits and vegetables and meats and flowers and eggs. Bemis currently teaches private lessons in South Haven.

Group Members Andru Bemis - Bemis has been performing regularly since early 2002. Before that, he was a mailman, a janitor, a delivery driver, a recording studio owner, a volunteer at homeless shelters, a fifth-year college dropout and a vagabond. In his first short year of full-time music, he managed to sell more than 500 CDs, perform more than 100 shows, and travel close to 20,000 miles. He drives a 22 year-old postal Jeep and a 21 year-old Kawasaki motorcycle named 'Garrobo'.

Location South Haven, MI - USA

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