The story of PALLIARD is one serendipity and chance. It was summer. Chris and Justin were both working at a museum in Chicago. And one day, by the loading dock, they met and got to talking about music. They seemed to have similar tastes, so Justin invited Chris to come over and play some songs. Justin lived in an attic apartment that was full of stuff from Maxwell Street Market… guitars, cymbals, a half-working parlor organ, a couple amps, an old church pew, and a wurlitzer piano. They stayed up late that night in the attic playing folk songs and making noise.
A couple of weeks later Justin was in Michigan on an old pontoon boat with some friends and met Anthony, who was waxing poetic about Rick Danko's bass tone on 'Revolution Blues.' It turned out Anthony played upright bass and keyboards, so once back in Chicago, he came by the attic and they all drank cheap wine and stumbled through tunes by Sam Cooke, Willie Nelson, Fats Waller, and Neil Young. With Chris singing and playing rhythm guitar, Anthony held down the bass and tried out harmonies, and Justin added texture with a lapsteel or lead guitar. After a few times playing they had forged a kind of sound--traditional, poppy, but reckless and new--and they were writing original songs, so they figured they would try to take to the stage.
They played a couple shows as a 3-piece while looking for a drummer. The guy they really wanted was Jeff, who they knew about through mutual friends and this great record he’d played on. But they were too chicken to ask him. With great luck though, Jeff saw one of their performances, and approached them about playing together! Everyone excitedly agreed, so they got together… and everything clicked. PALLIARD was born. Soon, they moved their rehearsals from the attic to the top of an old warehouse in Chicago’s meatpacking district. There, with the Chicago skyline in view, they recorded the songs that appear on their debut EP.
