Castor Garden

Castor Garden is a Southern NJ/Philly-area original rock band - whose style covers a broad array of genres, but doesn't fill just one particular niche. Check out the songs posted above and you'll see that we're all over the map.
You can trace the origins of Castor Garden back to John Karp and A.J. Mee, who both grew up in the Castor Gardens neighborhood in Philadelphia, PA, USA. They met through a guitar teacher in Northeast Philly in the 90s - Ken Greenfield. At the time, A.J. was playing bass and John was on guitar, and the two were in a couple of bands playing a mix of originals and cover tunes around the local Philly circuit.
Life got in the way for a little while, but the two started playing again - this time, on the other side of the Delaware River - under the name Artificial Black. This formation led to a self-titled debut CD release in 2007, as well as a gig at the House of Blues in Atlantic City. After the demise of AB at the end of 2007, A.J., John, and drummer Danny Hummel went on to form Castor Garden.
Danny, like John and A.J., had also grown up in Northeast Philly (in the Lawncrest section) and was a natural fit for the new band from both musical and cultural perspectives.
A.J. moved from bass to vocals/guitars (and couldn't stay on bass because he can't sing and play his oddball bass lines at the same time). Danny also stepped in on vocals. CG recruited Christopher Rollo in 2008 to backfill A.J.'s role on bass for live shows. With the new lineup, the band played a small number of shows in 2008, preferring to focus on songwriting and recording.
CG gets together each Thursday, and works virtually during the remainder of the week. We are headquartered in Blackwood, NJ at EJL Studio where we do the majority of live recording and rehearsals. We're looking to produce about 15 songs by the end of 2009, and support the efforts with some live shows to mix things up.
Drop us a line anytime; we'd love to hear from you. If you're a musician, let us have a listen to what you're up to as well.
Hope to see you all in 2009.
Peace -
A.J., John, and Danny
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