Member Since: 12/1/2005
Band Website: honeychurchmusic.com
Band Members: Our lineup has been ambiguous and changeable recently and has included
Shilough Hopwood: vocals, guitar
Larissa Hopwood: bass, vocals
along with
Tim Kratz: lead guitar, slide & b-bender
Greg Millward: Drums
Alex Yaker: piano, organ
Stefan Baker: acoustic guitar
Juliana Storozuk: vocals
Jay Ansill: violin
Catherine Cavella: cello
Influences: The Band, Magnetic Fields, Gram Parsons, The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, The Left Banke, George Jones & Tammy Wynette, Nick Drake, Buffalo Springfield, Van Morrison, David Bowie, Gene Clark, 4AD, Carole King, T Rex, Bob Dylan, The Incredible String Band, Dillard & Clark, Mojave 3, CSN &Y, EmmyLou Harris, Belle & Sebastian, The Louvin Brothers, Teenage Fanclub, Harry Nilsson, The Field Mice, The Raspberries, Colin Blunstone, Mazzy Star, The Everly Brothers, Jackson Browne, Robin Hitchcock, The Verve, Ride, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Stanley Brothers, Marvin Gaye, Flying Burrito Brothers, The Zombies, Red House Painters, Vashti Bunyan, Gilian Welch, The Smiths, The Ronnettes, Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, Pink Floyd, The Byrds, Leonard Cohen, Merle Haggard, The Softies, Gene, The Kinks, Tim Hardin, Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, Simon & Garfunkel, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Sundays, Rocketship, Donovan, Holy Moses!!, Big Star
Sounds Like: REVIEWS/PRESS:
Geraint Jones, Comes With a Smile, U.K., Summer 2004:
"resplendent in sonic riches....It's only very occasionally that you hear something by an artist that you have never heard of before, and wonder where they've been all your life. Imagine an enticing hybrid of the best of Luna, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Low, and a host of fantastically obscure 60's orchestral pop....in a parallel universe, 'Chancery Lane' would be number one all year around..."
Miles of Music, April 2004:
"to the hushed, meditative quality of Iron & Wine or Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, Honeychurch adds pedal steel and incandescent strings....rapturous, romantic, blissfully transcendent, sweetly reverent, sun-drenched pop"
Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover, Jack’s Top 40, May 2004:
"Imagine if The Red House Painter's Mark Kozelek added harmonies out of Mojave 3 and the Byrds....the singing, strings, and lap steel are exquisite. Like the Pernice Brothers, you suspect these guys dig Bread as much as Gram Parsons, hooked on the elegiac sweetness of old songs....the title is so true!"
Peer Bataille, Alt-Country Newsletter, Netherlands, April 2004:
"A record full of thoughtful, fairy-tale-like songs...brings to mind the Cowboy Junkies and Belle and Sebastian, with harmonies in the vein of Crosby Stills Nash and Young or Simon & Garfunkel ....pedal steel saturates the record with country-pop colour...."
Mark Whitfield, Americana UK, England, May 2004:
"Belle and Sebastian meets The Byrds, with exquisite results...Hopwood writes amazing songs. A genuinely beautiful record which burns a little brighter with every listen."
Chuck Zak, Delusions of Adequacy, June 2004:
"Honeychurch can summon a thoroughly disarming moment of teary melody that makes you feel as though you've just lost an irreplaceable lover, when in fact you may have never even had one....lovely enough to make your chin tremble, as cellos and violins saw and swoon in the background. The whole disc is really quite deep in quality songs, effective but unobtrusive playing and tender vocals....reveals a sensitivity and subtlety welcome in any band seeking to combine new and old methods of expressing melancholy."No Depression, November 2004:
"Honeychurch blends the influences of Neil Young, Nick Drake, Mojave 3, and The Byrds to make gorgeous pastoral music, full of mournful pedal steel and rich harmonies....lush, organic, orchestral, aching, ethereal...."
For Fans Of:Ryan Adams, Low, Magnetic Fields, The Band, Mojave3, Iron and Wine, Neil Young, Gram Parsons, The Byrds, Elliot Smith, Kings of Convenience, America, Sufjan Stevens, Innocence Mission, Ida, Duncan Browne, Damien Jurado, Bright Eyes, Sun Kil Moon, Bread, Pernice Brothers, Denison Witmer, The Decemberists, Flying Burrito Brothers, My Morning Jacket, Wilco, The Clientele, Nick Drake, etc.
Record Label: self-release
Type of Label: None