mid-2002...A folkie named Ben Prewitt, smarting from the breakup of Cowpunk, his first band, invests in a ten dollar harmonica holder and starts playing his Woody Guthrie-type music around the Quad Cities. And he begins writing songs, mostly protest songs, but a few historical ones. They're mostly about coal mining, war, and a boy called John Birkham, and a dead girl named Lilly Schull. April 17th, 2004...Lumpy's in Davenport. Ben plays a show at a STD-rific bar at the top of the Brady Street hill in Davenport. On the bill, mostly taken up by The One Night Standards and The Metrolites, is a 3-piece band by the name of Braille Illustraited. This folkie, after playing some protest songs, goes off stage to get drunk for his 21st birthday. And Braille Illustraited (Adam Hurlburt on guitar, Devin Kirby-Hansen on bass, Al Raymond on drums) does it's alt.rock thing, the folkie gets REALLY drunk. So drunk that he doesn't recognize when one of the bands plays him the birthday song.From these humble, whiskey-soaked beginnings, another series of shows popped up. Lumpy's, The Other Side, and Java Club all became fair game for Braille Illustraited and Ben Prewitt. After awhile, the folkie got interested in playing in a band. And on his birthday then next year, he played a show with another group by the name of Burnt Ends. He met Nate Wall, a mandolin player. And the next Saturday, Ben, Devin, Jamey Cummins (Parish Festival), Nate Wall, and John Watkins (a last minute addition made by Nate) all gathered in Neal Smith's (Metrolites) basement and recorded about an hours worth of loose, unpolished folk music, including a song about coalminer John Birkham's father, and a war song about going off to the Philippines.And from that night came Guthrie, a folk band consisting of Ben Prewitt on guitar and harmonica, Devin Kirby-Hansen on bass, Jamey Cummins on banjo. It was a good lineup, but everyone else was too busy. Jamey had another band going, Devin had two others. After awhile, Jamey dropped out, and Ben and Devin played shows, always with Braille Illustraited, and now and then with Quiet Bears, Burnt Ends, Rosalee Motor Revival, and Parish Festival. Braille Illustraited ran into some trouble, and it's guitarist left. Devin and Al, the bass and drums of the band, formed the Post Mortems, and the two started backing Ben at Guthrie gigs. It wasn't folk music anymore. This was a rock show.Lilly Schull had a voice. They played their first show at The Mill in December, and finally hit their stride in an insane night at the Java Club in February. Since then, Devin's lost control of hundreds of picks, Al has jumped the drumset and tackled audience members, and Ben has been thrown off the top of the bass drum and into a mosh pit.So maybe there's more life than anyone thought in this imaginary dead girl from Texarkana.
