Shane Tutmarc & The Traveling Mercies are a family band. Shane, who has been putting out quirky pop albums under the moniker Dolour since 2001, recruited his brother Brandon Tutmarc (drums) and cousin Ryan Tutmarc (bass) to explore the endless varieties of American music.

The Tutmarc family itself has a long curious history with music in the Northwest. From the Mercies' great-grandfather, Paul Tutmarc, who has been credited as the inventor of the electric guitar, to Paul's second-wife Bonnie Guitar, who rose to national acclaim with her 1957 hit, "Dark Moon", to their grandpa, Bud Tutmarc (Paul's son), world-renowned Hawaiian steel guitar player – they have music in their blood!

It was when Bud passed away last December that Shane, Brandon and Ryan first convened in their grandma's basement. Filled with memories and mementos of Bud's life in music all around them, they jammed on the instruments that had been stored in the basement.

Soon enough, they started digging through the family archives and played songs that their great-grandfather loved ("Oh Lonesome Me"), songs of Bonnie's ("Get Your Lie the Way You Want It"), and spiritual hymns ("Farther Along") to help heal the family pain of their recent loss.

After a number of these get-togethers they started to find their own sound, taking old gospel traditionals, mixing in some blues and country, and writing their own modern classics - and they became the Traveling Mercies.

Everything seemed to happen so quickly and naturally for them. Within only a couple weeks of their first time playing together, they booked their first show. Recreating their grandma's basement on stage, the three Tutmarcs felt right at home in front of an audience, all sitting in plastic chairs facing each other and playing their hearts out. People spontaneously started dancing and clapping along to the songs, and the show ended with a screaming encore, which they could not oblige (they had already played every song they knew).

By the time they were ready to record, they didn't want to dilly-dally around (something that Shane was familiar with, spending years on each Dolour album), so they booked two days in local MRX studio, which is known for being the only studio in town to record exclusively on analog tape. They recorded all the songs live - including vocals! - with very minimal overdubs. Each overdub was special though - they got Shane and Brandon's father on Dobro and their grandma on background vocals. One of the most special overdubs on the album was from Shane's good friend (and Dolour collaborator) Eric Howk. Eric had recently injured his spinal cord, and laid down a bluegrass-tinged guitar solo from his hospital bed!

Everything about the Traveling Mercies has been spontaneous and fun, and helped these Tutmarcs to establish a place in their family musical lineage - while also paying tribute to it. After a listen or two, you'll feel just like one of the family!
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.