Equipped with an orchestral ensemble of banjo, accordion, trumpet, xylophone, shepherd harp, musical saw, pedal steel, a suitcase pump organ, cittern, guitar and dobro, double bass, foot percussion, various ukuleles and mechanical horned violins, Orpheum Bell performs an original “Country & Eastern” songbook of lullabies, stomps, dirt-road ballads, and gypsy suites and waltzes.

The band came together in 2005 when former Chicago bandmates (Serge van der Voo, Aaron Klein) reconnected in an old Michigan house to trade tapes and listen. Combing through the ruins of originals ideas and melodic fragments, they began to develop a lyrical, percussive sound driven by Klein’s “downtrodden rural poetry” and van der Voo’s fluid, Hot Club-infused bass lines. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.