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Guest Writer – Musician on Musician: Ian Fitzgerald on Will Houlihan

Rural Introspection Study Group, a record that made me wonder if I could possibly make something that good with just a guitar, a harmonica, and my voice.When we next shared a show just four months later, Will was already describing his next record: the characters; the stories; the themes; the accompanying visuals; a full band.  A full band?  I had no idea how the perfectly unadorned sound of Haunt The House, a sound I had by then rigidly defined in my mind, could bear the intrusion of another instrument or voice or anything else.  I feared the worst.
0530_Local_topThen I heard Will joined at a show a few months later by Amato Zinno on upright bass and Bessie Bessin on accordion and vocals, and I heard them play some of Will’s new songs.  And I realized that was Haunt The House.  Then I went to the Columbus that night in May and heard that trio turned into a five-piece band by Allysen Callery on vocals and Stephen Lloyd Law on mandolin, and I heard them play more of Will’s new songs.  And I realized, no, that was Haunt The House.  Then I drove home and listened to my newly acquired copy of Jack Rabbit Jones and recognized how far this was from Rural Introspection Study Group, how different the language and music was, and just how quickly Haunt The House had transformed itself.

Okay, Will.  You’re scaring me.

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