Of all of the folks I have become friends with over the years through music I would say that Connor Millican is one of the few that I had an immediate and undeniable connection and similarity to. Millican spends an incredible and generous amount of his time helping others through The Old Guitar series and lending advice in video, printings, and other formats that are hugely beneficial to artists. I first met him when filming my own episode playing that beat up old Kay acoustic and soon after found myself deep into his original music. And damn, its some great music. Needless to say I have an incredible amount of respect and appreciation for this guy.

Connor has spent some time fine tuning his sound with different players around him. At one point Wise Old Moon was a sort of collection (that I was lucky enough to join a few times – including on this recording) that revolved around Millican’s songs. For their Locals Covering Locals session 3/4 of the now incredibly solid line up was in the mix and the later addition of Dan Liparini on guitar, lap steel and whatever the guy can get his hands on firms this band as one of the most talented young Americana groups in the Northeast.

Connor also introduced me to another one of my favorite new groups, also out of Connecticut…the brothers Meadows: Ian and Dustin known as The Meadows Brothers. With a very David Rawlings/Gillian Welch type vibe that expands in to territories similar to Shovels & Rope / The White Stripes in instrumentation… these boys have got “it”. Beautiful harmonies and some intense guitar runs…oh and the harmonica parts. Its just plain exciting.

Wise Old Moon takes a previously stripped down tune and rocks it up a bit with electric guitars and drums…but stays true to the melody and inserts some really great breaks. And I mean come on, who doesn’t wish they wrote a song called “A Train Makes a Sad, Sad Sound”. In a genre filled with train songs, this is the ultimate hook.