Artist Spotlight: Blank Range

On May 4, Blank Range and Two Gallants will be making their way to the Triangle for a Monday night performance at Cat's Cradle.  These rock bands are in the midst of a US tour that includes 28 different stops.

The members of Blank Range grew up in the Mid-West, mostly in and around the Chicago suburbs. For different reasons, they found themselves in Nashville a few short years ago. Blank Range's members were originally in two separate bands with only the chief songwriters as differing members. For both practical purposes and mutual respect, they decided to merge the two projects into one band with a unique catalog of inspiration, starting with Big Star and Wilco and ranging to jazz music and training.

With no money to get going, the four members recorded a scrappy 6 song EP, Phase II, in a tiny basement and copied it onto cassette for sale. The throwback format inspired a business of sorts - making cassette copies of projects by other Nashville bands to sell at their shows. With a tape-to-tape recorder, a lot of time on their hands, and a small mark-up, eventually the band was able to save enough to record a proper 7 inch with a true engineer, Eric McConnell, at his famed home studio. This is the same studio that Loretta Lynn and Jack White recorded Van Lear Rose.

For more information on Blank Range or Two Gallants, check out the show preview on the Cat's Cradle website.  The show is scheduled to start at 8:30 and doors will open one hour prior at 7:30.  Tickets are just $15 and are still available at www.ticketfly.com.