Event

JOHN TRAIN

With songs that reflect a twangy, melancholy, country stride encased in a folksy, bluegrass rhythm, John Train, a Philadelphia sextet, holds to its own integrity and doesn't need to be loud and brassy in order to be heard. Picking its moniker from the legendary Phil Ochs' pseudonym from the '60s and '70s, the band began forming in 1995 when Jon Houlon (songwriter and vocalist) met Mike Brenner (dobro and guitar), who was playing for the Low Road and Marah. The duo started playing gigs around Philadelphia and made their first cassette tape, All of Your Stories, early in 1996. Since then, John Train has expanded to include Bill Fergusson on mandolin, Steve Demarest on bass, Mark Schreiber on drums/percussion and Mark Tucker on electric and steel guitars. The band has released 4 discs of new material plus a recent cd re-issue of their first cassette and is now in the studio working on the next batch of songs. John Train has opened for the likes of Dave Alvin, Junior Brown, Jesse Winchester, John Wesley Harding, Butch Hancock and Robert Earl Keen.