In Stereo Press

Interview by Kris Miller and Brendan Hamilton. Photos taken by Miller and Hamilton at the Southern Sun in Boulder, CO (7/28/08) and Oskar Blues in Lyons, CO (7/26/08).

Formed in Athens, Georgia, in 2001, the Packway Handle Band is currently in the midst of a U.S. tour following the January release of their third studio album, a self-titled, independent effort. They play a distinctive style of bluegrass that melds the old and the new in impressive four-part harmonies and energetic live performances gathered around condenser mics. On Monday night, the band was kind enough to sit down with us before their show at the Southern Sun in Boulder, Colorado. The Packway Handle Band is Tom Baker (banjo), Josh Erwin (guitar), Andrew Heaton (fiddle), Zach McCoy (bass), and Michael Paynter (mandolin).

In Stereo: Our first question is a pretty basic one—why bluegrass? We’ve read that you all have backgrounds in rock, so what is it that drew you to this particular genre?

Josh Erwin: When we started playing, it was Tom, and Michael and I, as far as bluegrass and this arrangement. We’d all played rock and everything like you were saying, but this was just a new, creative way to play music. I’d never sang with anyone else before and done harmony. I don’t think anyone else had either. It just happened to be, like, “Oh these are cool songs, let’s try to do this,” and Tom had a banjo and his brother [Doug Baker] came out and everyone was playing and that was that. It was just a different way to have something to do.

Michael Paynter: It actually worked out really well when Tom’s brother Doug came out, because he was very adamant about us learning songs and putting together harmonies, and I think the harmony aspect was something that drew us all into it more. But it is interesting that of all the different genres, we landed in bluegrass, because there are so many different mediums, but it works for us, at least so far.

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If I may first, quote from their entire bio for support,

“Serena and Dan are Colorado natives, born and raised in the ‘burbs. Once they escaped, they fell madly in love with things that make little sense. Dan eventually became the high ruler of a small island, where Serena stationed her troops during an impending takeover of Daniel and his servants. After battling it out for two decades, the two realized they both liked flamingos and fairs, and the rest is the history created in their first chapbook, Fantastic Flamingo Fair. There is currently little animosity between the two, although Daniel often misses tyranny, and Serena, hostile takeover. Both are currently students of many schools, love love love art (of all kinds and genres), and are always looking for others to collaborate with.”

When I first engaged with this package, which includes a chapbook by Serena Chopra entitled, The Land of Many Uses, and an untitled CD with music by Daniel McDonald, I was taken aback by the beautiful details that they had put into the presentation. It’s amazing when someone can go to an open mic and get their hands on a FREE chapbook and CD. It’s even better when you get to hear both the music and poetry performed in the same night.

The Land of Many Uses is, at first, a beautiful book just to look at. This is not your plain old Times New Roman, recycled paper chapbook. The entire book is illustrated by Serena and Daniel. The colors jump off the page and create spaces of clarity and harmonious confusion. The opening page gets the reader ready with a picture a girl staring into a darkness, a portal perhaps. There is no telling where this will take you, or if this is even the beginning. The first poem is titled VI, so are we somewhere in the middle of a journey? According to the page prior to this poem, where the reader is asked to turn the book upside down then back again, our world, our perspective, even our senses won’t be the same. Throughout the book Serena showcases her attention to the lyric voice and her attention to detailed, though abstract, images. One of my

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