Young Butler rock band reaches milestone
The indie/lyrical/folk rock band from Butler called Hand Drawn Mountains has hit another goal on its list: to play on a main stage at the upcoming Cornerstone Music Festival in Illinois.
The young group placed third in a field of 155 bands last year to earn the right to play in the New Band Showcase at the Cornerstone festival.
This year over the course of the six-day festival plus pre-Cornerstone celebration, it will play a total of five concerts, the last one on the Gallery Stage on the final day.
Cornerstone in recent years has hosted upwards of 15,000 people. The dates this year are June 28 to July 3.
"We always wanted to play festivals like this and Cornerstone is one of the big ones, that's the dream festival," said lead vocalist Christopher Wagner of Butler. "(Being invited to play there) means we've earned it, the respect of our peers. That's very important. We've made it to that point."
He started the band of now twenty- and thirty-somethings in 2007.
"I was part of two other bands, neither very serious, and I wanted to put together something more serious and set some goals," Wagner said. "We all have very similar beliefs."
Hand Drawn Mountains is made up of six members, all from the Butler area: in addition to lead vocalist Wagner, there's his wife of 11 years, Christa Wagner, who plays keyboards, concert bells and auxiliary percussion and provides backup vocals; Jonathan Pincek, who plays lead guitar and banjo and sings backup vocals; Marcia Furman, acoustic guitarist and backup vocalist; Glenn Clune, bass guitarist, and Nathan Renwick, drummer.
The group took its name from this phrase, "We look at what has been made in the world around us and we imagine that it was hand drawn," said Christa Wagner.
"We all do this because we love music and love using and sharing our God-given gifts as an expression of creativity and art," she said.
Last year the group released six songs on an extended play release called "Old Fires."
"We have changed so much since then," said Christopher. "A change in direction came last year, and it came just simply because we matured musically. We really changed stylistically. We went from an alt-country to much more of a low-fi, indie rock kind of sound."
The six friends are currently finishing their new full-length album called "Bare Branches," signaling a musical change in direction and growth. There are five as yet unmastered songs that will be released on the group's MySpace page. The album will probably be released as a CD also, Christopher said.
Another of the group's goals is to play its new material as much as possible to as many people as possible, Christopher said.
That's difficult when they all have day jobs or are full-time students, but last year they managed to play between 20 and 30 shows.
In fact, the group will perform as one of eight bands at the fourth annual Solid Rock and Metal Fest this Sunday at the Ambrose Baptist Church, 22 Georgeville Road, Marion Center, Indiana County.
Gates open at noon with the music starting at 1 p.m. Admission, parking and food are free. Call 724-980-1942 or visit www.faithwebsites.com/ambrosebaptist.
For more information or to hear some of their music, visit www.Myspace.com/handdrawnmountains or www.facebook.com/pages/Hand-Drawn-Mountains.
