The Underhill Family Orchestra

Fairhope Brewing Company and Underhill Family Orchestra are proud to present this Brewsician Collaboration #2, the Stories of Appalachia Smoked Porter. It was available during Underhill's show at the FBC Taproom for one night only on August 22, 2014 (with the possibility of being brought back one day if you wish real hard upon a shooting star). - ModMobilian.com

It's a good thing for the Underhill Family Orchestra that they sometimes refer to their rootsy rock as "bar fight music," because that attitude came in handy Friday at the Hangout Music Fest.

It's not that fists were thrown: In fact, overall, it would be hard to imagine a more mellow venue than this beach fest. But the opportunity that brought the Mobile band to the festival's BMI stage also presented it with a challenge or two. The band was one of six in a contest conducted in conjunction with radio station WZEW-FM 92.1, and the winner wasn't determined until recently – so early schedules simply listed a performance by "Contest Winner."

The solution to this problem: humor. "We're the Underhill Family Orchestra," singer Steven Underhill joked from the stage. "We are formerly known as 'Winner.'"

The bigger issue was the fact that California rock band Dawes had fired up on the nearby Hangout Stage just a few minutes earlier, and the group sounded like it had scaled up its sound to match the size of the main-stage crowd. The bleed-over might have been daunting, particularly considering that Underhill's songs can be intricate, melancholy and densely literate.

The solution: Make it rock. The group came out swinging, emphasizing the bare-knuckled nature of its sound, with two electric guitars and an electric mandolin churning to propel tunes such as "The Ballad of Aldo and Kat" and "Stalls Massacree at New Independence."

In an environment full of distractions, the band showed a knack for roping listeners in. After leading the audience in a fairly complex sing-along part on "Stalls Massacree," Steven Underhill gave them full credit for their contribution:

"We're the Underhill Family Orchestra," he said. "And now so are you." - Al.com

The Chick-fil-A in downtown Mobile, Alabama is flushed with starving artists this afternoon, taking their lunch break from the Southeastern Theatre Conference, a meat market for aspiring stage professionals that descends on the Azalea City each spring.

Last year, during a similarly maddening lunch rush, two Chick-fil-A employees walked out in the middle of their shifts, which is an event that may repeat itself today: a little past twelve, the famed southern eatery is so backed up that even if you mobile ordered—like Steven Laney did—there’s still another fifteen minute wait after arriving at the restaurant.

But for someone who was bartending until 4:30 in the morning, Steven Laney is surprisingly patient. A theatre major in college, and thus, a veteran of the service industry, he’s well-acquainted with the way these two worlds collide, and lets the tension between hungry patrons and overwhelmed staff pass him by like an idle wind, as he waits for his sandwich in the Alabama heat.

Plus, it’s the eve of his band’s debut album, so right now, frustration is far away.

Bearded and thirty with shoulder length hair pulled back into a ponytail when he’s not on stage, Laney is one of the people responsible for shepherding the Underhill Family Orchestra from their formation in 2010 to Tell Me That You Love Me, the band’s first release since signing to Skate Mountain Records in February; another is Joelle Rosen, a sweet, vintage, red-haired vocalist, who founded the band with Laney while in their early 20’s. Over the last decade, the two have been present for all the changes typical of a part-time, working-class, local, music outfit, having navigated stops and starts, stylistic pivots, an extended hiatus, a transition from weekend-hobby to full-time passion, and a host of lineup changes that saw the Underhill Family Orchestra move from its three founding members in its earliest incarnation to as many as nine within their first calendar year together.
More recently, though, the band’s roster has settled, and now, Laney and Rosen are flanked by guitarist and mandolin player Ben Cook, drummer Roy Durand, and bassist Joe Grove.



Which, for all intents and purposes, is where the band’s story begins.

Despite nearly a decade of on-and-off music making, it’s difficult to find anything substantial on the internet about the Underhill Family Orchestra before Skate Mountain, which is initially perplexing (especially if you’re tasked with writing a story about the Underhill Family Orchestra). But there is an explanation: after the current lineup fell into place about the three years ago, and the band’s members fully committed to one another—and after “the right person saw them,” and the band signed with Skate Mountain—the Underhill Family Orchestra chose to strike their previous records from the internet, and present this version of themselves to the world: the older, wiser, settled Underhill Family Orchestra, who had survived their years in flux, and come out on the other side with a firm understanding of their identity.

So while not technically a debut album (there are two previous Underhill records, which now only exist in physical copies), Tell Me That You Love Me is the band’s singular offering on Spotify, which makes it their debut, “as far as 99% of people are concerned.”

“In retrospect, those old records felt like a breeding ground for this album,” Laney says. “When we struck everything off of media, it didn’t hurt because we knew we were making this record.”

“It’s like getting a brand new start,” Rosen echoes. “
It was like, ‘This is our time to do this. Let’s really make a debut album for the world.’ This isn’t just playing in your hometown. It’s a full-time job, and it’s different than being in a band that plays shows here and there. We asked, ‘Do we want to bring this to everybody?’ And the answer was yes. We have a mission and a purpose.”

Mission and purpose come into sharp focus on Tell Me That You Love Me, a dynamic record that harnesses the self-assuredness of an outfit with Underhill’s experience, yet pounds with a newcomer’s fluid passion: on “Oak Holler,” for instance, Laney and Rosen declare their intentions, as their textured harmonies collide with Southern rock licks and Big Easy trombones, the two chanting, “Oh, we’re gonna make it,” in a style that sounds like the Delta’s answer to Of Monsters and Men.



However, “making it” entails more than a record deal for the Underhill Family Orchestra: it extends to culture, community, and the concept of family itself—hopefully, to quitting bartending jobs to pursue music in the way they’ve always intended.

But the path to those loftier goals begins with infectious, eclectic music, produced by a group of Alabama noisemakers with a diminutive internet presence.

Upon a first listen, the Underhill Family Orchestra seems like one of the great, undiscovered festival bands—a group who can be enjoyed without the burden of background or familiarity. Spinning on an axis of catchy, stomp-and-holler folk influenced by Southern rock and progressive pop, the band is full of call-and-response and five-part harmonies, playing like some combination of the Lone Bellow, Skinny Lister, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
But even with as wide of a net as that casts, it’s probably more narrow of a comparison than the Underhills would like—or would joke about—as within the group, there’s a bit of a game made of explaining their style: Rosen likes to say “It’s music you can dance or cry to, or both at the same time,” while Laney prefers, “a mix between Fleetwood Mac and Fleet Foxes.” One review likened the group to The Muppets house band, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, which Rosen says is “Steven’s dream,” before Steven goes on to say, “If you like Chicago or Noah Gunderson, you’ll like our music,” a sentiment he later balances out by comparing his band to the fickle, Mobile weather.

“If you don’t like it, just wait around a second. It’s going to change.”

The evidence of that oft-used, hokey joke is present throughout Tell Me That You Love Me, with songs like their bouncing, soulful first single, “When The Trumpet Sounds,” which is reminiscent of a leaner version of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. But there are along songs like “Wooden Hymnal in C,” a nearly-acapella Southern spiritual, as well as “Silverhill Church Girl,” which is likely the album’s standout track: what begins as a sweetly sung reel with a warbling, whistled solo, the song changes tones midstream, as Laney’s half-picked acoustic is overtaken by Ben Cook’s electric guitar, the sound growing into an arena-filling anthem with huge refrains and the infinite drums that have served the Lumineers so well over the last half-decade. But beyond that, the album melts down unexpected styles, taking mid-song asides that include field hollers, Second Line Jazz, ragtime pianos, and a recording of Rosen’s grandmother, talking about the death of her husband.
Discreetly recorded at her kitchen table while the band was staying with her after a show, the story begins on “When the Trumpet Sounds,” but doesn’t conclude until “Holy Roller,” as the album’s first single gets a second-life on its eight-minute finale.



While it may sound like an overwhelming mix, it works, giving them a feel distinct from the live experience that the band has long prided itself on.

“Our music is interesting to watch and to listen to,” Rosen says. “It’s loud and rambunctious, then it’s soft and heartfelt. When people see us perform, they’re like ‘Oh, I wasn’t expecting that. Let’s see what they do next.’ We try not to be super expected. We work really hard to keep it interesting.”

“Not everything has to be 1-4-5 with a bridge,” Laney says. “It can be fairly strange and still be accessible and still be pop. Our music is not, by any means, technically sound. I don’t believe in the express use of music theory to make music…If people stopped thinking about how to make everything perfect and just went for it, the world would be a better place.”

Clearly, the Underhill Family Orchestra feels no pressure to exist within the imaginary confines of genre, and if the group wants to be defined by anything, it’s not their sound, but the culture they’ve been able to create: it’s the idea of community, the idea of family, which applies indiscriminately to everyone from frontman to newest fan.

Most emblematic of this idea, beyond the band’s name, is face paint, a visible representation of togetherness, which was introduced to the Orchestra in 2011.
After playing together for a year, Laney decided to pursue a theater program in Germany, which led to what was then the Underhills’ “last show.” After a few weeks, however, Laney longed for his musical brotherhood in Mobile, and returned to pick up where the band had left off. Following that hiatus, the group decided to start wearing face paint on stage as a symbol of unity, of commitment to one another, which not only became a trademark look, but stood for a larger ethos that was best explained by Ben Cook in a 2012 interview, when he told Southern Rambler, “You go into a crowd of people you don’t know, but if five other people are wearing face paint, at least you have five people you can relate to. You have family there.”

Quickly, the face paint spilled off stage to fans old and new, who wanted part of the unity that the band in front of them was hoping standing for.

“We make people part of it. Everyone’s part of the family,” Rosen says.

“I want everyone to feel at home,” Laney continues. “We harp so much on the ‘family’ aspect of the band because once you’re in, you’re in. Once you’re in on the show, once you start talking to us, guess what? You’re family now. You’re stuck with us.” (Over the course of our interview, this proves true: after Laney and Rosen say that the conversation allows me entry into the Underhill Family, I begin to refer to myself as “Cousin Billy,” which they not only don’t object to, but encourage.)



However, face paint is easily applied, and if the Underhills did not mean what they say or live up to the spirit they stand for, audiences would sniff it out quickly, as disingenuity is more apparent on stage than anywhere else.

But that’s not the case, and the reason the group has been able to carve out a loyal, growing group of fans across the southeast is because of an apparent authenticity, delivered with self-belief, not self-seriousness.

“Our idea of a show is putting on a vest, maybe a tie, putting on a fun hat, painting our faces, and trying to have what ultimately turns into a silly, fun time,” Laney says. “I’d like it to feel like a cartoon version of Dr. Hook, and I think it does a lot of the time…Everyone’s dancing and joking with each other, and we just try to turn it into a party. I think Andrew W.K. would be proud.”

While it’s a more polished version now, that sentiment is borrowed from Laney’s days spent in a post-rock band, back when “a bunch of college kids got down on this insane-sounding hardcore music that was appreciatively untouched by the idea that everything needs to sound good.”

“It wasn’t about everything sounding perfect, it was about getting out there, leaving everything on the stage, leaving everything on the album, and hopefully making someone enjoy it,” Laney says.

Even if it’s now dressed up in a bolo tie, that human element still exists, as the Underhill Family Orchestra is more concerned with “leaving it all out there” than perfection, more interested in creating something enjoyable, and therefore, real.

“The history of the music where we’re from is, ‘Hey, let’s mess up a bunch and then sing over it,’” Laney jokes. “We go through our lives with this idea that everything is going to go perfect that day. Then you remember nothing is going to go perfect ever—why would it? That’s when the mistakes and the improvisations start happening, and that’s how you make a good life for yourself. So why can’t we take that same thought set and apply it to our art?”

Manifested on stage, the imperfect personnel in the Underhill Family Orchestra is as eclectic as their music, the group making the same holistic sense when they perform their art as when it’s captured on record: among the band, there’s an agreement that “the only person that looks cool on stage” is bassist Joe Grove. Everyone else claims to be less so, the eccentricities of their band beginning with their wild-haired, tattooed drummer, Roy Durand, who has affectionately received the nickname “Animal” for the way he behaves behind his kit, pounding at his skins with an unhinged ferocity, and providing vocals from the back of the stage, as he once did as part of a “Zappa-esque” group called Vagabond Swing. His energy is a contagion and often carries over to Laney, who returns to his post-rock self, swinging guitars around his torso—a rarity in the roots world—while “natural born stomper” Ben Cook slams on guitars and mandolins, always at risk of putting a hole in the floor, The sole-female, Rosen manages big hats, hand claps, and tambourines, carrying herself with a smoothness that seems improbable in the same band as Animal Durand, but her downhome, call-and-response is a necessary counterpoint, adding texture and personality to a group that demands attention, before even playing a note.

For better or for worse, the Underhill Family Orchestra is entirely themselves, which allows their audience to do the same: like them, our lives have been defined by mistakes and improvisations, and when looking at the stage, those things have clearly helped make this band, in ways that extend beyond their sound.

Because the plan wasn’t to wait around for a decade before getting signed.

That’s what happened, though, and the Underhill Family Orchestra may be better for it: the reason that old fans have followed, and new fans will follow, is because the band means what they say, and try to live off stage with the spirit they’ve fortified on it, which can be hard to do when the Chick-fil-A downtown is overrun with hungry artists on a humid, late-May, Alabama afternoon.

But Steven Laney and his band-turned-family have always been surprisingly patient. - Glide Magazine

The Underhill Family Orchestra can’t wait to dive into the Christmas holidays, and want to take you there with their new three-song EP Extra Presents. Featuring two classics (“Blue Christmas” and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”) and an original (“Christmas Day”), it is the perfect choice for your yearly party.
“We like the concept of Christmas. Not for the coercion or mythos, but for the togetherness,” says vocalist Steven Laney. “We wanted to create something that less celebrated the spirit of Christmas and celebrated the tactility of being with your loved ones, or not being with your loved ones, and the visceral experience related therein. I think we created something that feels human and can thereby relate to that very human experience, whether be elation or disparity in the interconnectivity and ultimate hardships that the celebration can bring.” The theme of togetherness and connectivity was explored on the band’s lauded debut album Tell Me That You Love Me, out May 4 via Skate Mountain Records. - Goseelivemusic.co

The Underhill Family Orchestra, who released their debut LP, Tell Me That You Love Me (stream at Spotify or Soundcloud) via Skate Mountain Records on May 4th, is back with a highly entertaining new video for album track "When The Trumpet Sounds" which premiered today at Farce The Music.

"This is an Americana band that actually sounds like they're having a great time, and it's infectious," says Farce The Music in the premiere. "Give this video a look - it's hilarious - then give the album a listen - you won't regret it." Patterned after those super high-tech televsion shows from the 1980s, TUFO takes us on a rollicking ride as they try to fit into the corporate mold. Were they successful? Check out the video here and find out:

The band, which was recently recognized by Playlistplay as one of "4 Artist You Need To Know" from this year's Westport Roots Festival in Kansas City, has been tearing up the highways bringing their raucous energy to stages across the country to support the release of Tell Me That You Love Me. DittyTV calls their live show "one of the most kinetic and absolutely captivating performances…Underhill deliver a wide range of sounds from stomp-and-holler rock to tenderhearted tales of finer feelings betrayed. Their upcoming album...will solidify their reputation as one of Americana’s must-see live bands."

The album, produced by Noah Shain, swirls with soulful harmonies, powerful riffs and gut-punching rhythms; the band's deeply-rooted Southern influences are on full display as the Mobile, Alabama-based collective explores the ideas of togetherness, love, and finding "what makes you a kid again." From New Orleans second-line brass, to swamp-infused blues-rock, nods to spirtuals and spoken recollections from bandmember Joelle Rosen's Maw Maw Ida about meeting, and losing, the love of her life, it's impossible to remain unmoved by Tell Me That You Love Me.

TUFO Tour Dates

June 14 - The Earl - Atlanta, GA

June 15 - The Saturn - Birmingham, AL

June 22 - The Logon Cafe - Beaumont, TX

June 28 - The Commodore - Charleston, SC

June 29 - The Pour House Music Hall - Raleigh, NC

June 30 - The Commodore - Charleston, SC

iTunes - Spotify - Amazon - Apple Music - Google Play

Tell Me That You Love Me Track Listing:

Oak Holler

Chickasaw Fields

When The Trumpet Sounds

Nebraska Town

Wooden Hymnal In C

On The Wind

Oh Spirit, Bring Me Home

Silverhill Church Girl

The Door/The Heart

Holy Roller - GrateFul Web

The Underhill Family Orchestra are a collective of Alabama Delta artists who have been taking their music scene by storm with their uninhibited and celebratory blend of Southern influences. The folk-rocking quintet is intent on resurrecting American roots music with a contemporary soulful rock flair that will undoubtedly get audience members out of their chairs and grooving along. The group's musicians may not be blood relatives, but they really come across as a tight-knit group with their music—and one that is willing to bring all of their listeners into the familial fold while they're at it. Fans of Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats definitely need apply.

It takes mere moments to get caught in the sway of their latest single, "When the Trumpet Sounds". It's from off of their forthcoming album, Tell Me That You Love Me, that's set to be released on 4 May via Skate Mountain. Prior to its release, fans of the band can give "When the Trumpet Sounds" a listen below, as well as get caught up with the band via a PopMatters Q&A with vocalist Steven Laney.


What is "When the Trumpet Sounds" about?

The song is about the longing you feel to return to someone you love and their patient attempt to be supportive, especially applying to what we do: playing out on the road for much of many months. Besides approaching the concept of lonely patience, it also deals with the metaphysical concept of meeting one's love's maker, whatever or whoever that may be, and having the souls of your loved one intertwine with yours in the extraphysical meeting place in some afterlife. It's a sentiment that we are always searching for completion and that our loved ones are instrumental in that sense of fulfillment.

Who or what were some influences when writing "When the Trumpet Sounds"?

I think songs that inspire movement or journeys helped us come up with a lot of the "feel" of the tune. Some more obvious, maybe even linear, influences are "Spirit in the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum and "Moving Right Along" by....Jim Henson? Kermit and Fozzie Bear? Some more subverted ideas were inspired by the hymn "Love Constraining To Obedience" by John Newton and William Cowper and "Pure Blue Patience" by Young Valley from Jackson, Mississippi. Some textual references came from the books of Revelations and Isaiah from the Bible and from Thomas Merton's "Seven Storey Mountain", which was the namesake of the tour we were on when the song was written.

Any cool, funny, or interesting stories from writing and recording this one?

Absolutely! since there are two versions of this particular tune, the second of which appears on the album, we ended up recording five or so different endings. For a while, it was kind of like Clue with Tim Curry or a "choose your own adventure" book. We went back and forth on a few different endings and ended up changing a good deal of the "second act" for the sake of making it a good radio track. The album version is considerably different and is a really different take on the same song starting at around the two-minute mark. We like to say that we make music you can "dance or cry to", so, we are super excited about people getting the chance to pick and choose based on how they're feeling. It makes it fun for us and (hopefully) for the listener. - Pop Matters

Can you talk to us more about your latest single “Chickasaw Fields”?

Steven Laney: Sure! The song is a kind of gentleman’s argument with a gentle-lady. It touches on the strengths of compassion, compromise and working together in a relationship. We liked putting the song into a format that mirrors those classic Johnny Cash and June Carter tracks. It’s a feel that the band loves and obviously has a lot of respect for, given that history. I think it’s a fun twist on the ‘call and response’ song style and structure, with an upbeat, but admittedly agitated, sense of urgency. Taking that sweetness that June and Johnny had on stage and making it more relatable to us by adding in the actual frustration of having one of these types of conversations (that we now know was a huge factor in their relationship, also) helped us make a song that has a sobering realness that you don’t always find in the simplified and errant versions of love found in ‘rom-coms’ and sentimental love songs. The song ends on a note of euphoria and a persistent promise–I love writing like that. It makes it feel more like an epic poem or a hero’s journey sort of story, to me.”

Did any particular event in particular inspire you to write this song?

Steven Laney: “That’s always a tough question. I think conveying a group of feelings lyrically is just as important as basing a song on any one specific thing. I think our experiences dealing with relational dissonance were certainly fuel for the content of the song which, for me, is inherently relatable. I mean, we all have arguments and disagreements. Convincing the listener that they are not alone and having them feel the same emotions that you are feeling or have felt and finding oneness in that is a much more moving goal. I think every good story is based on truth, and our opinions and feelings are compilations of our experiences.”

Any plans to release a video for the single?

Joelle Rosen: “We recently recorded a live, stripped-down version of ‘Chickasaw Fields’ (think La Blogotheque Take Away Shows) and we plan to release that soon. We want to make a lot of music videos and have multiple concepts ready, so hopefully we’ll have a lot more content coming your way.”

Steven Laney: “I tend to have a lot of music video ideas. You can always count on us at least having something visual to accompany the songs that we will be emphasizing.”

The single comes off your new album Tell Me That You Love Me – what’s the story behind that title?

Steven Laney: “Oh man. Ok, A) I think a big theme for the record is, in a broad stroke, love. Love itself isn’t really a word that is curtailed into a single meaning but can be used to express many multiple emotions and states of mind; and B) I like to think of love, and this is where I start to sound like a nihilist or something, as loss. I think they are secretly synonymous with each other and fettered to each other. If you love something you will lose something. Everything in love which is worked for, not given or freely bestowed on anyone, can be rephrased in a way to talk about the loss that one incurred by falling in love, or even by losing yourself in love. Love is compromise and compromise means giving up a little something. I think it’s really beautiful; I don’t think that love is begrudged by loss, I think it is strengthened by it.

The way you love affects the way you want to be loved. I think the record deals with loss and pain and hurt, but all to the expense of the euphoria and fulfillment you gain with finding someone who deeply experiences the same feelings you do for them…. even if they do throw cheetos at your face when you fall asleep watching ‘The Mindy Project.’”

How was the recording and writing process?

Roy Durand: “‘Chickasaw’ being the first song we touched on in the studio made it a pretty cool introduction to working with our producer, Noah Shain. It was one of the drum parts I had worked on the most before entering the studio and I still wasn’t pleased with it. Noah saw where I was trying to take the part, and gave me the exact direction it needed. It’s probably one of the coolest drum parts I’ve ever recorded.”

Joelle Rosen: “When Steven first came to us with the song, explaining a call-and-respond Johnny and June feel, I immediately connected to it and the writing began. It’s great when the whole band can connect to a concept and run with it. It’s definitely one of my favorite songs to play live and I feel it shows a quintessential Underhill vibe. The harmonies and background melodies we added with Noah in the studio really put a fresh spin on the song and made it one of my favorite parts of the album.”

Joe Grove: “This was the first song in which I got to participate in the writing process. We’d actually been playing this song for a good while before putting it on this album. Steven had the bones and concept for the song, and we all sat down in the apartment Ben and Steven used to share and we took a couple verses. I remember I put in the line that goes ‘shaky fingers take morning coffee // never had none like you could do.’ It was a great experience for me getting my first chance to contribute to the creative process, and that sort of set the bar for me in knowing that I’m not just a hired gun playing bass anymore, I’m a part of this band, and I get to help shape it and have an impact.”

What role does Mobile play in your writing?

Steven Laney: “Mobile is home, home is universal. I think the culture in the area is precedent to our style and sound; everything is an influence. I wake up looking at Mobile and I go to sleep listening to Mobile. It’s important to care about where you’re from and I think that care influences you. Whether you get a Bigger Box from Foosackly’s or a Lafayette Burger from The Blind Mule or if you walk your dog through Cathedral Square to get to Hayley’s, or whatever your fill-in-the-blank version of that is, your hometown affects and binds you together on a daily basis.”

What aspect of love did you get to explore on this record?

Joelle Rosen: “Love is a constant theme in our writing—maintaining it, losing it, balancing it. Some songs are based on our own personal experiences and some are fictitious scenarios with real emotion. In ‘Chickasaw,’ the repetition of ‘I don’t need that… I don’t want to… I just might try…’ is something I feel like most people have experienced at one point or another in relationships—when you love someone but circumstances are hard or you’re learning how the other person works. We also have the ‘Tell Me That You Love Me’ line buried in ‘Chickasaw’ as well as ‘When The Trumpet Sounds.’ At the end of the day, we all want and need to be loved.”

Any plans to hit the road?

Ben Cook: “We are on the road as much as possible. From two-show weekends to weeks on end across the country, we work as hard as possible to get our music to as many ears as we can. Having someone hear the album is one thing, but being able to interact, perform and hopefully make lasting friendships is what The Underhill Family Orchestra is all about. We want to play more festivals and certainly get over seas and be able to reach more demographics and countries with our music, but as far as being on the road, you won’t have to wait for very long to see us in your town.”

Joelle Rosen: “We are always on the road. Live shows give the audience a closer experience with the music and it’s a great way to connect with people. Also, playing shows all the time is the best rehearsal you can get. We are planning a few lengthy runs this year already.”

What else is happening next in The Underhill Family Orchestra?

Steven Laney: “We have road dates, tours, videos, an album. Just trying to keep our noses down and work as hard as we can.” - Vents Magazine