The Prairie Ghosts
Joliet, Illinois, United States | SELF
Music
Press
JOLIET — Each week we will feature a Joliet area band that plays shows throughout the community. This week’s spotlight belongs to The Prairie Ghosts.
I’m Michael Shehan, lead singer, guitarist, and co-songwriter for The Prairie Ghosts. I have always been into singing, but didn’t pick up a guitar until an injury ended my military career. I broke my neck in a football practice when I was studying at West Point, and while I recovered, I used the internet and a roommate’s guitar to teach myself how to play songs that I always liked to sing. When I was officially discharged from active duty, I reconnected with my high school friends in the area. My grade school friend Brian Seeley had been playing for years, and so Brian and I would get together and jam, with me strumming and singing, and Brian coming up with great licks and solos. We decided to form a band, and the rest is history in the making.
When Brian and I decided to record an album, we decided to get the best musicians we knew. I, as well as three other members of the band, are graduates of Lockport High School. Brian Seeley (lead guitarist, co-songwriter) and I graduated in 1996 together. Michael Bonowicz (keyboards), another of Brian’s childhood friends, graduated a year ahead of us in 1995, and Nick Ledesma (bass) — Brian’s former guitar student — graduated in 2006. We recruited Michael Bonowicz from his band Dot Dot Dot to play keyboards as well as lay down some bass tracks. We brought in Stephan Kohnke of Hello Nuvo and How Far to Austin to drum for us. Nick Ledesma, who earned a Grammy as a sound engineer for work he did as an intern at Joyride Sudios in Chicago, recorded us and co-produced our album as well as played some bass on the record. We are very fortunate that these extremely talented individuals enjoyed our tunes enough to get together and play some live shows.
The Prairie Ghost name is a combination of a couple of different ideas. We hail from what has been historically a prairie area, so it is an expression of our roots. We are proud of our heritage and we are also aware that more of it disappears every year due to urban sprawl — hence the word ghost. The ghost portion is also a reference to what we consider to be a lost art-rock music. Not many people do it these days. We are not looking to be a super-produced flavor-of-the-month pop band. We are an in-your-grill band that is looking to melt your face, whether it’s by playing our original music, which we are very excited about, or by doing stylized covers of tunes that we love from all eras.Speaking of original music, we are very close to releasing our first album, Habit. As of right now, we have only one song to finish recording and producing, and then we will be releasing it digitally as well as physically. It will feature 12 original tracks that we are very proud of. Fans who want to learn more can check us out on Facebook, ReverbNation, or BandPage. Our schedules, songs, videos, and pictures from past shows, writing sessions and recording sessions are posted there.
- A WeekAway in Joliet
Discography
Habit- 2013
Photos
Bio
Michael Shehan picked up a guitar and taught himself a few chords while recovering from a broken neck. He would play and sing his favorite songs around the campfires of summer,entertaining his friends and family until they convinced him he should start a band. Michael and his roommate Cale hung out and wrote a some songs, eventually recording a few. One day, Michael got together with grammar school friend Brian Seeley during a recording session, and they decided to form the greatest band of all time. Their first single, "Nocioni," a tribute to the former Chicago Bulls forward, got substantial airtime on 97.9 FM The Loop and ESPN AM 1000, where Michael was invited to play the song live on the air. Shehan and Seeley formed a trio with Mel Washington, and the Walnuts for Later were born. More songs were written, local shows were played, and the Walnuts were invited back to play at the local bars they booked, and were selected for Chicago Acoustic Underground, episode 137. The band grew, continued to write more music and expand their repertoire, reorganized, and in the fall of 2012, the newly chiristened Prairie Ghosts are ready to release their first LP "Habit."
Influences:
Beck, Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones, Guns N' Roses, Black Crowes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young, Hank Williams, Parliament, The Pogues, David Bowie, Warren Zevon, Sly and the Family Stone, Allman Brothers, Radiohead, Sublime, Violent Femmes, Tom Waits, and Scotch.
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