THE VIRGINIA DARE STORYTHE VIRGINIA DARE STORYBrad and Mary met due to divine providence, over twelve years ago. They played together in the popular San Francisco musical ensemble, WANNABE TEXANS. After many adventures, and one album released in the U.K. (by members of the Mekons), the Wannabe Texans came to an end.
Soon, there was a new group formed; VIRGINIA DARE.
The band was named after a collection of short stories, which was named after a brand of wine and soda pop, which was named after the first European baby born in North America, who vanished with the Roanoke colony.
During the recording of their first E.P., bassist Paula Fraser left the group to concentrate on another project, TARNATION.
Without flinching, recording studio magnate GREG FREEMAN took over on bass, thus establishing VIRGINIA DARE as we know and love them today. Over the years, there have been several others in the group, but the permanent members have stayed the same:
Mary O'Neil writes the songs and sings them, with her own driving autoharp for accompaniment. She got straight "A"s in '98!
Brad Johnson plays wiggly guitar. There's a screwdriver where the whammy bar would normally be. He played in American Music Club and lots of bands you never heard of. He likes to draw comics. He's married to Mary; they have a four year old boy named Kit.
Greg Freeman also plays in the instrumental band, PELL
MELL. He was NOT kicked out of THE
CALL for his alleged affiliation with SATAN;
in fact, they begged him to stay! Greg is a professional recording engineer.
He lives in Rodeo, Ca., with his wife
Christine.
The music has been called a blend of the Carter Family and the Young Marble Giants. Or was it the Velvet Underground? Whatever. The approach is minimalist, with country and punk influences.
Two EPs came out on Nuf Sed, around '93, '94. Then the dutch label, Brinkman, released the same stuff (plus two tracks) on a CD. The band flew to Holland for the Fast Forward festival and a brief tour in 1995. A few more years went by, and now there's a CD out on Absolutely Kosher. There you have it! Look out for trouble (I mean REAL trouble) in the year 2000!
First full length album... two previous 10" EPs on Nuf Sed. "I can throw multi-hyphenated descriptions at you to try and explain what makes Virginia Dare and their debut full length so special, multi-hyphenates are a dime a dozen these (especially on one-sheets) and this record is better than that. Virginia Dare is the sound of kismet. It feels familiar, it feels right, it just feels. The rhythm section is brought to you by Greg Freeman's bass and the strum-strumming of Mary O'Neil's autoharp (no drums here). The texture comes via Brad Johnson's unique guitar styling (there's a screwdriver where the whammy bar would normally be). The melody, ah, the melody's dressed up in Mary's proud and pretty alto croon as she delivers tales of urban Americana.
contact Absolutely Kosher: fatkid@sirius.com
contact Virginia Dare: virgdare@home.com