Bleed

Schooley Station | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 27, 2005)
• Original Release Date: August 23, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: wifi Records
• ASIN: B000BGQWA0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,752,068 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

In the spring of 2005 four guys (tag-alongs not included) set off from Chillicothe, Ohio for Knoxville, Tennessee to record an album under the production of Don Coffee, Jr. I was one of the tag-alongs, so you won’t hear any of my tracks on the record. I made none. I did, however, get to know the band. They are Schooley Station, after a road, which was named after a run-down train station in Southeast Ohio. Joe Gillum, (the drummer of the group) gets credit for coming up with the name. Joe was the third member added to the group when Rich Lewis (vocals, guitar) and James Bahleda (bass) decided to expand their two piece project into a three piece band. Lewis and Bahleda began trading music ideas in 2003 when they met each other at Ohio University. Writing together and working on arrangements of Lewis’ songs, they felt they had a solid play list and began performing shows. Bahleda had already played music professionally years earlier when he toured and recorded with other bands. At the studio in Knoxville, I often found him passed out on one of the huge leather couches. This was completely understandable; those couches sucked you in. At other times when he wasn’t recording he was reading, but I did manage a few conversations with him. He is a bit of a beer connoisseur, though I caught him on more than one occasion warming up to a Bud Light. The conversation was intelligent and often. Gillum, I learned over the days at the studio, is a connoisseur of a different kind. He likes to fish and has a quiet place in the country. He and Lewis went to the same high school, and luckily, when Lewis and Bahleda decided to add a drummer, he was looking for a band. Ashley Good was the other member who took a liking to the couches, but like the rest of the group, while recording he was serious and focused. His position as a group member was a little strange at that point. He had recently joined the band, adding saxophone and lead guitar to the Schooley Station sound, but this recency may have been a good thing. Not knowing the songs very well, Lewis and Coffee were able to shape Good's talents into the right sounds and parts for the album, adding a freshness to the songs and mixing Good’s playing with the Schooley Station sound. Lewis is the workhorse of the group. He either wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the CD and had a good idea of what he wanted to achieve in the studio. Lewis is an "idea man" and his ideas seem to be what drives the band. He has no false hopes of fame, but he does have the foresight and diligence to work hard at what he does. The other members know this. They know each other well and that seems to hold the group together through heated discussions (where Bahleda would often be the most out-spoken). Schooley Station is, in Lewis’s words, “reminiscent of American folk rock of the early 1970s, while at the same time evoking a newer Britpop feeling.” But they are ever-changing as every band is. They are a great example of a working original band.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Music!, February 4, 2006

By 

J. Grubb (Greenville, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bleed (Audio CD)

This is a great cd, why aren't these guys on the radio yet?

5.0 out of 5 stars Rockadelic, December 4, 2005

By 

Zelda (Westlake, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bleed (Audio CD)

Schooley Station rocks the galaxy, and I'm glad there's finally a cd available for everyone. My favorite track is probably Wide Eyes Open.

Buy it, or be a square.