“To me,%uFFFDAmericana, country,bluegrass%uFFFDmusic, etc.,%uFFFDbecame ‘de-regionalized’ a long time ago,starting with the advent of radio,” Dunn says.%uFFFD“We’re proud of the culturewe do come from and I feel that our roots in a Northern city as opposed to aSouthern farm are an influence that very much comes through in our music.”
The music of Dunnand band mates Joe Huber, Rick Ness and Billy Cook has struck a chord with manyregions, including Milwaukee, the States and even Europeespecially Europe. The.357 String band has traveled overseas several times, and plans to make areturn trek in March. First, the streetgrass crafters give their hometown thisFriday’s Turner Hall Ballroom release show for Lightning From the North, an album that also knows no regions orboundaries.
“We've alwaysmade music that was a reflection of who we were, and what we were doing andthinking at the time we created it,” Dunn says. “People always say they wanthonesty and integrity in their music, and to me that's what change represents.%uFFFDThatis the human condition, and music is a reflection of the human conditionchangeis the only constant. Me writing the same songs that I wrote when I was 22?That would be dishonest.”
Lightning From the North,recordedwith band friend Andy Gibson in Nashville,is filled with moments of maturation, both from being in a working band andexperiencing everyday life.
“I wrote the song‘’Til Peace Or Hell’ for my friend Reed, who passed away a year ago.%uFFFDHesang%uFFFDsome backup vocals%uFFFDon our first album, and Lightning From the North is dedicated to him.%uFFFDI was hangingout with Reed a week before he died,” Dunn recalls. “Looking back on it, I'm sograteful I had that chance to hang out with him again.%uFFFDHe was a fantasticmusician and a great songwriter.%uFFFDReed was always kind of shrouded intragedy for me, and I went home feeling pretty depressed.%uFFFDI wrote theverses to ‘’Til Peace or Hell’ that night, one week before he died.%uFFFDIwrote the chorus after Joe called me and told me he'd passed on.”
Dunn and the restof .357 not only write from the heart, they play that way, too, holding steadyeven during rough patches. “[Talk about] when playing shows can feel likepunching a clock,” Dunn says of a%uFFFD2007 show in Sturgis, [S.D.]. “We wereplaying two two-hour sets a day, to crowds of middle-aged bikers screaming‘Free Bird!’ and ‘Skynyrd!’ in our faces, while we're sitting there trying toplay original songs.”
But even roughtimes can produce valuable lessons, and Dunn notes the band’s progression.“Something%uFFFDwe didn't really do with our other albums [was to] activelypromote them ourselves.%uFFFDWe definitely learned that the whole PR aspect ofbeing in a band%uFFFDis something you can't afford to be ignorant about, so we’veslowly been educating ourselves about how%uFFFDindependent radio stations work,how weeklies work,%uFFFDwhat a press release looks like, all that sort ofthing.%uFFFD…
“What can you dobut keep%uFFFDslaving away, making the music you love, and hoping peoplecontinue%uFFFDto notice it and appreciate it?”
The .357 String Band releases Lightning From the North on Friday, Feb. 12, at 8 p.m. at Turner Hall Ballroom. Also playing: 6Day Bender and Pupy Costello & His Big CityHonky Tonk.
