Long before Prince, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and Morris Day put the Minnesota music scene on the national map, Guy Drake was one of many songwriters and performers working hard to get heard in the frozen, forgotten north. His group, The Johnson and Drake Band, toured the Midwest and the south for years as either the opening or the headlining act, primarily at colleges and universities. He performed with, among others, Earth, Wind and Fire, REO Speedwagon, Linda Ronstadt, Ray Stevens, John Hartford, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, The Grass Roots, Bonnie Raitt, and Jim Croce. In 1973, due to a freak last minute change of plans, Guy and his partner, Tom Johnson, flew briefly back to Minneapolis and left the Jim Croce tour for two days to re-shoot the cover of their LP, "Carry It On." On the second night, September 20, 1973, Croce's plane crashed, killing everyone on board, including close friend and road manager, Kenny Cortese, and the opening act performer who had replaced them on the tour, comedian George Stevens. The Johnson and Drake Band never recovered from the tragedy, and both recording artists went their separate ways. For the next two decades, Drake performed and wrote as part of church retreats, choirs, and Sunday services, and stayed far out of the limelight. A series of debilitating surgeries in the late eighties and early nineties, including four reconstructive surgeries to his right and left hands, resulted in a ten year period from 1990-2000 when he was unable to play the guitar without experiencing days of pain afterwards. "Out Among "em" marks his return from that hiatus. Guy Drake has a BS in Organizational Management from Concordia College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a certificate in theological education from the Episcopal Seminary at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. For nearly thirty years he has been a trainer and Master Trainer for Dale Carnegie Training, and has traveled extensively throughout the US, Europe, Canada, and the Caribbean, training and certifying new Dale Carnegie instructors. In 2000, after a decade of healing from repeated reconstructive hand surgeries that made it all but impossible to play the guitar, Guy Drake received a gift from his wife, Nan. It was a beautiful Martin guitar. Deciding that his hands had had enough time to heal, and also that he needed to have guitar lessons in order to play again properly, Drake called a tiny music store in Hopkins, Minnesota, Bud's Music, and asked for the guitar teacher. His name was J.R. Hartley, longtime session musician in the Twin Cities, and owner of Home Bass Audio recording studios. They started working together, and very quickly, as he started playing again, Drake began to write new songs. Later that year, Drake took a trip to LA to hang out with his long-time friend, film and television star Chris Mulkey, on the set of his TV show, "Any Day Now." Mulkey, who has released six CD's in Los Angeles with his bands, "The Blue Highway," and "The Blue Veins," and is a prolific songwriter, dragged out his guitar at 2am each night when the two of them got home from the TV studio, and pretty soon the guitar was being passed back and forth, and, very tentatively, Drake started playing these few new songs that he had written, the first in many years. Mulkey was so encouraging about the songs that Drake played them for Hartley during his guitar lessons back in Minneapolis. Soon, Mulkey called and said, "Book the studio! We're going to record these songs!" He flew into Minneapolis a few days later. Mulkey, Drake, and Hartley entered the studio one day in late 2000 and laid down the tracks for "Drowning in Your Love," a song that they wrote that day in the recording studio, before they had recorded any of the planned songs. That day "Out Among 'em" was born. With Mulkey on guitars, Drake on vocals, and Hartley engineering and playing bass, the most fundamental lineup of the band was in place. Many other players were brought into the project along the way, including long-time twin cities drummer and guitarist Brad Steine, vocalists Aisha Baker and Robin Engstrom, and guitarist Chris Weber, one of the excellent, uncredited Twin Cities musicians who played on Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" album. Despite the challenge of having one third of the band living 3,000 miles away, the three kept doggedly at the project, recording eleven songs during Mulkey's frequent trips to his St. Paul hometown over the next four years. Some were Mulkey's original songs, some Drake's, and some they wrote together. The band's name. "Out Among 'em," comes from a phrase that Drake and Mulkey used for years to refer to drinking beer at the Monte Carlo Bar in Minneapolis late at night when Chris was in town from LA. "Do you want to go out among 'em tonight?" Since moving from St. Paul to Los Angeles in 1975, Chris Mulkey has starred in over seventy films, five television series, and in countless TV guest starring episodes. In addition, he has written two films and produced four films, including the groundbreaking "Patti Rocks" in 1988, with his wife, Karen. He stars in five films being released in 2005. In addition to his successful Hollywood acting career, Mulkey has written and performed his music all over the US, including Los Angeles, Austin, TX, Chicago, Omaha, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Charleston, SC. His songs have been included in both television and film soundtracks, and he has performed live with Los Lobos, Don Felder of The Eagles, Billy Burnett of Fleetwood Mac, Dennis Quaid, and many others. He is an accomplished musician on electric, acoustic, and slide guitars, harmonica, and mandolin. Mulkey describes his style of singing as "industrial gospel," with American roots in country blues. His influences are Robert Johnson, Sun House, Lightning Hopkins, Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, Big Joe Turner, Elvis, Dr. Billy Vera, Joe Ely, Lucinda Williams, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Emmylou Harris, Marsha Ball, Buddy Miller and Bob Dylan. Musician, arranger, producer, recording engineer and studio owner JR Hartley has performed and recorded with some of the Twin Cities best known musicians over the last fifteen years. From jazz guitarist Clay Moore and gospel artist J.D. Steele, to folk and blues artists from "The Prairie Home Companion," to funk artists like Michael Bland of Prince and the Revolution, Hartley has engineered and produced a wide range of musicians in his recording studio, Home Bass Audio. Other clients include members of The Suburbs, The Honeydogs, Trailer Trash, and Beat the Clock. On stage, Hartley has performed with The Widgets, Aisha’s WILD, Ipso Facto, Dr. Mambo’s Combo, Iya Rik & members of The Sounds of Blackness, Soul Tight Committee, and Roberta Davis, among many others. For "Out Among 'em," J.R. played bass, electric and acoustic guitars, antique accordian, drums, drum programming, and even a few keyboard parts, as well as singing, engineering and co-producing. Here's how he sums up all those roles in this project: "To me, ultimately, recording music is much more than digitally reproducing data. It’s about capturing the artists’ feelings and indescribable nuances. And the best way to do this is by creating a comfortable environment in which the musician can explore freely and let their expression evolve. The best part about being a studio engineer and musician, for me, is seeing someone happy about hearing their creation come to life, and to be able to capture that energy so it can bring continuous enjoyment to them, and everyone who hears it."