People

Dj_aka_medium
Location: Tbilisi / Georgia
Music: 25 songs
Dsc00454_medium
Location: Turkey
Web: www.myspace.c
Music: 10 songs
Sureshots_medium
Location: Detroit
Web: www.laclabellemusic.
Music: 4 songs
Evocative of bygoneband eras and hollowed traditions, the music of Lac La Belle fits comfortably next to old timey Americana, but blazes its own trail away from the purist camp.

Formed in 2008 as Jennie and the Sure Shots, the group began as an expansion of the set of country, honky tonk and cowboy tunes that singer Jennie Knaggs had been performing around Detroit. Nick Schillace and Joel Peterson are enthusiasts of the early decades of recorded music who had distinguished themselves in the creative music scene there. They saw the potential for a new group that could absorb and transmute the vocabulary of early Americana. Schillace and Peterson learned Knaggs’ expansive repertoire and then the trio went to work hammering out its own identity. The name change to Lac La Belle signaled the new direction and the group consolidated energy into songwriting and several tours.

Lac La Belle released its first eponymous recording in October 2009, during its second tour of the year. Recorded by Jim Diamond (The White Stripes, Detroit Cobras, The Dirt Bombs etc), the entire record was cut live in the studio, using only a few mics. Its spare production captures the timeless quality of Lac La Belle’s sound, without being nostalgic.

Jennie Knaggs moved to Detroit in 2004 and her singular talent has made her a fixture on the city's music scene. She is the 2000 Hollerin' Champion of Wise Co., Virginia and Letcher Co., Kentucky. In the course of travel and advocacy work in Appalachia, she mined local music sources firsthand. Knaggs has studied opera and toured Ukraine and Europe in various vocal ensembles. She currently performs in the rock group I, Crime and Odu Afrobeat Orchestra.

Nick Schillace is internationally recognized as a solo instrumentalist who has contributed significantly to the American Primitive guitar canon with his releases Box Canyon (2005) and Landscape and People (2008.) Raised by folk and blues enthusiasts, he acquired early training at Augusta Heritage in Elkins, West Virginia. Lac La Belle finds Schillace singing and playing banjo, mandolin and resophonic guitar, expanding the traditions he grew up with. His recent work includes tenor guitar in Odu Afrobeat Orchestra, electric guitar in Indoorpark (with percussionist Jon Moshier) and acoustic strings in the experimental/traditional group Duo un Duo with Joel Peterson. Schillace has toured and performed with other finger picking greats, including Jack Rose, Keenan Lawler and Glenn Jones.

Multi-instrumentalist Joel Peterson has spent 15 years performing in some of Detroit's most noted groups, including Immigrant Suns, Scavenger Quartet (with Frank Pahl), Kindred (with Faruq Z. Bey), Odu Afrobeat Orchestra, Xenharmonic Gamelon and dozens of others. He's played with creative musicians in several genres, including Eugene Chadbourne, Rhys Chatham, Damo Suzuki, Thollem McDonas, Tatsuya Nakatani, Skeeter Shelton, Luc Houtkamp, Gino Robair, Steve Cohn, Amy Denio and The Violent Femmes. He ran Bohemian National Home, Detroit's formerly leading music/art space, 2005 until late 2008.