Back Porch Mary - Honest Hands (2004)

There are two types of people on this earth: Those that get Back Porch Mary and those that don’t. When it comes to this band it really is that simple. There are no middle of the road fans out there. Back Porch Mary fans are a very dedicated, very interesting lot. They come from every walk of life, age group, and background. There isn’t a neat little bow you can use to tie them up. This is probably because there isn’t a neat little bow you can use to tie together the music of Back Porch Mary. The fact that a genre doesn’t exist in the music business to contain them has been an issue for the entire life of the band. Back Porch Mary has been around since 1993. The band was founded by Mike Krug, a native of Russell, Kansas. From the time he picked up a guitar at 15 he has been driven to write and perform music. Mike formed the first incarnation of Back Porch Mary with a few other music majors at Fort Hays State University in early 1993. He then moved on to Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas where he met bassist Joe Miller. When Mike made the move to Austin, Texas, Joe happened to move there as well. In 2001, Joe joined Back Porch Mary. The band went into the studio and recorded their first self-titled CD that was released in 2002. The band immediately hit the road as hard as it could, playing with a revolving door of drummers. This is when the band started to garner its reputation as a must see live band. They played anywhere and everywhere they could, traveling thousands of miles and making insane overnight drives. The music was also taking shape. The creed became that the band would play whatever it wanted. They had no intentions of sticking to one particular style. They wrote songs and forged their own sound over time. They never cared to fit into any category. They just wanted to play good music no matter what genre it may or may not fit into. The first CD leaned very heavily towards the rock side of things. This was a disappointment for the band. They all love honky tonk and country music, and they felt that the first CD didn’t represent that side of them at all. So, in typical Back Porch Mary fashion, they built their own studio and recorded an all acoustic CD entitled “Honest Hands”. This was a drastic departure from the first record and left many people scratching their heads. The fact was, the band loves acoustic music like bluegrass and continues to explore this style heavily to this day. After releasing the live CD “The Last Rock Show”, the band was really in need of a drummer to make them a complete band. Enter Ryan Kyle, the only native Texan in Back Porch Mary. Ryan sat down behind the drums and made it his band. Finally, after years of searching, the band was finally complete. Finally, after much time and a lot of touring the band entered the studio to work on the CD that would become “Time of The Broken Heart”. The band felt that it had the songs and the experience to do their best work. The record did well and reached number 33 on the national Americana charts. The record also received more radio play and sold more units than any of the previous BPM efforts. On July 19th, 2011 Back Porch Mary released “Life is Now”. This is the band’s 5th record.