1. Glowfriends
Sean R. Montera
The Friends are busy this weekend playing back to back shows, and marking the release of their third album “A Farewell to Fair-Whether,” off
Jam Records. Friday’s show begins at 8 p.m. at Sideways People off Burdick and is open to all ages. The second show will take place at Kraft Braw at 9
p.m. the following night alongside other musicians. A $5 cover charge will be applied.
The CD has been long in coming with the release date already booked at Kraft Braw. However, after rethinking local age policies, they decided
to add another show.
“One all ages show for anyone who can’t come to the CD release,” as Mark Andrew Morris of Glowfriends put it.
Sideways People accepted their added performance as part of the Art Hop, a downtown Kalamazoo event where local businesses and galleries
feature and promote art. The idea it to hop from one exhibit to another in a casual atmosphere and provides people the chance to meet local artists. For
further information including a schedule of events contact the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.
Derek Vangieson provided the cover and packaging and has recently delivered a supply of the finished CD’s for the show. Mark lamented on the
process and how there are a lot of boxes and can take months to prepare just the CD for release. All the blood sweat and tears shed to write, create,
record and produce the songs is now done, leaving just the manual labor of setting up for the show.
“Vibes are pretty heavy, take a while to set up,” said Mark.
Mark plays the piano and guitar opposite his wife’s, Holly Klutts Morris, bass. Percussion is provided by J.W. Hendrix III and April Morris, who
plays the tambourine and cymbals and with J.W. on drums. Also playing is Jenna Hendrix, wife of J.W., on vibraphone an instrument similar in
appearance to the xylophone with a piano’s pedals. Mark, Holly, and April all provide vocals at their performances.
The name Glowfriends refers to the popular 1980’s Glo Worm dolls which spawned a variety of related merchandise including a short lived
cartoon show called Glo Friends.
“The name just kind of happened,” said April who assures the name is interesting because of who is in the band.
Mark and April started writing songs and recording cassette demos in their parent basement back in 1996. It wasn’t until 1999 that they began
performing as an acoustic duo. In 2001, the first Glowfriends album “So Glad to be Here” was recorded and released under Jam Records. The band
expanded at this point adding a cello and violin to the mix, along with drums and a bass guitar. After the release of their second album “Leave the Hall
Light On” in May of 2005, the cello and violin left the group. Shortly thereafter, Jenna Hendrix added her vibraphone to the mix.
“The songs basically keep coming,” said April, lamenting over several generation of musicians. “Music is in our family, it’s in our background,”
According to April the band’s recognition has been low key however because of common misconception about their band. Mark said that many
people thought Glowfriends was a wedding band because of their cello and violin only to realize it was a rock band. However that changed along with
the departure of two band members mid 2005, and now no one can mistake their combo for a wedding band.
Glowfriends has been performing for almost eight years now, playing many local venues and recording two albums. According to Glowfriends
they have also performed at venues around Michigan as well as Chicago , New York , Los Angeles and a few west coast shows. They have even
performed in Liverpool , England twice, once this past May.
Glowfriends hosts it own myspace page with includes free samples of their music anyone can listen too. A full listing of their dates and
performances as well as fan comments can be found by visiting www.myspace.com/glowfriends.
With a long record of performances and several records behind them, this seasoned, if somewhat eclectic band plans to put on quite a show. And
then turn around and do it all over again.