Yesterday Is Gone ACME Garage Cat. No. LB0401 Release Date: May 28, 2004 Songs as homey, crafted and varied as your grandmother's oddly matched china. Part Emily Dickinson and part Kris Kristofferson, Lisa sings about people struggling to make connections in their lives - to find, grab or hold love, sex, dreams, or just a place in the world. Sometimes they're people we know and sometimes they're us. The stories are wrapped in arrangements flavored with bits of Burt Bacharach's '70s orchestral pop, Tammy Wynette's classic country and the Beatles Revolver-era rock. Yesterday Is Gone is a band effort, recorded in Chicago with the Lush Budgett lineup that has been together since 1999: Lisa DeRosia writes, sings and plays guitar, Steve Doyle (Hoyle Brothers, Ulele) on guitar and mandolin, Mitch Straeffer (Falstaff, Whiskey Hollow) on electric and upright bass, Gerald Dowd (Robbie Fulks, Chris Mills) on drums and percussion. Lush Budgett co-founder Greg Schultz returns on guitar and pedal steel and contributes to songwriting. Lisa DeRosia (vocals, guitar). Lisa DeRosia grew up in a musical family in Michigan City, Indiana. When Michigan City had a silent movie house, the music was provided by the DeRosia family: grandmother and great aunt on vocals and piano. At home, Lisa's father Ed, a former WWII tank driver, whistled pop tunes from the 30s and 40s, day and night. Lisa sang in church on Sundays. Making her way to Chicago in 1984, Lisa formed the Corn Kings with Michigan City kindergarten pal Mitch Straeffer. The Corn Kings perfected an edgy blend of acoustic folk, country and gospel, and played its way through Texas and California before returning to Chicago. The Corn Kings built a loyal following and earned critical praise but eventually dissolved. In 1993 DeRosia helped form a new folk-pop band, where she met guitarist Greg Schultz. The band won the 1994 Midwest TicketMaster Showcase on the strength of a demo produced by Brian Deck and a powerful performance at the Metro. In 1996 DeRosia and Schultz formed Lush Budgett, eventually reuniting with Mitch Straeffer and adding multi-instrumentalist Steve Doyle and drummer Gerald Dowd to complete the lineup. Greg Schultz (guitar, pedal steel) pulled his first guitar out of his neighbor's trash at the age of eight and immediately began playing along with his 45s, starting with Jerry Reed's "Amos Moses". In the '80s, Schultz played jazz and R&B-tinged folk music in Lincoln avenue folk clubs with singer/songwriter Dalia. He also spent a few years playing traditional big band music in a jazz band. In '94 he drove to Nashville and came home with a pedal steel. After years of study, Schultz now can be found playing his steel on records and live shows for local and national acts, including Hello Dave and 33rd Street recording artist Gary Stier. Mitch Straeffer (bass) has always been drawn to the low notes. His upright and electric bass playing have made him an in-demand session player and a staple on Chicago stages. He is part of Falstaff, Whiskey Hollow, and has played with Ziplock and the Body Bags and Nora O'Conner and Kelly Kessler. When Straeffer and DeRosia were in kindergarten, they watched a lot of Bozo Circus together. Flash forward, and Straeffer has an advanced music degree and is also a master on guitar, piano and accordion. "Feel the thunder," he says. Steve Doyle (dobro, guitar, trombone, mandolin, vocals) played trombone in grade school. In seventh grade he switched to electric guitar because it was the only instrument louder than a trombone. Now he plays guitar, dobro, mandolin and trombone with Midwest favorites Ulele, Whiskey Hollow, and the Fat Guys, in addition to Lush Budgett. Doyle teaches guitar at the Old Town School of Folk Music and has a music degree from Northern Illinois U. He has hitchhiked between Chicago and his sometime home in Colorado dozens of times and has the stories to prove it. Gerald Dowd (drums, percussion, vocals) Gerald has been fascinated by drums since the age of eight, when he heard his first Poco record. He says the highlight of his musical career came in the summer of 1988, when he was the house drummer for "Celebrate America", the patriotic musical review staged at the Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. Now he is about the one of the most in-demand players in the Midwest, having played with all of the cool bands including Robbie Fulks, Chris Mills, Edith Frost, Pinetop Seven, Exo, and on and on between Lush Budgett shows.