Blanche

Around frontman Dan Miller, the gothic indie-country-folk medicine show revivalists Blanche coalesced nearly a decade after he dissolved his prior outfit Goober & the Peas. Drawing from early American folk traditions, Miller pulled the group together through casual living-room gatherings that included his wife Tracee on bass and vocals, Detroit-area producer and multi-instrumentalist Dave Feeny on pedal steel, newcomer Lisa "Jaybird" Jannon on drums, and Patch Boyle handling banjo and autoharp. The independent album If We Can't Trust the Doctors attracted V2 Records, which added the band to its roster in early 2004. Multi-instrumentalist Little Jack Lawrence later joined the touring configuration, covering banjo and autoharp whenever Boyle was unavailable. In early 2005 the musicians traveled to Nashville to lay down material destined for their debut EP What This Town Needs, which included two songs from the upcoming full-length Little Amber Bottles. Although slated for an American release in late October 2006, the project stalled when V2 shut down. The band landed on the Loose imprint, allowing Little Amber Bottles to surface in the U.K. during summer 2007 and in the U.S. later that year.