Biography
In 2000, two longtime figures from the Seattle music community—Chris Ballew, formerly of the Presidents of the United States of America, and Tad Hutchison, who had played with the Young Fresh Fellows—teamed up as Chris & Tad. The project began as a “challenge band,” limiting each participant to a single trip from the car so that only the gear carried in one load could be used at once. Ballew returned with a guitar, an amp, and a keyboard, allowing him to play both instruments simultaneously, sometimes tapping the keys with a guitar pick or the headstock. Hutchison handled the entire drum kit, a children’s set that included a 15" bass drum, one cymbal, a 7" snare, and two tiny toms. The pair had fun developing new songs and ultimately tracked enough material for an album intended for Hutchison’s television cartoon series The Shelby Jenkins Show, resulting in the CD Hand Me That Door issued by the independent label Orange Recordings.