Milton Mapes

Alt-country outfit Milton Mapes originated in 1999 when Greg Vanderpool and Roberto Sánchez launched the endeavor as a duo. Vanderpool’s grandfather supplied the group’s name, while their prior involvement in Dallas’s Deep Ellum district supplied its initial creative impetus. After assembling material for a year in Nashville, the pair issued their debut full-length, The State Line, in 2001. Britton Beisenherz and Jim Fredley soon joined, expanding the lineup to a quartet. Under that configuration Milton Mapes delivered Westernaire through Aspyr Media in 2003. Two years afterward came both the album The Blacklight Trap and the B-sides collection Shady Valleys, the latter appearing as a downloadable EP. The band entered hiatus in 2007 when Vanderpool, Sánchez, Beisenherz, and Fredley formed the new project Monahans, which released its first record, Low Pining, the same year.