Biography
Chris Eaton, the novelist based in Toronto, worked as a solo act in the final stretch of the 1990s and the first years of the following decade under the name Rock Plaza Central, at times backed by shifting groups of musicians. Only in 2003 did Rock Plaza Central solidify into an actual band through the recruitment of Rob Carson on guitar, banjo, and trombone, John Whytock on accordion, trumpet, and percussion, Donald Murray on mandolin and trumpet, Scott Maynard on bass, and Blake Howard on drums, with Fiona Stewart later added on violin in 2004, after which the group issued The World Was Hell to Us. The quirky concept album Are We Not Horses appeared the next spring in April 2007. With the exits of Carson and Whytock, the lineup contracted to a quintet. Paper Bag Records, the Toronto indie label, became the home for the follow-up, At the Moment of Our Most Needing, or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone, which came out in the U.S. on June 16, 2009.