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Mr. Blotto

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Mr. Blotto is a jam band band from Chicago, Illinois. They blend southern rock, folk music, and country rock. They formed in 1991, and tour extensively in the midwest area. Along with their four album releases, they have also released four "official bootleg" albums of their live recordings.

The band's name is taken from an old syndicated cartoon character created by artist Gene Ahern. Underground comix artist Robert Crumb seems to have visually based his famous "Mr. Natural" on Ahern's earlier character.

Early history

The core of Mr. Blotto is the brother songwriting team of Mike and Paul Bolger, who had played together in garage rock bands throughout high school. They went in separate directions musically when they attended different colleges, Mike leaning towards the hardcore punk stylings of Hüsker Dü, and Paul focusing on the resurgence of 70s rock like Aerosmith, while eventually discovering Crosby, Stills and Nash and the Grateful Dead, who would later become huge influences. After Paul graduated he decided to pursue the life of a full-time musician while Mike opted to become a lawyer. Paul landed a gig as the house singer in a Polish club in Chicago called "The Cardinal Club." It was here that Paul met guitarist Bob Georges and they decided to cast their lot together in a band.

Bob was a veteran of the Chicago music scene, having achieved some regional success with the blues-rock band "Rooster" in the 80s, and doing session work on the side due to his proficiency in country, jazz, rock and blues playing. He had also learned much along the way about running and designing sound systems to maximize a band's live sound. One of the comments most often heard at early Blotto shows was how clear everything sounded, compared to whomever had last played that club.

Paul and Bob found drummer Alan Baster at a jazz night, hired him on, and were excited to get rolling with the band. After several auditions for a bass player yielded no results, Paul convinced Mike to be an interim bass player. The band as a four-piece started hitting Chicago area open mic nights and outlying bars, developing their roots-oriented jamband sound and weaving a large amount of reworked Grateful Dead songs into their sets to supplement the originals being penned by Paul, Mike and Bob. As their audience grew, Mike quit being a lawyer and became a full-fledged member.

They released Parking Karma and found their way into the larger bars and venues of the Chicago scene. After the album was released, Dave Allen - an old college bandmate of Paul's - joined on keyboards, filling out the bass-acoustic guitar-electric guitar-keyboards-drums ensemble that has remained consistent through personnel changes since.

In addition to Piano, Synths, & Hammond B-3, Dave supplied another singing voice and an ability to improvise lyrics that complemented a long-standing element of the early Blotto show, the "Reggae Rap," in which Paul would freestyle over a rock-steady type of beat.

Recent activity

In the mid-90s, they released a second CD, "Bad Hair Day," and continued their process of steadily playing shows in the Chicago area. By the end of the decade they had built their audience to the point that they became the number one local draw in the area.

1998 saw a third CD, Ancient Face; in 1999 Bob Georges was thrown out of the band for his drug abuse and unsavory antics, including shooting himself in his hand, and was replaced by Mark Hague. The introduction of Mark (who had played with the Freddie Jones Band) marked a creative period for the band, and he helped pen the next generation of Mr. Blotto tunes. Paul, Mark & Mike started meeting every Monday to work on new original ideas. In these sessions, any idea would be chased down and put to tape. These songs became Cabbages and Kings, the 4th CD which (93.1) WXRT called the band's best release yet.

Around this time, the band addressed the constant demand for a Live Record. Mr. Blotto had been, from its inception, an improvisational band and had always allowed people to record the shows. They went so far as to build a Taper Plug In Patch Bay into the soundboard so that tapers would get a high quality audio feed. As a result, clean Mr. Blotto boots began to cross the country, often in advance of the band -- this is especially true outside of the Midwest, where they rarely, if ever, tour.

Seeing as not everyone had a portable CD burner or DAT, Mr. Blotto began issuing Live Shows and Compilations. The Bootleg Series is a single CD of songs handpicked by the band for their unique characteristics, where the Just Did It series is made up of double disc sets from one particular show or run of shows.

In 2005, Alan Baster left the band....and Mr. Blotto picked up a drummer from Indiana by the name of Tony Dellumo. Shortly thereafter Paul, Mark, Mike, Tony and Dave started in on a new album that was finished spring 2006. With help of the Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow, Mr. Blotto released their 5th studio album: "Barlow Shanghai."

When Dave "B3" Allen had to leave the band at the end of 2005, Mr. Blotto hired on another well established musician in the Northwest Indiana music scene by the name of Steve Ball. Steve Ball is best known in Northwest Indiana and the Chicago music scene as not only a keyboard player, but also a guitar, bass, mandolin and harmonica journeyman.

Members

Paul Bolger-Lead Vocals & Acoustic Guitar
Mark Hague-Lead Guitar & Vocals
Mike Bolger-Bass & Vocals
Tony Dellumo-Drums
Steve Ball-Hammond B-3, Keyboards, Mandolin, Harmonica & Vocals

Discography

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