Red Wanting Blue

The rock band Red Wanting Blue formed at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, in 1995. The initial lineup consisted of lead singer Scott Terry, Michael Epp, Ryan Eisert, and Jerrod Myers. On September 6, 1996, they self-released their first album, Velveteen. The Image Trigger followed on April 4, 1998. Model Citizen (April 3, 2000) featured the rhythm section of Mark McCullough (bass) and Jonah Dolan (drums), replacing Eisert and Myers. Their fourth album, Sirens, appeared on November 16, 2001, and Souvenirs of City Life was released on February 8, 2003. In July 2003, Dolan left the band to be replaced by Mark Stepro. Their sixth album, Pride: The Cold Lover (October 19, 2004), brought them television placements on the shows Love Monkey and Life Is Wild. After the release, guitarist Greg Rahm joined, making the group a quintet. Epp left in October 2005, and John Kengla joined as lead guitarist, while Ed Davis was added as a percussionist. In 2006, Red Wanting Blue took 100 of their fans into the studio with them and recorded the live acoustic album The Warehouse Sessions, also filming the proceedings for a DVD. The package appeared on December 12, 2006. Stepro then left, with Davis taking over as drummer.

For their eighth album These Magnificent Miles, the band hired producer Jamie Candiloro (Ryan Adams, R.E.M., Willie Nelson) and settled into a more Americana-based rock sound. The album was released in August of 2008, by which time the lineup comprised Terry, McCullough, Rahm, guitarist Eric Hall, and drummer Dean Anshutz. In 2010, the band finally signed a label deal with Fanatic Records, an imprint of Caroline/EMI, and These Magnificent Miles was re-released in July of 2010, bringing them to a substantially larger audience. They were asked to contribute a song to the film Unraveled and were also the subject of a tour documentary. In 2011, again enlisting Candiloro to produce, they released From the Vanishing Point, which landed them in the Top Ten on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and received plenty of play on AAA radio. Their 2012 tour became their most successful yet, as they sold out shows across the U.S. and made their network television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. In the spring of 2013, Red Wanting Blue returned to the studio to begin working on their tenth album. ~ William Ruhlmann & Timothy Monger, Rovi