On any given night the MAGPIES are packing houses in and around Cleveland, Ohio, lambasting the crowd with new compositions, fine-tuning them for the road. And the road has taken them through the fog-laden Ozarks to the bowels of New York City rendering crowds speechless.

With the flick of drummer Dave McKean's drum stick they can go from Waitsian (that's Tom Waits) to Appalachian-roots to Motown. Prolific songwriter Roger Hoover often confronts keyboardist Justin Gorski with new song ideas. Along with bassist Chris Yohn the MAGPIES flock to a farmhouse somewhere in Middle-Ohio alone and unassumingly create some of the most haunting music since the BAND gathered in Woodstock some 40 years ago.