BACK CREEK
Back Creek Music
"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.” — Frank Zappa
Back Creek Discography
Thomas W. Bruggemann
Post college, Tom gathers the core of the band and a few musical comrades from the West Chester, Pa / Main Line music scene. They spent a whole summer at Paul Brown’s “Road Side” Studios in Plymouth Meeting, their first time in a real studio with actual time record tracks and build songs.
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The core was made up of Tom Chirip on acoustic guitar and vocals, Dave Walsh on guitar and vocals, John Cannon playing drums, and Bruce Vurrens on bass. Additional players were Kenny Kearns on the Fender Rhodes and piano, Josh Taylor on lead guitar, Brian DelVechio playing mandolin and dobro, and CR Gruver playing beautiful Hammond organ.
Catywampus
They built a studio at Tom’s house in Swedesboro, NJ and set out to make the record they should have made in college. This is a collection of songs the band would play out regularly with some new songs added to the project.
The core was made up of Tom Chirip on acoustic guitar and vocals, Dave Walsh playing guitar and singing, John Cannon drumming, Bruce Vurrens on bass, and Joe Cincotta on keyboards.
Additional players were Jim Walls on upright bass and vocals, and Mark Sonsini on lead guitar.
10 to 1
“10 to 1” was recorded almost entirely between the hours of 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. With children now a part of the households of some band members, this was the only time that they could carve out a record.
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Tom plays drums on this one, with Dave Walsh on guitar and vocals, Bruce Vurrens playing bass, and Joe Cincotta on keyboards. Special percussion assistance came from Kevin Ennis on “County Stomp,” and a party of singers young and old contributed to “Nobi Rod.” The gathering of a group of friends at a party to sing would become a recurring theme over the next few albums. The special vocal talents of Mathew DeAngelo can be heard on “Stepping Out.”
Stamp Club
This album sees the introduction of the brothers Peek, Ian and Wes, as the rhythm section and the band’s name change to the Roots Ensemble. They recorded it completely live in the studio over a long weekend with only a few overdubs. This is very much a folk rock, story-telling album.
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Tom got extremely lucky when brother Andy had a new neighbor move in next door. He was John Skehan, master mandolin player from Railroad Earth. It didn’t take much convincing to get John to play on the record. Tom set up mobile gear in his kitchen with his nephew Kyle helping out with the recording. John was a pro! They recorded all of his parts overnight, wrapping up just after sunrise.
This is Back Creek
This was the first album that the band built from the ground up, together. They had extra rehearsals for about six months dedicated to creating these songs.
The songs were just ideas that they worked their way through, truly building them together, bouncing ideas off one another. When it came time to record, they recorded the rhythm tracks live in the studio over a long weekend
Solar Flare
"Solar Flare" brought on the arrival of Dan Panus on bass guitar. Dan joined the band while in the eighth grade. He was a student of Tom’s at Harrington Middle School; he saw Dan play a Rush song at the talent show, and that’s basically all it took.
Dan’s parents would drive him to rehearsals. He was playing out with us at age fourteen and remained in the band for seven years and another album.
Ian’s bass line remains on “Popcorn Sutton.” That was a great take!
Take It Back
The newest album was recorded in their basement studio in Wenonah, NJ. This one took a very long time to produce. The song Be Your Light finds the Harrington Middle School choir recorded at Milk Boy studios in Philadelphia.
Percussionist extraordinaire Tony Passante Cataldi plays the drums on most of this one. This album was recorded intentionally to have a very live feel.