Trillium

 …a wee bit ‘o history…

A phone message from the music organizers for the Downers Grove (Illinois) Farmers’ Market in January 2005, prompted me to locate some additional musicians for a late July booking.   I contacted my longtime colleague, professional arranger and bass player, Doug Lofstrom to see if he was available and he suggested adding a couple of other musicians. His two top choices, national fingerpicking guitar champion Ed Hall, formerly of the acoustic music duo Friedlander & Hall, and an extraordinarily talented young fiddle player in one of Doug’s college music ensembles, Paul Russell, were both available and very interested.

From our first rehearsal, it was pretty obvious to all of us that we had the potential for a lot more as a group than simply a one-time gig!  Our eclectic playing backgrounds somehow worked together and our repertoire began to evolve, spanning from Celtic to folk to ragtime to bluegrass to Dixieland music.  Most of our tunes are of traditional or anonymous origin and all represent the synthesis of a lot of creative energy.

At our first appearance at the Farmers’ Market, we tested out the name Trillium, which is a midwest wildflower or herb, and it seemed to be a good fit for us.  We performed at various summer and fall festivals in northern Illinois and Indiana and recorded a demo CD to send out for additional bookings.   Our audiences wanted to buy even the demo CD, so we began working on “Over the Waterfall”, which will be available by mid-December 2005.

In Doug’s words, in an interview with the LaGrange Suburban Life last summer, “It’s really exciting, because we don’t know what’s going to happen next … we’re having a lot of fun and the sky’s the limit!”          

                                                                                                            mim eichmann