King’s X is an American hard rock band that combines progressive metal, funk and soul with vocal arrangements influenced by gospel, blues, and British Invasion rock groups. The band’s lyrics are largely based on the members’ struggles with religion and self-acceptance. King’s X was ranked #83 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.

Since being signed to Megaforce Records in 1987, King’s X has released twelve studio albums, one official live album, and several independent releases. The band is currently recording for the InsideOut Music label, and continues to tour with each new release. Early in their major label career, they had many opening slots on arena tours, but lately, the band for the most part headline their own shows playing mostly clubs and smaller venues. Each member of the group has recorded solo albums and has made numerous guest appearances on other artists’ albums and compilation projects. Doug Pinnick and Ty Tabor also have albums released with side bands that they participate in.

You should already know these songs. If the old saying about talent equaling success were true, then The Steepwater Band would already be a household name, rubbing shoulders with Aerosmith, Bad Company and other like-minded travelers in our collective Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy. But that’s not how things always work, and this band knows it and still leans into it, smiling, with everything in them, not for brass rings and marquees, but because they must! For them, the music life is a calling and not some stupid costume one puts on to shake loose gold, fame, and groupies. In a land of caricatures, it’s striking to come face-to-face with the real thing.

Something primal lurks in their music, but always wrestling with emotions and stories that are everyday-ready ~ music at once strut-inducing sexy and brass knuckles honest, a sound evolved smartly & patiently through countless gigs, running the bulls whenever and wherever they’ve been welcomed since 1998. AC/DC once said, “If you got the dollar, we got the song / Just wanna boogie woogie all night long,” and The Steepwater Band surely embodies this lip-smacking urge to get some in this mean old world, befitting the group’s Chicago roots and their earthy understanding of crackling city blues.

The abiding, resounding passion inside this band is never in question. Dive into their seemingly endless catalog of songs just about anywhere, and the heart and muscle pumping away inside every track are palpable and present in a most pleasing way. Their sound is like a soundtrack for arm wrestling The Devil and then drinking shots with him ’til sunrise after you’ve pinned him down. Their songs bridge the miles between lovers, throw lines to brothers and sisters in need of some understanding and a spark that makes them shuffle, eyes closed, shaking off the day’s heavy load, ready for another round because the right song by the right band made them feel they had enough fight left in them. That’s the kind of band you’re dealing with here, and they’ll be doing this long after all the pretty boys, package acts, and pretenders have left the stage. – Dennis Cook

THE STEEPWATER BAND IS ~
Jeff Massey ~ lead vocals / guitars
Joe Winters ~ drums / percussion
Eric Saylors ~ guitars / lap steel / backing vocals
Joe Bishop ~ bass / backing vocals.

District 97 is undoubtedly the most musically adventurous rock band in the world to feature an American Idol Top 10 Female Finalist. Formed in the Fall of 2006 by drummer/primary composer Jonathan Schang, keyboardist Rob Clearfield, bassist Patrick Mulcahy and guitarist Sam Krahn, the band drew upon influences from heavy metal to avant-garde jazz. The foursome from Chicago honed a no-holds barred style of eclectic and intricate Instrumental Rock before deciding the right vocalist was needed to complement their sound: enter 2007 American Idol Top 10 Female Finalist, Leslie Hunt. With a look, sound, and stage presence comparable to a young Ann Wilson from Heart, Leslie’s dynamic performances pushed the band into a new direction that forged a unique marriage between accessible, catchy vocal melodies and an adventurous instrumental prowess. She was followed shortly thereafter by one of Chicago’s finest guitarists, Jim Tashjian. With this new blend of charisma and stellar musicianship in place, their live shows over the past several years at festivals such as RoSfest, Prog Dreams II and V, and numerous appearances across the USA, UK and Europe cemented the band as a force to be reckoned with onstage as well as in the recording studio.

Hybrid Child, the band’s 2010 debut on record label Laser’s Edge, immediately made a big impression worldwide. The album garnered praise such as “District 97 is a wildly ambitious progressive-rock group whose youth belies its accomplishments onstage and on its new Hybrid Child CD” (Jim Derogatis of NPR’s “Sound Opinions” and Rolling Stone Magazine). The release of 2012’s critically-acclaimed followup Trouble With Machines proved the band was the real deal. They had attracted the attention of legendary bassist and vocalist John Wetton (King Crimson/UK/Asia), who sang the role of Chicago serial killer H.H. Holmes on Schang’s “The Perfect Young Man.” With the collaboration heralded as a “tour de force” (dprp.net), the band and Wetton joined forces in 2013 for tours of both Europe and the US, later documented on 2014’s live release, One More Red Night: Live in Chicago. 2013 also saw the band nominated for a Breakthrough Artist Award by Prog Magazine. Rather than rest on their laurels, District 97 took to the studio in 2014 to record the new material they’d been honing at home and on the road. The resulting album, In Vaults (released June 2015), continued and accelerated the upward trajectory of great songwriting and incredible musicianship that had become their hallmark.

In August 2015, Rob Clearfield and Patrick Mulcahy left the group and were succeeded by Andrew Lawrence and TIm Seisser, respectively. The new lineup debuted in highly successful tours across Europe and North America in 2016 and 2017, with highlights including joining the trailblazing prog rock band Yes on their Cruise To The Edge and supporting Pain of Salvation on the In The Passing Light Of Day North American tour. In 2016. District 97 launched the Inside The Vault Club via their website, a monthly subscription series featuring exclusive audio and video downloads, as well as physical releases, the first of which being their stunning Live At De Boerderij DVD. They joined the Dave Kerzner Band for the joint STATIC VAULTS US tour in Fall 2017, and ended the year with a pair of shows with the NYC-based Consider The Source.

2018 saw the band complete a much-lauded North American 10th Anniversary Tour, as well as completing tracking for Screens, their highly-anticipated fourth studio album, and first with the new lineup. Released October 2019 through the UK’s venerable record label Cherry Red, the band featured music from it to great acclaim on Cruise To The Edge, as well as Marillion Montreal Weekend, Seaprog, Summer’s End, and other dates throughout North America, UK, and Europe. One listen perfectly illustrates why iconic drummer Bill Bruford (Yes/King Crimson/Genesis) told Rolling Stone Magazine (10/29/19), “There’s a great band out of Chicago called District 97, who are very good, and they’re here in the U.K. right now. And you know, it’s the next generation of so-called progressive guys who played much better than we ever played.” Mike Portnoy (drummer extraordinaire of Dream Theater/Transatlantic/Liquid Tension Experiment) adds “District 97 continue to prove to be one of the most unique bands in modern Prog!”

The COVID-19 pandemic did not stop the band from innovating. Their Virtual Screening Tour and stunning Ghost Girl animated short film kept them at the top of the prog rock heap. The sprawling double-disc live album Screenplay  (2021) delighted music fans worldwide and served as a preface to live dates in the latter half of 2021 and 2022. With new music having gestated during and following the pandemic, their fifth studio album Stay for the Ending (released October 2023 via Spirit of Unicorn Music) has been widely acclaimed as their greatest work to date.