It all started with a song that Dan Gallagher and I wrote, called “Flower On Your Grave.” It is a song about coming to terms with the death of a loved one, which in this case is my grandmother. The song took on a country tone reminiscent of the music I had grown up on. I felt that writing in the genre of alternative country allowed me to be much more honest and open than I had been with other projects. So I kept writing about personal issues that I was dealing with and began to demo the songs...
It all started with a song that Dan Gallagher and I wrote, called “Flower On Your Grave.” It is a song about coming to terms with the death of a loved one, which in this case is my grandmother. The song took on a country tone reminiscent of the music I had grown up on. I felt that writing in the genre of alternative country allowed me to be much more honest and open than I had been with other projects. So I kept writing about personal issues that I was dealing with and began to demo the songs as I finished them. I wanted to share them, and a friend suggested I post them online. So I posted the demos under the assumed name that I took straight from the source of my inspiration. Pairing my grandmother’s nickname and middle name, the concept of Booker Lee was born. Due to the deep inspiration, musical maturity I achieved and the desire to explore my musical roots, the project took on a life of it’s own.
During this time I was recording an album with the band Colab whose members included Dan Gallagher, Joe Mason, Aaron Baker and myself. I was approached about doing a show at a local venue as Booker Lee, but Booker Lee did not yet have a band. I asked the guys from Colab if they wanted to put some songs together and play the show. Dan and Joe were available, but Aaron had other obligations, so I enlisted my brother Dan Fidler to fill in on bass guitar. The band clicked right away and The County Fair was born. The show was a great success and everything just felt right. After a few more shows we realized it was time to start work on our first album.
We continued to play shows for all different age groups and crowd sizes, always with the same warm reception as the first show we played together. We produced and recorded the thirteen track debut album entitled Journal over the next six months and finished in February of 2007. The album was self released in April of 2007 to much acclaim from both fans and critics alike. The record got us into the semi-finals of the independent music world series and a nomination for Alternative Country album of the year award by the independent music awards association, an international organization recognizing independent artist.
After Joe Mason was replaced on the drums by Jack books we started work on the second album. over the next year we wrote and demoed and wrote some more. After accumulating over twenty new songs it was time to enlist the help of producer/engineer Jason Rubal. In the month of August 2009 the new eleven song record (”For The Commonwealth”) was recorded at Seventh Wave Studio in Harrisburg, PA. The new album was released on October 11th 2009 to a near sold out crowd at the Majestic Theatre in Gettysburg, Pa. We are all very proud of the new album and the direction in which we are headed and look forward to the years to come.
-Booker Lee
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