Judge for Ghost Gamblers

A long time ago in a Honky Tonk galaxy far far away, six intergalactic musical storytellers united in an effort to defend the long lost tradition of sonic storytelling. Traversing the cosmic country landscape, collecting the mythic tales and legends of the Americana frontier, these troubador travelers came to be known as Ghost Gamblers...

The band formed in 2008 from the cooling embers of the long-running, weekly NYC country show Honky Tonk Happy Hour. As the numerous members of this jam collective began splintering off to pursue different projects, the sextet that would eventually become Ghost Gamblers found themselves playing together regularly. Inspiration struck, born of a well-seasoned familiarity with and respect for each other's songs. A lyric snafu one night resulted in the name Ghost Gamblers, and the subsequent birth of the new band.

The band set out to develop their original songs and sound. Amal Bouhabib (Basement Band) penned star-crossed, love-and-death ghost stories. Kamara Thomas (Earl Greyhound) wrote astro-religious visions culled from the landscape. Guitarist-bassist Jeff Malinowski (Basement Band) came with tragic tales, sometimes true, of lost souls wandering the wilderness wasteland. Guitarist-bassist Gabriel Berezin (Monuments) wove his voice in, making a four-warbler quartet. John Durgee (Basement Band) created the beats, and Gordon Hartin (Smyer, Shooter Jennings) painted in the rest of the sonor-scape on pedal steel.

Within the Ghost Gamblers' cosmos can be heard echoes of everything from The Band and Fleetwood Mac to Emmylous Harris and Dolly Parton to The Doors, Tom Petty and The Grateful Dead. The result is a myriad of vocal pairings, four-part harmonies and multi-instrumental adventures lilting over southern rock, folk-soul, and dreamy pop grooves.