We had a hard drive crash on our web server the first week of January 2000. Unfortunately the website hadn't been backed up up since August 1999, so the page is a bit dated. We will bring the site back up to data ASAP.

Some Background on Poole Hall Sessions…

Poole Hall Sessions is available directly from the band at shows or through mail order. You can also find it at Crossroads Records (Blacksburg, VA), any Record Exchange or Cat's Music location (NC, VA, TN, SC, IN), any Plan 9 Music store (VA), or through IndepenDisc.

The disc was co-produced by the band and Harry Evans from the band Poole (SpinArt Records) and recorded at The Poole Hall in Annandale, Virginia between November and late December 1996. We are very happy with the results and are anxious to work with Harry again before year's end. The five new songs on the EP are Anne Marie, Easier to Lie, Closer To Twenty-Five, Stay With Me, and Get Out Of My Way.

ANNE MARIE is a Beatle-esque rocker penned in early '96 and sung by Andy. We had recorded a formal ending to the song, but through the magic of the mastering studio, we looped the end so we could fade the song out. Pretty cool, huh?

The second cut, EASIER TO LIE, went through numerous changes over the last two years before being recorded. In fact, we ended up rewriting the chorus and re-doing all the vocals (John sings lead on this one) just before final mix down. In case you're wondering why it's called "Easier To Lie", that phrase was featured prominently in the old chorus.

Vaguely inspired by the "girl-at-the-bar" character in Innocent Nixon's "Vodka And Tonic", CLOSER TO TWENTY-FIVE has the ultra cool "Ticket To Ride" drum beat in the verses. This is another one where John sings lead. Andy would like to formally acknowledge George Huntley of The Connells for the blatantly "Ring-ish" guitar sound in the leads…thanks George!

STAY WITH ME is a slower tempo song with vocals by Andy and a solid bass-drum groove supplied by Ben and Terry. Jim Schaefer (Innocent Nixon) came into the studio and laid down a great harmonium part for this song, but in the end we just couldn't get it to sit in the mix properly. Our apologies to Jim, especially since he was late in returning to work in Rocky Mount, NC on the day he came to visit us in the studio.

GET OUT OF MY WAY is a real "pot-boiler" sung by Andy that starts off with a doubled up guitar lead played by John and incorporates a harmonica solo by Andy in the key change because we couldn't think of anything better to put there. See if you can add in the falsetto Beach Boy's vocal that would have gone just before the drum break had it not been vetoed by Harry.

Here's a bit of trivia about the CD graphics: The picture on the back of the disc was taken at the Bus Stop in Radford, VA (thanks again Ed!) on a night when Jimmie's Chicken Shack was playing, so the equipment you see in the background is actually theirs.

It appears we have a message board available at iMusic. Feel free to post something.

Well, it's been a long while since the site has been updated. It's been a busy summer for all of us and change has been the norm. Andy moved to Richmond in June to take up residence with his new fiance, Amy. It was strange to see him drive away from the band house one last time after living together for six years. Ben lived in Kentucky a little while before heading back to the DC area to look for a job. It appears he's finally found one, but unfortunately his girlfriend is living in another state. John is still plugging away on his graduate work which will be complete in November. His ten year high school reunion was this summer. It's hard to believe he's that old! Oh yeah, he's single now too. Unfortunately nothing at all has gone on musically this summer for us. It is very likely, however, that everyone is itching to do some playing very soon. A few reviews trickled in over the last few months, but they haven't been transcribed yet. And if you've been waiting on the MP3's, it won't be too much longer.

MP3's from both albums along with tracks from some live shows will soon appear in the sounds section.

There are some new pictures from the TOTS show on April 24th, 1999. More to follow as others scan theirs in and send them to us. All in all, the show went really well. Our original drummer, Dan Gutwein, took over for stand-in Doug Yeabower mid-set. Both Doug and Dan turned in great performances, especially Dan considering he hadn't played since he left the band quite a few years (and many more miles) ago. Our old bass player Ron was in the crowd, but we couldn't convince him to jump up and join us for a song. Something about not having practiced. Like that stopped the rest of us! As if there was ever any doubt, Innocent Nixon proved that they are the best damn rock-and-roll band around. And let's not forget that Andy didn't miss a beat taking over lead guitar duties for Innocent Nixon on very short notice. Thanks to everyone that came out to TOTS and to the house after the show. I'd send an e-mail, but I accidentally wiped out our band mailing list when I reinstalled NT Server. A reunion *tour* anyone?

There is a new review from Grip this month.

After quite a few scheduling foul ups, we are pleased to report that we will be playing at Top of the Stairs in Blacksburg on Saturday, April 24th along with a "reunited" Innocent Nixon. This will likely be our last live show for quite a while since most of the band will be moving out of Blacksburg in the coming months. At the very least we plan future studio releases, so don't give up on us completely. Terry won't be able to make it down to play with us, so Doug Yeabower will be sitting in on drums. It should be an interesting show.

It's been a long while since we've updated the page. There is a new review from EGuide's December 11th, 1998 Music Page. All in all, Andy, Ben, and John have been keeping very busy with their non-musical endeavors (i.e., school and work). First off John passed his doctoral preliminary exams in November and is well on his way to finishing this summer. Andy has been traveling a lot lately and has been doing work to complete is BS degree. Ben has been swamped with schoolwork and job interviews, not to mention spending time with his girlfriend. We're all dying to do some playing, but we still haven't found a drummer. Until then we'll keep plugging along. Stay tuned for the next update.

We are being featured in October's IndepenDisc Music Club.

We're finally back online...thanks Scott. Not much has happened with the band since Terry's departure in May. We have been trying to get together with a new drummer, but schedules have not been very accommodating. We'll keep you posted.

Just for laughs, here is a list of every live appearance we've ever made since this band was formed.

There are a few new reviews available. Many more to come in the next month thanks to the diligent work of Keith Abbott.

Well, we didn't make the cut for the Demo Derby finals. I guess the folks running the contest didn't notice that a few of the bands were cheating. And not just cheating, but cheating badly. Oh well, we don't have a drummer and they weren't paying for travel or lodging...sour grapes I guess.

Thanks to everyone that voted for us in the Demo Derby semi-finals. We'll post the results soon.

You can view the latest standings in the demo derby semi-finals (up until the last time I checked, at least) in this PDF document. Can you tell which bands are using a script to jack up their vote count? I sure can.

We made it to the Demo Derby semi-finals! Please head over and cast your vote in the next round - we'd really appreciate it. Voting started Monday, 07/13/98 and we are song/group number seven.

More new photos thanks to scanmaster Ben.

Many thanks to those who cast their vote for us in the 2nd annual Demo Derby. We'll post our first round standing once we hear from the contest sponsor.

We've been offline more than we'd care to mention since 06/10/98 and our e-mail has been completely out of commission. It appears all the little problems have been worked out, so please be sure to re-send any e-mail that may have been bounced back this past week.

We have been selected to compete in the 2nd annual Demo Derby. Starting May 25th 1998, a weekly online audio program consisting of twelve artists will be posted and visitors will be asked to cast a vote for their favorite act. The top two vote getters from each week's elimination round move onto the July 13-27 semi-finals where four finalists will ultimately be selected. On August 28, the finalists will play live in Hollywood, CA at the Palace. We will appear in Week #4 of the Demo Derby, June 15-21. PLEASE head over and cast your vote. We are song/group number eight.

Please be sure to check out our friends, Visible Shivers, at their brand new website. They are an excellent band that is well deserving of your attention.

We've were offline for a bit over Memorial Day weekend due to some server configuration changes. We're back...at least until Ben and Scott move out of Cedarfield and we lose our cheap ethernet connection.

We just received a great review from 100% Independent. Check it out in the reviews section and also check the live schedule for some new dates.

Well, we are officially drummerless - no, really, this time we mean it! Terry packed up and left Blacksburg the first week of May. He's gone and the future of the band is really up in the air. It will be VERY difficult to find a drummer half as talented, but we will surely try.

Our radio appearances on WGMU and WROV over the last two weeks went very, very well. Thanks to Big Rich and Casey Jones for having us on their shows.

The WROV Homegrown Showcase at the Belly of the Beast in Salem, VA was a blast. First up was Steph Pappas with an intense and very impressive solo acoustic set. We went on next (we are MIDWAY afterall) and played for about an hour trying out lots of new material. After us, Roanoke's four-piece outfit Stone Groove played a blazing groove filled set. Many thanks to Casey Jones for having us out and be sure to check out his Homegrown radio show every Sunday at 11PM. With any luck, we'll do an in-studio appearance in the next month. Our local CBS affiliate WDBJ-7 was also on hand and we should figure prominently in their feature story scheduled to air on Sunday, March 15 at 8AM and 11PM.

Thanks to Fighting Gravity, their crew (especially Bob), and Jim Hodson for making the show at the Bus Stop on the 25th such a success. Thanks also to Amanda for coming out to listen and Eric Frost for providing extra stage security when things got a little out of hand.

Our shows this past weekend in Blacksburg and Greenville, NC went suprisingly well. Thanks to everyone that came out and listened as well as Visible Shivers, Jam Sandwich, and our special guest performer Jen Gallagher.

Terry Willis, our drummer for the past year, has agreed to play a few more shows with us. We are still holding auditions, so any interested drummers should get in touch with us.

Seems we had a power outage over the holidays here in Blacksburg. Normally, that wouldn't be a big problem, but either Scott or Ben left a disk in the server's floppy drive before leaving town. Thanks to that non-system disk, the system couldn't reboot properly. Hope you missed us over the last week or so!

After nine months of efforts to set up our new music publishing company (Eddy Current Music) with BMI, we finally received our first set of clearance forms. Now I can only wonder how long it will take to clear each song.

Be sure to check out the revamped photos section with the long ago promised thumbnails and even some new photos.

Read the GLOWING reviews we just received from 181.4 Degrees from the Norm and The Music Corner.

We finally hit #1 on the WGMU Local Music Chart on 11/29/97! After running sound for The Excentrics last night (12/05/97) at TOTS in Blacksburg, I can't believe we pushed them from #1. They are without a doubt one of the best bands I've seen all year. Thanks to Rich Wiedemann, the station, and their listeners for the honor. We hope make an in-studio appearance at WGMU in the very near future.

Speaking of radio play, Anne Marie was played 11/23/97 on The Buzz (WBZU) in Richmond, VA c/o the Studio-B show. Also aired on the very same show was Innocent Nixon's "Fred Wears a Skirt" from their first album "Relax and enjoy an evening with...".

Check out the three new reviews we received this month. The critics can be so kind sometimes and so rough the next, but at least these guys were kind enough to listen and give their honest opinion. I guess that's all we can ask.

We have been working hard on new material over the last few months. Hopefully we will be able to release another full length album, tentatively titled "Wow" by late-1998.

The website has been offline quite a few times in the last two weeks due to some software problems. Scott thinks he has it worked out thanks to a clean install of NT and IIS. Sorry if you couldn't read our propaganda recently. Some day we'll actually revamp the rest of the website.

We just received a review from Quirk Magazine out on the west coast. At least we can confirm the fact that we're not an alternative band! I don't really know if that's good or bad - we just play what we play. The Eagles comparison makes me wince a little bit - that probably comes from the more "rootsy" sound of "Easier to Lie". Ms. Bounds definitely gives us some food for thought.

We are currently out of room on the server, so any major additions to this website will have to wait until we move over to our own server at the end of the summer. Speaking of our own server, we are looking for other bands who need a place to put their website and are willing to help defray operating and equipment costs. If you think you might be interested, let us know through the e-mail link at the bottom of this page.

A big THANK YOU to anyone visiting from Art Jipson's Connells Listserv.

Last week was quite busy for the band: Opening for Cravin Melon and the Greek Week show out on Henderson Lawn with Jennifer on Sunday and Blue Sky Gone. Our live show has tightened up quite a bit and the "crowd" has been very receptive.

The shows at TOTS in Blacksburg last weekend went well and it seems imitation leather pants were the overiding theme (for Jim H. and Jen). We played a lot on new material (actually, we were writing some lyrics up to the time we got on stage!) that was well received. Jennifer on Sunday put on a great show on Friday where they also unveiled some new songs. In case you missed it on Saturday night, we got up and played an impromptu set during Innocent Nixon's mid-show break. That was lots of fun and as always, Innocent Nixon were on top of their game. Speaking of Innocent Nixon, Midway would like to pass along an official welcome to Dave Murelli who is taking over on bass for Todd Jenkins (And Todd, we'll miss you!).

The entire band is back in Blacksburg, so look for us to be out and about much more often in the coming months. We just added some more new dates to the live schedule, so be sure to check them out.

Be sure to check out the new album review we received from Splendid e-zine.

Audionet has finally added "Poole Hall Sessions" to their jukebox. Follow the sounds link for more information.

John just returned (06/24/97) from a four day stint running sound for Innocent Nixon in Richmond, VA and Nag's Head, NC. Lots of fun was had by all and it was nice to see so many friends (old and new). The return trip to Blacksburgwas entirely too long though.

The official release date for our new CD EP came and went on April 23rd without any discs, but fear not, for they finally arrived on 04/29/97! This also happened to us when we released our debut "Westby Mansion Revisited" disc back in '94 when we were still going by the name Watershed. I guess we're cursed!