EARLY WORKS

My first band was called The Vaguerants. They were me, Ted Pearcy, Dave Hochhauser, and Mark Allender, in various combinations.

There were basically three eras: the 'electric trio' phase with Ted & Dave in 1992, the 'electric solo' phase from 1992-1994, and the 'acoustic trio' phase with Ted, Mark, and sometimes Dave from 1994-1995. I wrote a fairly complete history of that band for Mark's ultracool website a while back, which you can see here.

1992: The only 'release' by the original Vaguerants (pronounced 'vagrants' -- gosh, I'm clever) was a cassette called 'Hoch's House Hideosity' (ugh), simply a recording of our first afternoon playing together in Dave's basement. I made up titles for all the improvisations, and proudly handed out copies to a bunch of people. About 10 copies existed then, and I sorta hope they've all since vanished.

1993: The middle 'solo' period consisted entirely of me writing & recording by myself at home on a Tascam four-track. I released two half-hour cassettes under the name The Vaguerants, made up some dumb pseudonyms to use for the 'other players,' and made all the copies myself at home.

1994: The solo period ended in the summer of 1994 when I bought a good acoustic guitar to replace my first one, which had been your basic beat-up, hole-in-the-side, no-name guitar I bought for a dollar at a garage sale. I revived a few songs from the four-track era, and with various combinations of Mark, Ted, and Dave, I started hitting open-mike nights at Brady's Café in Kent, Ohio, once again using the Vaguerants umbrella. The acoustic Vaguerants never did any 'real' recording, although I did record a couple rehearsals and an open-mike night performance. None of these recordings were ever made public, although I did use a couple on a cassette demo I shopped around in a futile attempt to find some gigs for us.

1995: I moved to Missouri, and from then on I was a full-time solo acoustic act.

Anyway, below are the entire recorded works of the middle, pre-acoustic, 'all-Ross' version of the Vaguerants, in the order they were released. There are probably about 25-30 copies of each floating around somewhere. Maybe someday I'll remaster them & slap both together onto one CD. But don't hold your breath.

THE VAGUERANTS - DUET FOR ONE
Cassette. Released 1993. Out of print.

Nine songs. Thirty minutes. Complete program on each side of a 60-minute cassette, black & white photocopied cover insert.

Recorded August - September 1993. I'd just bought the four-track I'm still using 10 years later, and I was having a lot of fun experimenting.

"Something Drastic" was a live staple during the acoustic trio era. "Princess From Saturn" would be VASTLY rewritten over the years, and eventually resurface on News From Around The Bend. A highly reworked version of "Without" also shows up in my live set from time to time.

(click the label to see the whole insert in full color)

All songs by Ross, except as noted.

THE VAGUERANTS - GHOST MAN ON THIRD
Cassette. Released 1994. Out of print.

Twelve songs in Three Acts. Thirty minutes. Complete program on each side of a 60-minute cassette, black & white photocopied cover insert.

Recorded November 1993 - June 1994. I'd found my way around the four-track, and although I think there are a few successes (notably the surprisingly informative "How To Iron A Shirt" and the surprisingly sincere "In The Distance"), most of this wound up being a little too self-indulgent.

The Difficult Second Record reconciles the past and sets up the future. There's a new recording of "Torn," which originally appeared on Duet for One, with this one using about 7 layers and coming closer to the way I'd always intended it to sound. There's also an early version of "People Like You," later to be re-recorded for Where Is Everybody?.

The closing track "Curtain Call" is 56 seconds' worth of improvisation from the "Hoch's House" tape -- a recording from side A playing normally with something from side B creeping in going backwards. (Told you it was self-indulgent.)

"In The Distance" still shows up in my live set, virtually unchanged from this version -- which itself was arranged and recorded mere hours after I started writing the thing. Sometimes they're born full-grown.

(click the label to see the whole insert in full color)

ACT II:
INSOMNIAC
chernobylhead
people like you
where i'm going

ACT III:
torn
dedicated obsession (words: melissa shay, music: ross)
how to iron a shirt (words: ross's mom, music: ross)

CURTAIN CALL (music: pearcy / hochhauser / ross)

All songs by Ross, except as noted.