Draft:Dinnerbell Road

Dinnerbell Road is an independent American country rock band formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2015. The lineup consists of Cook McKoy (lead vocals, guitar), Scott Herbst (backing vocals, bass guitar), Billy Blodgett (drums) and Seth Osche (backing vocals, guitar). They have released 1 studio album, 1 Extended Play, and 2 singles from their upcoming album.

History
Dinnerbell Road was formed in 2015 by Cook McKoy and Bob "Big Daddy" Goodlin who were close friends and shared a passion for country music and rock and roll. They started out as an acoustic duo playing covers of music they both loved in bars and pubs in the Butler, Pennsylvania area and surrounding towns. The band name is an actual road in southern Butler County PA that connects Penn Township, where Cook lived, and Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, where Big Daddy lives. In 2016, Cook McKoy decided to start writing original songs with the idea of an EP release. Four songs were written, and due to the fact that the band was still a duo, session musicians were hired for drums, bass and pedal steel. On March 9th, 2018, the EP "Play Me A Song" was released. To coincide with the release, the duo was invited to the "Broadway's Backyard" morning show on Y108 FM to perform "Play Me A Song" and "In The Middle". Two songs from the EP, Yellow Footprints and Play Me A Song were featured on WLER's weekly Grassroots show featuring local artists in the western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia regions. These songs also saw regular airplay on WBUT as well as countless internet radio stations.

After the local and regional success of the EP, Cook went back to work writing new songs for what would be the band's first full length album, and in mid 2018 began putting together the first iteration of what would be the band's lineup. James Socciarelli from Youngstown, Ohio was brought in on drums, Donnie Bell from Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania was brought in on lead guitar and Sam Stuckey from Butler, Pennsylvania was brought in on bass guitar. The band's first live gig with a full lineup was at the Hard Rock Cafe, Pittsburgh as opening support for Alex Williams on August 3rd, 2018.

In late 2018, founding member Bob "Big Daddy" Goodlin decided to leave the band to focus more time on his family owned businesses. In January of 2019, the band headed to Very Tight Recording Studio in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania to record songs for their debut LP. The band decided to record the songs live and overdub where necessary after the fact. This was mainly due to a strict budget. "Rust Belt Revival" was released on May 10th, 2019 and had a noticeably different sound than the 2018 EP. Although some of the songs leaned towards a more traditional country sound, you could start to hear the band's true sound emerging on songs like "Up To No Good", "Mr. Nashville Man" and "The Bossman". These songs were more gritty and bluesy than the earlier songs released. The LP debuted at number 37 on the Amazon new album release chart published on May 13th 2019.

In the fall of 2019, Donnie Bell decided to leave the band to pursue other interests and to try his hand in Nashville, Tennessee.

After an exhaustive search, Zach Rovito was brought in on lead guitar in January of 2021. Zach immediately fit right in with the band's evolving sound and brought a new energy to the band's live performances. In March of 2021, Sam Stuckey decided to leave the band to pursue other interests and move to Nashville, Tennessee to play bluegrass music full time. For the remainder of 2021, the band used fill in bass players to complete the remainder of the scheduled shows in 2021.

In January of 2022, Scott Herbst was brought in on bass guitar. Scott quickly gelled with the band due to his diverse music background and experience with previous bands. Additionally, Cory Steighner was brought in to provide additional rhythm guitar to fill out the bands sound. In December of 2022, drummer James Socciarelli was replaced by Billy Blodgett as the band continued to fill in missing pieces to their new sound which they were calling "Rust Belt Country". The band was pursuing a flawless mix of country, rock and roll, and blues with influences from Lynyrd Skynyrd, The SteelWoods, Blackberry Smoke, Whiskey Myers, The Allman Bros., and ZZ Top.

Throughout the lineup changes, Cook was busy working on new songs for the upcoming album as well as focusing on his solo acoustic touring schedule. In the spring of 2022, Cook and Zach co-wrote "Go" which would be released in Sept of 2022 as a single along with "Walk That Line" which was also released in September of 2022. In September of 2023, Zach Rovito and Cory Steighner decided to leave the band to work on a new project together. In February of 2024, Seth Osche was brought in on lead guitar and has had an immediate impact on the band's sound. The band is currently working on new songs for their second full length LP that should be released in late 2024 or early 2025.

Band Members
Cook McKoy: Lead Vocals, Guitar Scott Herbst: Backing Vocals, Bass Guitar Billy Blodgett: Drums Seth Osche: Backing Vocals, Lead Guitar

Discography
LP

Rust Belt Revival - 2019

EP

Play Me A Song - 2018

Singles

Go - 2022

Walk That Line - 2022

Up To No Good - 2018

Livin' Without You Ain't Hell - 2018

Play Me A Song - 2018

Yellow Footprints - 2017