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Laurels and Lumberjacks is an American rock group founded in 2011 by Bryan Bohn. Their first full-length album, Who Invented Girls?, is set to be released in August, 2012. Their musical style draws influences from blues, rock, pop, indie, and folk rock.

History
The group grew from of an informal series of email-based lyrical correspondences between Bryan Bohn and college friend James Heenan in the summer of 2011. Bohn, a guitarist and recent graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, had approached Heenan about the possibility of composing lyrics to a rock album. The project manifested itself as a series of rapid-fire lyric-writing sessions, ultimately leading to a collection of verses that would form a basis for their first album, Who Invented Girls?.

Lyrical Composition
"Let's make a song. You start us off with a few lines, I'll add on, we repeat, fame, fortune, etc..." - Bryan Bohn in an email to Jim Heenan dated May 11th, 2011.

The following verses are an unedited sample of the "give-and-give" lyric writing style that was characteristic of their earliest songs (Heenan's lines are italicized, while Bohn's are not). Later, during the composition of the lyrical melodies, Bohn would regretfully attest that some of these first songs made too little concession to "singability."

"The State Fair" - May 2011

I followed your gaze to the carousel

walking through the fair grounds

the horses going up and down

is temporary.

we must all head back to the stable

The carnies smoked cigarettes - those models of discipline,

smiling away as machines did their ratcheting.

Clanging around, a stallion or turntable?

The wrong kind of ring for this eccentric musical.

i found your face in the fireworks

my steady heartbeat as the balloons flew on through

Like rockets, red ribbons, burst wildly all over us

while these leisure contraptions inspire.

"Books" - May, 2011

the books, the mantle piece, the stories withheld inside

the lamps, my bird, and the bed on which we lie

they've been trying me lately - these tales and this room

while the walls breath menacingy, like a witch upon her broom

oh, to escape this prison

to run free from admissions

of past nights we lied

but still forced a decision

three blind mice and a man, caught in the rye

i searched the literary monotony

but left twelve fucking stones unturned

because the first four had gotten to me

it feels better without punctuation and capitalization

fresh and new, sweeping generalizations of my life

''found in crisp pages. found in leather-bound books that''

feel better without punctuation and capitalization

opened, then slammed shut, little rhyme but with reason

they're dog-eared at the corners, the lay-reader's sin, but God,

they just feel better without punctuation and capitalization

"Old Brown Beard" - May, 2011

old brown beard only wore one shoe

gave my brother a dime when he turned two

the ladies loved his bristly old mug

but to the touch those bristles were a 'cupine skin rug.

old brown beard could wink with his nose

whistle with his ears and wave with his toes

now my brother turned that dime into three

selling lemonade near the ole sikomore tree

now old brown beard never really drank much

didn't really smoke or play poker and such

no, the one vice he had was even more wild

he had a hard taste for lying, and he did it with style.

Old brown beard once played me a fool.

While I sat drinking on my favorite bar stool

He came up to me with a smile, freshly shaven

And demanded a debt owed him by my kin

Not wanting trouble, and fearing my life and limb

I handed over a quarter, and never again saw what I gave him!

Musical Background
Bryan Bohn was first exposed to the electric guitar as a 8 year-old, though his interest was minimal until he was enrolled in a guitar class as a sixth grader at Mansfield Middle School. Shortly thereafter, his parents acquired him the heavily-used 1978 Univox Les Paul that would see him through his years of playing. Armed with some rudimentary classroom instruction, a guitar, and an older brother with a musical background, Bohn's playing progressed steadily. By the middle of his high school years, he had begun composing simple, Green Day-inspired rock tunes. Over these years he also broadened his musical abilities into mandolin, keyboard, and beat-making synthesizers.

Through the rest of high school and into college, Bohn continued his playing and composing without the presence of a consistent band. With the exception of occasional stand-in gigs and informal performances, his playing was limited to "dorm room jams" and private playing sessions. He confesses that near the end of his university years, the solo acoustic singer-songwriter act began to seem kitsch and uninteresting. Bohn attests that, in part, Laurels and Lumberjacks was created as an escape from, as he classifies it, the "hey bro, let's jam, bro!" scene.

Jim Heenan, though not an advanced instrumentalist himself, contributes creative writing and philosophical direction to the group.

Forthcoming Album
Who Invented Girls?, the group's first full-length, independently recorded and produced album, is set for release in August 2012. The recording and production will take place in Bohn's Newport, RI cottage. All tracks will be made available to the public through the band's website, which is currently under construction.