User:EllenZoe/sandbox/Spafford



Spafford is an American jam band that blends genres of rock, funk, jazz, reggae, ska, and electro-pop. Members Brian Moss (guitar/vocals) and Jordan Fairless (bass/vocals) formed Spafford in Prescott, Arizona on New Year’s Eve in 2008. Andrew “Red” Johnson (keys/vocals) joined Moss and Fairless after meeting the duo at an open mic night in Prescott. Cameron Laforest (drums/percussion/vocals) was the last addition of this current formation. The group self-releases their music, many of which are soundboard recordings of their live shows.

Style
Spafford's sound is the product of the different songwriters and singers in the band. The band uses a improvisational style to transition between the songs in their sets of live music, selecting diverse covers. Spafford tours across the U.S., and each of their shows features a different setlist and approach to each song they play. Through their tours, archives, and live video recordings, the band has a fan base of "Spaffnerds" who travel to see the band and maintain an online community surrounding its shows. The band regularly provides live streams and access to high quality recordings of their shows on their website.

History
Brian Moss and Jordan Fairless are the founding members of Spafford. They both played open mic nights at Coyote Joe's in Prescott, Arizona, in 2008. At the time, Moss played guitar and Fairless was the percussionist. In 2010, Mike Kreidel (2010-2011) became Spafford's drummer, and Fairless took on bass guitar. The first keyboard player was Jonathan Hust (2010-2011). In 2011, Red Johnson joined Spafford, and Cameron Laforest became Spafford's drummer, replacing Nick Tkachyk (2011-2017), in 2017, firming up the band's current membership.

Members
Brian Moss was born on February 22, 1985, in River Vale, New Jersey. He started writing music when he was 12 years old. Brian moved to Arizona in his twenties and played in several bands in Phoenix and in Prescott before he met Jordan Fairless in 2008 and went on to develop Spafford shortly thereafter. Jordan Christopher Fairless was born on September 1, 1985. Raised in a musical family in Nashville, Tennessee, Jordan is a multi-instrumentalist. He was more a drummer than a bassist when he and Brian first met, and he mastered bass guitar thereafter. Jordan served as a sound engineer at Prescott’s Green Room during Spafford’s early years. Andrew "Red" Johnson was born on December 2, 1980. He hails from Belvidere, Illinois, and moved to Phoenix in 2001. Red made a name for himself as a pianist, vocalist, and keyboard player in the Phoenix music scene before he joined Spafford for his first show at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas in 2011. Cameron Laforest was born on August 27, 1993 in Denver, Colorado. He's lived most of his life in Phoenix, Arizona where he drummed in several local bands, including an original project named Rabbithole Handbook. Cameron started playing the drums as a child and evolved as a musician by engaging with multiple genres and styles during and after high school. Chuck "Spafford" Johnson was born on June 23, 1985. He is originally from Denver, Colorado. Chuck was Spafford’s original lighting designer, co-lyricist, and namesake. Chuck’s lighting design set the stage for Spafford’s dynamic performances. As a close friend and inspiration, Chuck helps guide both the band’s aesthetic and its musical direction. As Johnson decided not to tour with the band, Ben Factor stepped in as lighting director for the later part of 2017. He graduated from University of Michigan with a BS in Sound Engineering. The band met Ben while touring with Mungion, who Ben worked with prior.

Performances
Spafford has made over 100 recordings of their live shows available on the Live Music Archive (archive.org). Their music is also featured on SiriusXM’s JamOn, as well as on nugs.net, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Spafford has hosted several after-party shows for Furthur and Widespread Panic. Spafford has also been the featured act at Las Vegas venues like the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and The Palms. Spafford has shared the stage with Umphrey's McGee, Particle, the Motet, and EOTO.

Festivals they have appeared at include Gem and Jam (Tucson, AZ), Euphoria (Austin, TX), and the McDowell Mountain Music Festival (Phoenix, AZ).

IAmAVL.com broadcast and archive the band's shows at the Asheville Music Hall on October 21 and 22, 2017. They also sat for an Echo Session, which was broadcast live.

Tours
On the 2018 schedule for Spafford is the "For Amusement Only" tour, and later in June, the tour includes a Bonnaroo appearance with Eminem, Muse and the Killers in Manchester, Tennessee. Additionally, the band makes their debut appearance at Firefly with Kendrick Lamar and Arctic Monkeys and return to both Summer Camp Music Festival and The Peach Music Festival.

In mid-2017, Spafford played Head for the Hills (New Braunfels, TX), Mad Tea Party Jam (Artemas, PA), Electric Forest (Rothbury, MI), Some Kind of Jam (Schuylkill Haven, PA), Summer Camp (Chillicothe, IL), Wind Rider (Alto, NM), and the Resonance Music Festival (Thornville, OH). At these festivals, Spafford played alongside artists like Rusted Root, Gov’t Mule, My Morning Jacket, The String Cheese Incident, Moe., Bassnectar, Trey Anastasio Band,  Lettuce, Mike Gordon,  Primus, the Disco Biscuits, and Lotus.

Spafford toured from September to November 2017. The tour included more than 30 dates in over 20 states across the U.S.

In winter 2017, Spafford toured with Umphrey's McGee for over a dozen shows. They also headlined their own tour simultaneously.

In 2016, Spafford traveled East of Colorado for their "Breakout Tour". On that tour, they sold out Chicago's Tonic Room for a two-night show in less than two hours.

In summer 2014, Spafford toured the Southwest.

Recordings
Among the myriad of live recordings that Spafford has made available, the band has made and released two studio albums. In 2017, Spafford released the hour-long, single track Abaculus: An Improvisational Experience, culled from a continuous jam the band recorded at their rehearsal space called "The Pound."

The first Spafford studio album was self-titled, released in 2012, and the band termed it "traditional."

Studio Albums

 * Spafford (2012)
 * Abaculus: An Improvisational Experience (2017)

Live Albums

 * Live at Firefly (2013)
 * Live in Las Vegas (2015)
 * Live Volume 1 (2015)
 * Live Volume 2 (2016)
 * A Taste of Fall 2017 (2017)