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Carter Hall Project (BAND)

EARLY DAYS

TC Carter and Larry Hall originally formed a band in High school at the age of 16 and 17 respectively with fellow high school students Michael Helmly on drums, and Danial Drolet on keyboards, and later Greg Bump on bass. TC, Larry, Michael and Danial all went to Summerville High School in Summerville South Carolina. Greg went to Bishop England, in Danial Island South Carolina.

The first band was called "High Intensity" formed in 1985. The band found immediate success playing high school parties for their friends. Through a chance meeting with a booking agent, the band was suddenly being booked in bars and night clubs around the Charleston SC area. This was a first for the club owners as well as a first for the band. Because of the drinking laws, High Intensity was corralled either outside the bars, or in corners with security away from the patrons, and escorted to and from the stage.

The first of many band shake ups came while High Intensity was scheduled to play a sweet sixteen party. Danial dropped from the band on show day. The band played the show, with TC playing keyboard on the few songs that it was needed. After this show, it was decided a new keyboard player wasn't needed, the band embraced their more raw rock sound.

It was during this time that TC and Larry would write their first song together. The song was titled "Throw our Love Away".

In late 1986 the band had their second member change when Greg Bumps family ( a Navy family) was stationed out of the country. Enter Brad LaVario. Brad was a couple years older than the TC, Larry and Micheal, and had more experience as a musician. During this time, TC and Larry wrote 2 more songs, "Come get it tonight" and "Cmon Everybody" along with one song Brad, TC and Larry wrote called "Stephanie" these songs where recorded on Brads 4 track, and shopped as a demo.

Brad left the group after about 6 months. TC, Larry and Brad did not agree with the direction the band should move in. Brad wanted more of a "Prog rock" band, and TC and Larry wanted a simple "party rock band" vibe.

Shortly after Michael lost interest and left the band as well. By now, 1988, Micheal was turning 17, and simply had other interests. TC and Larry where both out of school and had day jobs as well. The landscape of the group was changing.

Marshas Wallpaper

TC and Larry found themselves with no band. A fellow student from Summerville High, offered his mothers warehouse for a rehearsal space. For $250 a month, they could rent the roughly 5000 square foot warehouse. The wallpaper shop was located in the front of the building, and had a wall between the store and warehouse. Larry and TC called it "The Studio" and even with no band, would go there and write songs and jam for hours every day.

Larry was working part time in a music store called Charleston Music. He met a group of musicians looking to form a band. He and TC invited them to the studio, where they started rehearsing. About a month into it, the bass player backed out. They auditioned new bass player Phil Nissen. Phil fit in quickly. Shortly after, the drummer quit as well. Phil made the suggestion of a friend of his named Mike Payne.

Mike came to audition, and for the first time in years TC and Larry had a good fit with their new rhythm section.

From Marshas Wallpaper, a new band was born. "Bad Habit" By this point the local rock music scene was exploding. Lots of great bands, lots of great venues to play. While Bad Habit rehearsed their show, Mike had the idea of throwing a Keg party at Marshas. With a $5 cover, the band expected 50-60 people to show up. The idea was to offset the rent on the building. Marshas Kegger 1 drew 500 people. A couple months later Bad Habit decided to do it again. This time over 1000 people showed up, along with The City of North Charleston Police Dept. These two parties created a huge fan base for Bad Habit when they did finally play out in the bars and clubs they where a sure bet for meeting capacity in most venues.

In 1990 TC and Larry broke the band apart, TC went back to school, Larry played around Charleston in failed bands until 1991 when he and his soon to be wife Lisa moved to her home town of Rochester New Hampshire. There, Larry formed a new band. He used the band name Stiff Kitten, which was a band in Charleston Larry was friends with that had broken up around the same time as Bad Habit.

In this band, for the first time Larry found himself Lead singer and lead guitar player. Larry and Lisa stayed in Rochester and toured all over the east coast for two years.

TC was the best man at Larry and Lisa's wedding 9/6/92, they managed to play a few songs together at the reception. This would be the last time TC and Larry would play together until 2007.

In 1993 Larry and Lisa moved to Las Vega NV to peruse full time working status as a musician. Larry cleaned carpet at the Mirage upon arrival to Vegas when the band that hired him backed out. He worked at the Mirage for all of 1993. In 1994 Larry was finally working full time in casino bands and making a living doing so. In this time he also started a small sound company called Hall Audio Services. TC moved around the country and settled in Ft Meyer Fla working as a Cytologist.

Nine years to make a record

In early 2007 Larry built a recording studio in his home. For the first time in over ten years Larry was working on original material. Struggling to finish any of the songs, Lisa recommended he find TC to see if he was still writing. After a call to TC parents home, he had TCs number and after a phone call, Larry flew to FT Meyer. They sat up all night at TCs home writing some of the songs that would become "Back to Botany Bay"

In early 2008, TC flew to Las Vegas, where in Larry's home studio, they worked non stop for the weekend that TC was there. TC would return to Las Vegas two more times, one in 2007, and one in 2008.

In 2012 Larry took some friends Eddie Fluellen and Micheal Tucker to Prairie Sun Recording studio in Cotati California to record the music for Back to Botany Bay. They where at Prairie Sun about a week. In 2014 Larry and TC met up in Charleston SC at Ocean Industries Recording studio to do vocals. In 2015 Larry took the finished product to his friend Vinnie Castoldo who owns Tone Factory recording studio in Las Vegas to Mix and Master Back to Botany Bay. Vinnie challenged Larry to redo the guitar parts. Another 2 weeks in The Tone Factory redoing guitars delayed the release even more.

Finally by year end, Vinnie had mixed and mastered Back to Botany bay. Carter and Hall soft released the record to friends and family in June of 2016.

Link to songs on Sound Cloud

Link to songs on Tune Core
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