Friday's Child (band)

Friday's Child is an American acoustic rock band, originally formed in northern/central New Jersey area in the late 1990s by founding members Tom Walker (lead vocals, guitar), and Rick Ippolito (bass, backing vocals). The band existed as Tom Walker (lead vocals, guitar), Rich Haddad (bass, backing vocals), Chris McElroy (guitar, backing vocals) and Kevin Jahoda (drums & percussion) from 2007 to early 2012. In September 2012, Dave Drzewiecki rejoined as the band's drummer, after almost 9 years of playing in other bands.

History

During its early years, Friday's Child cycled between several drummers including Joe Bergamini and Dave Drzewiecki. Walker, Ippolitio, and Drzewiecki became the stable three members of the band, recording and touring throughout the northeastern US through the late 1990s and 2000-2003. The majority of the song writing was performed by Walker. Walker also formed his own record company, Honeybee Records, that released his own album and the albums of other up and coming artists in the New Jersey area. The band's first album, Boy Without A Name, was released in 1997 through Honeybee records.^[1] Their second album, 13, was released in 2000^[2] and the band's first live album, Live at the Goldhawk (recorded in Hoboken, NJ), was released in 2002.^[3] Throughout this time period, Friday's Child toured extensively in the New York and Boston areas, playing clubs, musical festivals, and other small venues such as Border's bookstores.

In early 2003, Rick Ippolitio left the band. This, combined with a serious bout of CNS Lyme Disease to Tom Walker, lead to the band's break-up. Tom Walker began work on a solo album, In A Word, in late 2003. In late 2005, Walker revived the Friday's Child trademark and a new version of In A Word^[4] with Rich Haddad, Rob Grosso, and Walker's long-time mentor Don Regan.^[5] On July 30, 2005 Friday's Child performed a CD release concert at Luna Stage in Montclair, NJ. The concert was recorded on audio and video in a joint venture by Dragon Rider Productions and Walker's Honeybee Music, produced by Brian Jude and Tom Walker, and directed by Brian Jude. Rich Haddad produced the audio, and the video was edited by Steve Maio. The initial concept for the production was a DVD/CD called "Friday's Child: Live at Luna Stage."^[6] After a handful of tracks were mixed and edited, they were released as "teasers" on the internet. The overwhelming response from fans made it clear that the future of the band was to turn to broadband media in order to spread their music and attract new listeners. While more videos were edited, the DVD was never released, and Friday's Child instead released the audio recordings as a studio/live album in 2007 "secretly"^[7] named Democracy,^[8] because of the ever-present T-shirt worn by Don Regan which read, "got democracy?" (parodying the "got milk?" advertisement campaign). The CD contained the live recordings combined with select re-mixed tracks from In A Word, as well as a video of the song "The Chasing Game." An interactive section of the CD also promoted the web sites for Friday's Child, Dragon Rider Productions, a handful of sponsors and friends, as well as a new outlet for Friday's Child.

The team that produced the concert video (Walker, Jude, Haddad and Maio) teamed up with entertainment lawyer Rob McNeely to form Digital Cafe Tour, a production company that creates live concert video footage of independent musicians of all genres, as well as rising comedians, made specifically for new media (web, handheld media players, cell phones, etc.), with top-quality audio and video settings. Friday's Child performed at the premiere DCT concert in June 2006^[9] with a return performance in July 2006^[10] at Luna Stage. A series of concerts running under DCT took place throughout the summer of 2006, which included artists Friday's Child, the Audibles, and Secret Gossip among others.^[11] DCT continued their live concert series at other venues, such as The Cutting Room, The Baggott Inn and Kenny's Castaways.^[12]

Friday's Child performed several shows in late 2006 and 2007 at the Cutting Room in New York City and officially announced percussionist Kevin Jahoda would be the fifth member of the band.^[13] Friday's Child returned to a foursome in June, 2007 when percussionist Rob Grosso decided to resign. Their first gig with the new line up was performed on August 23, 2007 at The Baggot Inn, as part of the first "DCT All-Stars" series. Keyboardist Keith Pied guest starred with the band for DCT's Christmas 2007 concert, with videos recorded live that the Gibson Hit Factory Showroom.^[14] In 2008, the band began performing as trio once again with Walker, Haddad and Jahoda.

In early 2011, Tom Walker was afforded the opportunity to play for legendary producer, Bob Johnston, at his home in the Los Angeles area. Voted one of the top 10 music producers of all time by Rolling Stone, Mr. Johnston was responsible for the most seminal works of Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Louie Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels, and Carl Perkins.^[15] Mr. Johnston signed on to produce Friday's Child's upcoming studio release, "Cue the Violins."^[16] Walker, Haddad and Jahoda recruited Walker's long time friend, Chris McElroy, to play second guitar for the album. The new songs Walker has written are very rooted in various core American forms with nods to Jazz, Blues, Rockabilly, Funk, Appalachian, and Folk. Friday's Child signed on with Breedlove Acoustic Guitars and G&L for electric guitars and basses. The new album promises to be very guitar-centric and to showcase the band's total musicianship.

On July 16, 2011 Friday's Child performed live at the Breedlove, Two Old Hippies Festival in Beautiful Bend, OR.^[17]

In May 2012, Kevin Jahoda departed Friday's Child. After several months' hiatus, the band welcomed back Dave Drzewiecki to the drum throne. They immediately tracked an album of songs not slated to be on the Bob Johnston recording and plan to release that before the end of 2012, in order to get the touring side of the band's business up and running again.

Discography

• Boy Without A Name (1997)

1. The Path
2. Border Town
3. Attention
4. Oasis
5. Boy Without a Name
6. The Chasing Game
7. Only Star
8. Shades of Blue
9. Silence in the House
10. Road to the River
11. Icon
12. North by Northeast

• 13 (2000)

1. Wonderland
2. Rory Brady
3. Connection
4. Pay Day Ray
5. Lavender
6. Thirteen

• Live at the Goldhawk (2002)

1. Boy Without a Name
2. The Connection
3. Coyote
4. Tiny Murders
5. Wonderland
6. Empty Sky
7. Remember Me
8. The Chasing Game
9. Goodbye to a Friend
10. Thirteen
11. North by Northeast
12. Anges
13. I'm Not Here

• In a Word (2005) (released under Tom Walker)

1. Man is Island
2. Blood Moon
3. Coyote
4. Red Lights
5. Falling Star
6. Chasing Game
7. Fly Paper
8. Flightless Bird
9. Goodbye to a Friend
10. Lions Fall
11. In a Word

• Democracy (2006)

1. The Chasing Game
2. The Story of You
3. Red Lights
4. Everything She Said (Black Cat/White Cat)
5. Rory Brady
6. Why Not
7. Fly Paper
8. Agnes
9. Thirteen
10. North by Northeast
11. Coyote
12. Man is Island
13. Goodbye to a Friend
14. Lions Fall

References

External links

• Friday's Child Official website
• Friday's Child Facebook page
• Friday's Child MySpace page
• Digital Cafe Tour website
• Digital Cafe Tour MySpace page