Dirty Chaps (Tom Penrod and Douglas Bland) are musicians who have had a working relationship dating back to their high school days in the mid-70s on the East Coast. After playing off and on in a variety of rock and jazz rock bands over the years, decided to renew their commitment and approach to music. After a gap of some 25 years, where Tom had settled in the Santa Cruz area, whilst Doug in the Los Angeles area, the two reunited for a week long session of completely improvised music, playing whatever came into their heads, using a musical vocabulary of a combined 60 years if playing. These sessions were recorded as played and compiled as their first album, Rubbermaid, named after Tom’s humble recording studio in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with little post production. What you hear is what we did as we did it.
Since those first sessions 2 years ago, Dirty Chaps has managed to record 4 further sessions, including last year’s SoundWalk, resulting in the albums DC2, Los Angeles, and Welded Music.