Local indie acts Prairie Scout, Billy Fortune and Brick Lancaster will perform at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Tickets are available online for $8.
The performance is part of the monthly “Live at The Buskirk-Chumley Theater” series presented by 91.3 WFHB, Bloomington’s community radio station. In collaboration with the radio station, the show will be broadcast live on 91.3. The concert will showcase the bands a part of the second “stack” of albums produced by local independent record label The Hum Drum Press. The label was founded by musician and songwriter Max DiFrisco, who’s also an alumnus of the Jacobs School of Music audio engineering program .
The idea for a “stack” of albums came from the first three records the label produced in Bloomington after compiling gear from students who were going back home for the summer. The label came about somewhat out of necessity, DiFrisco said, trying to record albums for Westhead and Slug Rug.
“We made those albums and thought it'd be a shame if there was not a way to package these together as one thing because they feel so intertwined that we want to present it as such,” DiFrisco said. “The stack concept came out of that and it would have been too weird to do the stack idea without a label behind it.”
DiFrisco said the stack is what the label is passionate about, and the label allows small independent artists to have an album rollout they might not have otherwise, even with the label’s small size and budget. With the music community of Bloomington coming together, DiFrisco said the label is able to provide as much as they can to support local projects.
“Bloomington’s a town where people want to see things come to fruition,” DiFrisco said. “We don’t have a budget like other labels do, but we want to provide as much as we can” he said.
The release show for the first stack was at the Buskirk last year, and the importance of the Buskirk as a site for Bloomington artists is not lost on DiFrisco.
“Bloomington for me, is people trying to be as helpful as possible but never feeling like you’re asking too much,” DiFrisco said. “It’s a pretty great community for that sort of thing, and it’s an honor to be able to grace to Buskirk stage again.”
Prairie Scout is a project born from singer-songwriter Natalie Ingalls, which grew into the band comprised of Julia Fegelman on bass, Wesley Davis on drums and John Hasey on guitar.
The indie-rock band performed at the Buskirk shortly after their formation last year, and since then have released their debut album “What’s Ahead is Behind Me” on Jan. 31, a little over a year later. Production of the album began with The Hum Drum Press last spring.
Billy Fortune is a country and acoustic artist based in Cincinnati. His love for classic country and folk music was inspired by growing up in Appalachian Eastern Ohio. After moving to Cincinnati to attend school at the University of Cincinnati, he noticed a lack of country music in the local scene. His debut EP “Be Sincere” was released Nov. 1, 2024.
Fortune sought to put his own twist on the music of artists he idolizes, such as Townes Van Zandt, Waylon Jennings and Bob Dylan, and said he loves the genre for its storytelling ability.
He got connected to The Hum Drum Press through DiFrisco, after Ingalls from Prairie Scout introduced DiFrisco to some of Fortune’s music. Fortune played last year’s Burning Couch festival and was able to see the thriving Bloomington music community.
“It's been nothing but love from the Bloomington scene,” Fortune said. “Last year, I got invited to play Burning Couch. That was a super cool experience. That was when I really got to see the general appreciation of art and creatives and the Bloomington scene which was really refreshing.”
Now working solo after collaborating with other bands, Fortune is enjoying performing as himself and having creative agency.
“Putting out the EP, it was putting myself out there as an artist myself, and having people recognize me for that is really cool and inspires me to keep making more art essentially for myself and for other people,” Fortune said.
Brick Lancaster is the solo project of Reeder Vyain. After playing in bands Slug Rug and Westhead, he put out his solo debut “Upanatem” Dec. 6, 2024.
Vyain said this project is the one he’s most proud of — it challenged him to approach songwriting in a new, more personal way. Working with the label was a natural and easy collaboration because he is friends with its founders, Vyain said, but he still wanted to bring his best work to the table.
“They're my friends, but you still want to make sure you're not trying to like, suggest some boring song or something that isn't inspiring,” Vyain said.
The Buskirk-Chumley has been home to independent and local artists for decades, and Vyain said that getting to play at the theater feels like an important milestone.
“This will be the first gig where I have a full band,” Vyain said. “I'm really lucky to be a part of Hum Drum Press and a collective that gets me a gig at the Buskirk.”
Editor’s note: Natalie Ingalls is a former IDS employee.
