DESCRIPTION:
Greg Swanholm - Guitar / Vocals
Vince Ramirez - Drums / Harmony Vocals
Ruth Wilson - Bass
Their story sounds like some well-contrived publicity yarn: The left-handed guitarist who plays with his instrument strung upside down; the imposing punk veteran who sings spot-on Appalachian harmonies and drums like a mad dervish; a small army of gifted, outlandish bass players who've come and gone with a Spinal Tappish frequency. Remarkably, though, it's not fiction; it's Flathead. To music fans outside the Grand Canyon state, Phoenix's Flathead is more a legend than a band. A musical fixture in the desert for almost 20 years, Flathead have rarely toured outside their native southwest. Yet their brand of blazing boom-chicka country, fevered roadhouse, and impeccably crafted catalog of trad inspired tunes have made them one of the most significant, if overlooked, roots acts to emerge from Arizona in a generation. The fact that they're still performing, as musically potent and popular as ever, nearly 20 years after first forming is testimony of that. Although there have been half a dozen lineups in the band's history, the Flathead story begins and ends with singer/guitarist Greg Swanholm. A native of Chandler, Swanholm's zeal for music didn't develop until an unusually late age. "My dad had a really great eight-track collection when I was a kid," he recalls. "Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Ray Price, and I always grew up with that stuff in the background and always liked it. But there was quite a long period where I never bought any records. I mean, I can't really remember buying my first record until I was 22 -- and that was a result of seeing the Varmits and the Geezers." The Varmits, Grant and the Geezers and Hellfire (the latter two groups led by Phoenix wildman rocker Kevin Daly) were some of the leading lights of the Valley's fertile '80s roots music scene. Witnessing the passion and energy of those bands firsthand had a profound effect on the would-be guitarist. "Those guys made it real to me," says Swanholm. "I would go to clubs and I'd see guys like Kevin Daly playing. And when you see guys doing it up-close, all of a sudden it becomes real, and that's when I started buying records."