DESCRIPTION:
The death of a parent always brings with it no small degree of soul-searching. For Eric Lysaght, it also meant an entire change of creative direction.

In 2006, his band, Neptune Crush, had a significant following in his hometown of St. Louis as well as major-label interest. But the songs he began writing after his father's death that year were light-years removed from the hard rock of Neptune Crush. Instead, they had an introspective, small-town, Americana feel to them, better suited to mandolins and fiddles than electric guitars and heavy drums.

He named the project Salisbury, after the rural Missouri town where his mother grew up and he spent a lot of time in his youth visiting his grandparents. His father is buried in the cemetery at St. Joseph's Parish, Salisbury's main church.

Lysaght intended to return to Neptune Crush after Salisbury's eponymous debut was released in 2007, but he soon discovered that this new path was more artistically fulfilling, and realized that this was the music he was supposed to be making all along.

Salisbury's second album, Life is a Heartbreak, will be released in late-2013.