Ever heard of Art-Rock? How about Newgrass Art-Rock? Now you have and its nickname is The Galactic Cowboy Orchestra. The Galactic Cowboy Orchestra (The GCO) sounds like Bela Fleck meets Rush, goes out to breakfast with John Coltrane, and gets home in time to go golfing with Jeff Beck. They’ve been dubbed the bastard sons (and daughter!) of Rush and Ralph Stanley. It makes sense, they’re now the backing band for the crazy Ragin’ Cajun, Doug Kershaw himself!
GCO has been busy touring all over the Midwest, East Coast and Southeast, with performances at: Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival (Pittsboro, NC), MN State Fair and Riverbend Festival (Chattanooga, TN). They do it all in a teeny minivan with a SPACE Trailer (look it up, they exist!) and a completely awesome pupper named Nicko.
How it all began: Bassist, John Wright, started the band in 2008. He wanted to create technically challenging, improvisation-based music and started jamming with guitarist, Dan Neale and drummer, Mark O'Day. Violinist Lisi nudged her way in after hearing rehearsal tapes that husband John Wright brought home. "She had never played jazz or progressive rock before... I honestly didn't know if it would work," said Wright. After the first rehearsal with Lisi, it was clear they had a band!
