Sometimes, timing is everything.

When Neil Ivison’s first band, the Janice Long championed MISERS imploded, he soon found his way back out on the road working as a touring guitar tech with The 1975 & Wolf Alice among others. Meanwhile, Sarah Warren’s eponymously named band were also about to call time on 10 years of hard gigging through the UK and & Europe.

During a rare day off from an intensive US tour schedule, in a hotel room in the Californian desert, beside the 29 Palms Highway and less than 2 miles from the infamous Joshua Tree Motel (where 42 years previously, Gram Parsons had met his untimely end), Neil, finally admitting that his passion for writing songs and playing his own gigs had become eroded, took the decision to finish the current tour and return to the UK to work on new music, inspired by the regular jaunts to the southern States of the US.

Neil: “That same afternoon, I was aimlessly browsing social media and noticed Sarah had written a post announcing the end of The Sarah Warren Band. Having been a fan of her incredible voice ever since I first heard it, I immediately dashed off a quick email to see if she’d be interested in working on something new together. I think I just put “Any Chance?!” in the subject line….!”

Luckily, Sarah’s mutual appreciation for Neil’s work with The Misers meant that she was more than eager to see what could come out of collaborating together but not before she had grabbed her musical cohort, die hard Americana fan and ex Warren Band bassist Nick Lyndon.

The 3 got together over several months in the autumn of 2016 to kick around some ideas with Nick & Neil forming a prolific song writing partnership, giving birth to 12 new tracks in the first 2 weeks alone, as well as revisiting some old songs that were rejuvenated with new & dynamic male/female vocal arrangements.

Sarah: “What was immediately striking was that our voices complimented each other so well, we both have strong vocals but we each have our own tonality so it’s not like we are battling each other for space in a song. It also helps that we are very much all into the same music: Credence, Bob Seger, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, The Black Crowes, Humble Pie, Status Quo and, of course, The Stones”.

Once the songs started to take shape the trio dug out their address books, made a few calls and were soon bolstered by Roger Roberts on Hammond/Piano and Vocals and former RedBeards sticks man Duke Delight on Drums and began rehearsing in earnest.

Itching to get things moving, the band hit the studio floor running, putting down the rhythm tracks to 13 songs in 2 days. The remaining tracking was completed in Nick & Neil’s home studios and include a guest appearance by Nashville session ace Maurice Hipkiss on Pedal Steel.

2018 will see the official debut of Stone Mountain Sinners as well as national tour dates to promote their first release.