Dead Men's Hollow began as an impromptu backyard pick n' sing. In the summer of 2001, five musicians gathered in the backyard to sing a little honky-tonk and old-time country. When three sweet voices sang Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" in lush, three-part harmony even the crickets quieted for a moment so they might savor the last few notes hanging in the steamy twilight. This iteration of Dead Men's Hollow was right at home in a raucous bar, but its founders always yearned to recapture that cricket-lulling transcendence.

In late 2003, Belinda, Caryn, and Mike recruited quieter firepower from the ranks of bluegrass and old-time musicians. Marcy (fiddle) and Bob (upright bass) solidified our transition to fully acoustic instrumentation. Finally, Amy was drafted to sing the highest third. Dead Men's Hollow's harmony-laden sound now complete, the shows got underway.

Dead Men's Hollow is not quite bluegrass, not quite old-time, not quite gospel—yet we're all of the above and then some. Our music is best described as "Acoustic Americana", the name chosen for their record label. Not content to limit themselves to the pre-War canon, they mine the early centuries of America's musical history and that of her forebears for ballads and tunes just crying out to be dusted off and repackaged for the 21st century. They write an ever-growing part of their repertoire: songs of love found and lost, revenge thwarted, redemption delivered, even grandmas piloting aeroplanes. And yes, a few train songs: no band is complete without them.

Dead Men's Hollow has played roadhouses, churches and festivals. There have been transcendent evenings at fine arts venues and rollicking nights at house concerts. We performed in Kansas for weary soldiers and in the vaunted halls of the Kennedy Center. We have released one CD and begun work on another. We have won three Washington Area Music Association Awards, appeared on television and made radio playlists in the U.S. and around the world. Yet that long-ago backyard jam is never far from our hearts. Dead Men's Hollow was always about rifling through the pages of the American songbook, bending a few rules, working up harmonies, crafting breaks, and sharing camaraderie with each other and our listeners. Crickets or no crickets, some things never change.