Artists:Eddie From Ohio

Eddie From Ohio

Take it all the way back to fifth grade, that's when Michael Clem and Robbie Schaefer met as classmates in McLean, Virginia, just west of DC. Their friendship, cemented even then by a love for music, carried on to James Madison University, a couple of hours from McLean, where each enrolled as a communications major. There they met Eddie Hartness, a music student moonlighting on weekends as a drummer with local bands. And Robbie kept in touch with high school acquaintance Julie Murphy, who was studying hotel restaurant management at Virginia Tech.

During this time Robbie and Michael formed the Jellyfish Blues Band, known around the Shenandoah Valley and Northern Virginia as a kick-ass bar outfit. Through hours of hammering out party songs for frat guys as they reeled and lurched across dance floors with their dates, the two guys learned a lesson that would someday separate them from most so-called folk music acts.

Although all four future EFO members had become friendly, the idea of forming a group didn't occur to anybody until one night, at one of Robbie's solo gigs. Michael and Julie had gone to the show together, and as they began singing along during his set, a light bulb suddenly flicked on in Michael's imagination. "There were groups doing heavy harmony vocals with acoustic guitars," he remembers, "I sensed that there would be an audience for that kind of an act. Turns out I was right." LotsMore.

Members:

Julie Murphy Wells - vocals

Robbie Schaefer - guitar, vocals

Eddie Hartness - percussion, vocals

Michael Clem - guitar, bass, harmonica, vocals