Folks
Below is a list of various folks who have had a place in the history of VoL. Click any name for a brief bio.
- Alice Berry
- Andrew Grow
- Andy Carson
- B. B. Queen
- Ben Holst
- Bill Pratt
- Billy Holmes
- Bob Harris
- Bob Paterson
- Brady Blade
- Brandon Reynolds
- Buddy Miller
- Chris Bland
- Chris Donohue
- Dan Russell
- David Blackmon
- David Chalfant
- David Claassen
- David Durling
- David Labruyere
- Dodd Darity
- Doug Nissley
- Eddie Owen
- Elisa Hadley
- Emmylou Harris
- Greg Wilson
- Herb Guthrie
- Ian Archer
- Ian Evans
- Jacob Bradley
- Jim Scott
- Jim Scott
- John Evans
- John Keane
- Jon Radford
- Julie Miller
- Kenny Hutson
- Kevin Heuer
- Kurt Meyer
- Laurie Higashi
- Lee Moody
- Lottman Shudde
- Marc Pilvinsky
- Mark Hall
- Mark Heard
- Matt Donaldson
- Matt Goldman
- Michael Cooper
- Muriah Rose
- Newton Carter
- Paul Naylor
- Peter Buck
- Randall Bramblett
- Scott Klopfenstein
- Thom Jurek
- Tim White
- Tobin Hines
- Tom Crea
- Tom Lewis
- Travis McNabb
- Valerie Dunn
Alice was the lead singer for Cone Ponies, a band Bill belonged to before forming Vigilantes of Love. Alice sang backing vocals on Driving the Nails. She is from Austin, TX.
Andrew Grow joined the Summershine tour as guitarist for the last half of 2001 and was with the band during the period they broke up. He will be remembered for his taste in t-shirts, his concert banter and high energy performance. His first appearance as a Vigilante was August 14, 2001 at the Echo Lounge in Atlanta. Drew's normal job is lead singer/songwriter for 5 O'Clock People, from Portland, Oregon. A fan of Bill Mallonee before joining the tour, the liner notes to his album Nothing Venture read, "We can't thank Bill and VoL enough." Drew was previously a member of the Seattle-based band, Ireson's Ride.
A fiddle player who was called in to play on the Blister Soul sessions ("Unsuccessful" and "Skin").
Never an actual memeber of VoL, Queen was brought in to re-record the drum parts on Driving the Nails. B.B. Queen was previously a bass player for the Atlanta soul-funk band Mother's Finest and also Molly Hatchet.
Formerly with The Avenues and the Athens sextet, Velure, Ben Holst joined Bill on tour in November of 2004, playing guitars, lap-steel and bass. He also handled production and engineering duties for Yonder Shines the Infant Light, Permafrost and many of the BillTunes offerings.
Bill Pratt toured with Bill Mallonee for a period beginning in 2005 as part of a brief Vigilantes of Love revival. He came to Bill through John Thompson of The Wayside. He played pedal steel, banjo and mandolin.
One of the most versatile Vigilantes of Love members, Billy plays mandolin, bass, guitar, keyboards, accordian and much more. He has recorded with Matt Jones, Uncle Tupelo (accordian) and Athens-based band Five-Eight (piano). Bill and Billy recorded drum and bass parts for Driving The Nails, but the record company deleted these and replaced them with two other players. Billy Holmes rejoined Bill for many early shows of Bill Mallonee's solo career in 2002, and played on Bill's first solo release, Fetal Position. He was even with Bill in various bands for about four years before VoL formed. Billy grew up in Augusta, GA.
Bob Harris of BBC Radio 2 is a big supporter of Bill and the boys. He was a big player in promoting Audible Sigh in the UK.
Helped promote VoL in the UK during the Audible Sigh era.
Brady has been the drummer for Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and Jewel. He also played on Audible Sigh.
Brandon has done some very limited touring with Bill and has played keyboards on both Dear Life, and Friendly Fire.
Bill met Buddy through a friend at Cornerstone 1993, as well as through Dan Russell. Buddy produced VoL's Audible Sigh, the record on which Buddy's wife, Julie, sang background vocals. More recently, Bill cowrote a song with Buddy called "Water When The Well Runs Dry," which appears on one of Buddy's albums. Buddy is Emmylou Harris' guitarist.
Chris Bland recorded and toured with Bill during his days with Warner Resound and the V.O.L. compilation. He also went into the studio with Bill for the recording of Slow Dark Train, but left the band soon after the release of the album. Chris first heard of Bill while a student at Georgia State. He came in contact with Bill for the first time when going to his sister's garage sale. His sister happened to live across the road from Bill. Chris auditioned for Chris Donohue and was hired without Bill ever hearing him play. Apart from his playing, he is remembered for playing barefoot. Chris Bland has recently been playing bass for Beki Hemingway, along with Kevin Heuer on drums.
In December of 2006, Bill spoke with Chris about recording together. Apparently nothing came of this.
Chris Donohue was born in Long Island, New York and is easily recognized by his bald shaved head. Chris holds the honor of being the only VoL band member with a song credit ("Tempest"). His time with the Vigilantes mainly covered the Blister Soul era. He left the band in the fall of 1995 and moved to Nashville to join up with Steve Taylor. He has recorded with the John Gunden Band, Phil Madeira, Jars of Clay, By the Tree and Kenny Meeks. Before VoL, Chris played with Circle of Dust. Since leaving VoL, Chris has played with Sixpence None The Richer ('97), Fleming & John ('98-'99), Cadillac Voodoo Choir ('99), Dusty Little Feet ('99), Out of the Grey ('00), Phil Keaggy ('00) and Over The Rhine ('00-'01). His wife, Laura, is a keyboard player/singer and has also played with Fleming & John.
Dan is an owner of Fingerprint Records, which helped release a number of VoL's early projects.
David Blackmon played fiddle and electric mandolin for Jerry Reed from 1981 to 1984, and was Athens' foremost session fiddler for a long time. He played fiddle on Killing Floor.
David plays bass electric and fingerstyle acoustic guitar. A friend of Newt Carter, he played bass for the Vigilantes during the Killing Floor tour, and has since played bass with The Neal Patman Blues Band of Athens, GA.
David Claassen played fiddle on Dear Life, and Friendly Fire and toured with Bill in late 2004. David used to kick for the football team at Georgia.
The keyboardist at Bill's former church, who has played with the band on occasion.
David Labruyere was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was bassist for the band during the recording of Welcome To Struggleville. David and Newt Carter toured with David Wilcox in the summer of 1997, supporting his new album, Turning Point. He has played on John Austin's Byzantine, along with VoL alumnus Newt, Travis McNabb and Randall Bramblett. David also played bass on Austin's Busted at the Pearly Gates and Jennifer Daniels' Dive And Fly. David has done his time as a studio musician with Ben Wakeman, Beth Wood, David Wolfenberger, Jan Krist, Michelle Malone, Billy Pilgrim, Over the Rhine, Monk and Shawn Mullins. He also recorded with John Mayer, who he is currently on the road with (2002).
Dodd played drums on tour with VoL between the releases of Jugular and Driving the Nails.
On parts of the Audible Sigh tour, Doug Nissley played the part of tour manager, merchandise guy and wore other roadie hats. He also played bass and mandolin on a couple of songs. Doug is from Asheville, NC. He saw VoL during the Jugular era days while at school at UNC-Asheville. At the time Doug was in a band called Screamin' Billy. Later bands included Joules Kelvin, the Bet and Twain. After his time with VoL, Doug returned to sound engineering and put together a small project called DOUG (including Kevin Heuer on drums and Jake Bradley on lead guitar). His current band is called Nekkid.
Owner of Eddie's Attic, where VoL got it's start. Bill says, "Had it not been for Eddie's good will and his heart of gold, there might never have been a Vigilantes of Love..."
Elisa sang backup vocals on "Certain Slant Of Light," "Bearing The Load" and "Galaxy."
Emmylou sings backup vocals on "Resplendent," released on Audible Sigh. Emmylou's guitarist, Buddy Miller, was the producer on this project.
Played guitar with VoL for a very short period in June and July of 1995.
Has performed with VoL on drums.
From the UK, Ian played acoustic guitar on Electromeo.
Ian played bass and provided backing vocals on Driving the Nails.
Jake hooked up with VoL through his roommate, Scott Klopfenstein. He joined in mid 1997 and continued until the end of the band at the end of 2001. Rumor has it that when Bill contacted Jake about joining the band, he asked if he played the bass. Jake confirmed he did, then had to quickly learn to play. Rumor only. Since leaving VoL, Jake has toured with Allison Jarrell and Doug Nissley (2002), along with former VoL drummer, Kevin Heuer. Jake has also played with Black Eyed Dog, Deuce and has joined Bill for a few dates on his "Trophy Wives" tour in 2002, along with additional dates in '03 and '04. More recently he has been playing with Over the Rhine. Jake holds the honor of having spent the longest time in the Vigilantes of Love, apart from Bill (over four years).
Produced and engineered Welcome to Struggleville at the same time he was working with Tom Petty's "Wildflowers."
Jim was the engineer and producer for the Welcome To Struggleville sessions. Jim has worked with some big names, including Tom Petty, Lucinda Williams, Bruce Springsteen, John Hiatt and Johnny Cash.
John Evans was a UGA professor of English/Medieval Literature when he and his harmonica joined Bill Mallonee and Mark Hall to record Jugular, the first Vigilantes of Love album. Known as Jonny "Dog-mess" Evans, or "Dog-mess Jonny," he got this moniker from repeatedly joking about the fact that dogs suffering from severe protein deficiency sometimes eat their own feces. Bill's long running joke at the time was that Professor Evans "does Beowulf during the day and Howling Wolf at night."
In addition to his production work on Blister Soul, John also played guitar for parts of the accompanying tour. He also played on and helped produce Dear Life, and Friendly Fire. John has worked with the Indigo Girls and REM (is knows as the fifth member of REM).
Jon joined Bill as drummer for the Tiny Silver Hearts in July of 2003 and played drums on both Dear Life, and Friendly Fire. He was formerly the drummer for Desperate Little Children out of Clarksville, TN. His influence comes from the drummers of the late 60's and early 70's. He is a plumber on the side.
Julie does backup vocal for VoL on a few songs off of Audible Sigh. She has her own solo career and also performs with her husband, Buddy Miller.
Kenny hails from Athens, Georgia. He is a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, Dobro, pedal steel and a Kentucky F-style acoustic mandolin. His dad was a bluegrass picker who played with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. Kenny learned to play in bluegrass circles growing up. He was 22 years old when he joined the band. Bill tells the story of how they hooked up:
He had been a fan of the band since he was 17. He came up to me in downtown Athens literally three days before we were supposed to hit the road to do Cornerstone and go to Europe, and he said, "You need me to be in your band"... He pretty much forced his way into the audition... We did five songs and said, "This is great, when can you leave?" and he said, "No, the audition isn't over. We're going to play Undertow." He played it note for note. Drop dead perfect. And I thought, "Well, that was too much."
Before joining VoL, Kenny was a member of Krye and Sanctified Glory Mountain Revival Family and also recorded with Third Day in 1997. He colaborated with Jeff Elbel as co-writer of Visions of Gray magazine. He joined the Vigilantes of Love for all of 1998 and most of 1999, and is remembered most for his mandolin and background vocals which can be heard on To The Roof Of The Sky and Audible Sigh. And Kenny's talents stand out strong on VoL's live release, Live at the 40Watt. After Audible Sigh was recorded and VoL's deal with Pioneer fell through, Kenny left the band in 1999 and went back to school. He also played a few solo gigs soon after leaving the band. Much of VoL's recent sound to that point had been influenced by Kenny's talent. So his departure took the sound slightly away from alt-country as the band continued on as a three piece with Jake and Kevin. After leaving, Kenny recorded with the Wayside (Farm) in 1999. After graduating from the University of Georgia, Kenny rejoined Bill for a couple months in early 2002 over the transition of the breakup of the Vigilantes of Love to Bill going solo. Kenny has more recently worked with singer/songwriter Jason Harrod, helped with Set on Edge (along with Tom Crea) and recorded with Jeremy Casella (Faith & Heartache) and Scott Burnett.
Kenny is married to, and performs with Katy Bowser, a bluegrass/folk/jazz performer. They are based in Nashville.
A long-time fan of the band, Kevin Heuer became drummer for the Vigilantes in December of 1998. He became a fan after seeing them at Cornerstone in 1992. Drumming since the age of nine, Heuer had played with The Beef People, Sunday Blue and My Friend Stephanie before joining VoL. He also spent time as a drum instructor and even played drums in a circus. He recorded with VoL for Audible Sigh and Summershine and also played drums for Bill Mallonee's first solo release, Fetal Position, and did two tracks on Friendly Fire. He joined Bill for a few dates on his Trophy Wives tour in 2002 and more recently has been playing with The Throes. Since leaving VoL, Kevin, along with former VoL companion Jake Bradley, toured with Allison Jarrell and with Doug Nissley in 2002. Kevin has also played with Beki Hemingway (Cornerstone 2002) along with Chris Bland, another VoL alumnus. He has also recently been in the studio with Anthony Gravely (The Atonement, Windup Rocket), Tim Keeler, Michelle Allen and has worked on Drew Grow's new project, Careen. Kevin is currently living and teaching drums in South Carolina. In February of 2004 he got married and has two cool stepkids. And yes, there is a batch of VoL t-shirts out there with his last name spelled "Hever."
Kurt played bass guitar for the band as part of a brief Vigilantes of Love revival in 2005.
VoL's booking agent
Lee has played bass on tour with VoL. Lee Moody was the main vocalist for Bed of Roses, one of Bill Mallonee's pre-VoL bands from the mid-eighties.
Bill's former manager, from Full Moon Entertainment Management, Inc, out of Austin, TX.
Marc was from Athens during Bill's earlier years and wrote for Athens' Flagpole Magazine. More recently he has worked for Bare Ruined Films where he created VoL's video for Resplendent.
Mark Hall was with Bill at the creation of the Vigilantes of Love. Bill was still with the Cone Ponies at the time, and asked Mark to play keyboards with him apart from the Ponies. With Hall on accordian, the duo debuted themselves as Vigilantes of Love at the Downstairs Cafe in November of 1990. Along with John Evans, the three would soon record the first Vigilantes of Love album, Jugular. Mark's involvement with the band ended when he got married.
From Macon, GA, Mark helped produce VoL's Killing Floor album. He got together with VoL through Dr. Long, the executive producer of many of Fingerprint's projects. After his death, reprints of Killing Floor were dedicated to Mark Heard. Mark has also worked with T-Bone Burnett and has a collection of solo albums. Mark suffered a heart attack, while playing at the Cornerstone Festival in July of 1992 and died shorty after.
Matt never toured with VoL, but was a session player who recorded with the band for Blister Soul.
Matt Goldman is a prolific Atlanta-based musician and producer. Though you won't find his name on any Vigilantes albums, he did play drums for the latter part of the Welcome to Struggleville tour, taking the place of Travis McNabb, and his picture is included in the artwork for Blister Soul. Before VoL, he was in the Atlanta-based band, Piltdown Man. He has played drums for Sundays Child, Ultrababyfat, Jacob's Trouble and Smalltown Poets. Production and engineering credits include Annie, Jet By Day, Sagoh, Love.Lies.Bleeding, Ultrababyfat, Sundry, Forever Moon and Denison Marrs.
VoL's booking agent during Audible Sigh. Michael is from the Akasha Artists Agency.
Muriah Rose is Bill Mallonee's wife. They were married in February of 2006 and she has been a constant companion on stage, handling keyboards and background vocals. She has also released a few songs of her own via BillTunes.
Known as the guitarist for the Welcome to Struggleville band, Newt Carter was also a part of the preceeding Killing Floor tour. After his stint with the Vigilantes, Newt Carter did his share of recording and producing, including production for Jan Krist and John Austin. He used the Struggleville band for John's new record and for a Nick Giaconnia record. In 1995 he played on Billy Pilgrim's Bloom, and in 1996 played on Kristen Hall's Thumbprint along with Travis McNabb. His production credits include John Austin's Byzantium and The Blues Cruisers' Drivin' South. Newt has toured with Matthew Ryan, and in the summer of 1997, Newt and David Labruyere toured with David Wilcox, supporting his album, Turning Point.
Paul has played bass for VoL on occasion when they have toured in the UK.
This member of REM and resident of Athens, GA helped produce the Vigilantes of Love's Killing Floor. But did you know he also used to babysit Bill's kids? Peter and Bill were friends (through Brenda) before there was an REM. Reportedly, Bill ran into Peter at a restaurant and Peter asked if he could produce Bill's album. Peter was used because of his knowledge of acoustic instruments.
Randall Bramblett is an eclectic instrumentalist and solo artist in his own right who appears on VoL's Live at the 40Watt. Randall hails from Athens, GA.
One-time roommate of Jake Bradley, Scott Klopfenstein joined the band as drummer in mid-1997 (replacing Tom Crea) and stayed throughout most of 1998. He toured with VoL for Slow Dark Train and recorded and toured for To the Roof of the Sky and Live at the 40Watt. Scott Klopfenstein got married in mid-1998 and would leave the band that November, to be replaced by Kevin Heuer.
Thom is a music critic who has had a big hand in pushing Mark Heard's music. He wrote extensive liner notes for Blister Soul.
Bill's manager from 2001 to the present. Tim is with the Wildwood Agency out of Chicago.
Tobin is a musician and folk artist who hails from Georgia. He worked with Bill on the artwork for Slow Dark Train and also did the artwork for the hand-made booklet entitled "Perishable Goods" that Bill penned.
Tom knew Bill through a mutual friend, Alice Berry. Before joining the Vigilantes of Love he had played drums for various local Athens bands, including Olivia Tremor Control. More than a drummer, Tom Crea is also a great singer/songwriter and plays almost any instrument. Tom played drums for the V.O.L./Warner Resound era of the Vigilantes of Love, alongside Chris Bland and Bill. After playing drums for the Slow Dark Train album, he left the band along with Chris. Since then, Tom has remained very visible in the Athens music scene. In 1998, Tom became the second drummer for Athens-based Rock And Roll Summer, and played with them through most of 1999. Near the end of '99, Tom left the band and started playing with alt-country band, Milltown. Tom has also worked with Set On Edge and Vocatico.
Tom was a co-producer on both To The Roof Of The Sky and Summershine. Tom has also worked with John Hiatt.
Travis McNabb is the drummer for Better Than Ezra (since 1996). But that came after his best gig as drummer for the Vigilantes of Love, which began back during the Driving the Nails tour. His claim to fame, however, is his membership in the Welcome to Struggleville version of the band. He met Bill Mallonee through Billy Holmes. Travis was born in Kenner, Louisiana and was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. He claims the inspiration for his style was music similar to the Beatles and Bob Dylan plus the old New Orleans funk music. Before moving to Georgia (and before turning 20), Travis was part of (in chronological order): Indecision, The Prayer, Whatever!, MHOOSDSFTZTZ, Whatever Part 2 and The Wipers. After moving to Georgia, he then played with Seven Simons and the California-based Beggars before joining the Vigilantes of Love.
A girlfriend of Jake Bradley who occassionally played cello with the band (notably "Going South").