Since forming in 2001, the seven members of Chicago's Outlaw Family Band have crafted their own brand of rock-and-roll, drawing from the sources that have always moved and inspired them. Raw, crunching guitars played with earnest, Neil Young soul mix with rolling banjo, searing fiddle, and three part harmonies that recall the "high and lonesome" sound that Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs perfected. Lyrics steeped in the Midwestern tradition – born of frustration, alive with doubt, but touched with a slight glimmer of hope – echo the world-weary voices of honky-tonk heroes and country music outlaws like Johnny Cash, Billy Joe Shaver, and Townes Van Zandt. And despite the influences that are so proudly worn on their collective sleeve, Outlaw Family Band is not *just* a rock band or bluegrass band or a country band. Instead, these seven friends have taken the proper nods from a long list of heroes in order to create something that is at once brand new and carefully borrowed, a sound that is unique yet unmistakenly familiar.

In 2005, after four long years honing their craft in front of crowds at prestigious clubs all over the Midwest and Southeast, Outlaw Family Band committed their sound to tape and released a nine-song, self-titled debut for Slackjaw Records. Engineered by former Wilco everyman, Jay Bennett, at Pieholden Suite in Chicago and local stalwart Dan Dietrich at wall to wall recording, the album immediately received acclaim from fans and critics alike for its well-crafted merger of "old timey instrumentation” and “lo-fi Southern rock" and its "live and in the moment" feel.

The success of their debut brought more opportunity for Outlaw Family Band in 2006 when their sound caught the ear of NBC "Today Show" correspondent and best-selling author, Mike Leonard. He asked the band to join him on the road for the Midwest portion of his national book tour and to provide the soundtrack for the book's accompanying DVD. Seizing the opportunity, the band set out to record a handful of songs at Mike Lust's Phantom Manor and ended up with an entire album's worth of material. The result was a beautifully recorded eleven-song acoustic release entitled “Lyceum” which features the powerful traditional "Gospel Plow", long-standing crowd pleaser "Syracuse", and the heart-felt Johnny Cash tribute "Unconventional Cup".

Outlaw Family Band shows no signs of slowing down in 2007. The band is planning to record a live album in front of fans in Chicago while songs for a third studio album are currently being arranged. The band has a number of shows lined up in and around Chicago to work through some of their new material and they are currently booking shows all over the Midwest for April and beyond.