The Band

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Atlantic Fadeout Atlantic Fadeout Atlantic Fadeout Atlantic Fadeout

Abigail Henderson: Vocals, Guitar
Chris Meck: Guitar, Steel Guitar, Vocals
Dutch Humphrey: Bass, Vocals
Amy Farrand: Drums

Atlantic Fadeout’s debut, Better Run of Bad Luck, plays like a weathered book of short stories. It’s packed with tear-stained details, well-constructed jabs, hopeful dreams, and colorful battle cries. Abigail Henderson powers through every song with an intense vigor that most performers would envy. Amy Farrand, Chris Meck and Dutch Humphrey back Henderson’s voice with polished, bluesy ballads and amped-up power anthems. The album’s first track, “Making Out With Strangers,” beckons the listener to pull up a bar stool and take in a brew, while the album’s title track, “Better Run of Bad Luck,” tells subtly sassy stories about the Kansas City scene, hellhole bars and friends. The band roars into “Tra La La” and then weaves soul into “Break Your Heart.” Better Run of Bad Luck has a slight tinge of darkness, but it doesn’t stifle the powerful stories that Atlantic Fadeout tells.

A Review of Better Run of Bad Luck by Abbie Stutzer of The Pitch

Abigail Henderson at We Are Synaesthetic 2010
Abigail Henderson at We Are Synaesthetic 2010
Photo Courtesy: Todd Barnhart

Abigail Henderson

I spent a lot of time writing in secret books when I was a kid, crouched on the heating register in an apartment in New York. I grew up and moved around a lot but my constant was scribbling bits of this and that. When I landed in Kansas City, I started going to shows…actual real live shows not arena production numbers or massive outdoor festivals. There was something about being in an intimate space with a band right in front of you. That did it.

I got my first guitar at 22. A surprise birthday gift from my mother picked out by one of my favorite musicians on the sly at a pawn shop. She was an Alvarez and her name was Evangeline. She’s still around. The interim between then and now began with me crouching next to another heat register with my cat in the gnarled heart of Midtown. Mad props to Otissa Blue the cat who had to deal with me back then. I was awful. And terrified.

But not terrified enough to not book a show with a friend of mine with no songs and no band. That’s how Trouble Junction started. I was lucky enough to fall into a band with mad geniuses my first run out the blocks.

Then The Gaslights happened and that was insane. I lucked out when another amazing guitar player thought I wrote an ok song. Chris Meck swaggered into my life, all mad-riffs and snarl, and I never was the same. The Gaslights put out three records, made 5, toured endlessly and incessantly for several years, made a few International jaunts to play for the good people of Europe, said hello and goodbye to 9 bass players, three drummers, and one van.

Tiny Horse, the duo, came next. We missed the bass and drums however. Amy said she’d be up for drums. Dutch thought he’d try his hand at bass. There were some songs swirling about. Bang. Atlantic Fadeout.

I am a lucky girl.

Chris Meck at Crossroads Music Fest 2010
Chris Meck at Crossroads Music Fest 2010
Photo Courtesy: Mat “Slimm” Adkins

Chris Meck

I grew up in a small Missouri town where if you wanted to buy a record, you went to Wal-Mart. We could sort of get like three radio stations in; a country station, a classic rock station, and a top 40. I didn’t like what I was hearing on the radio, but I was 16 before we got MTV in Marshall, (which was where my family stopped moving long enough for me to go to high school.) They didn’t sell Husker Du records at Wal-Mart, so Muddy Waters was my alternative rock, at least in the early stages of learning to play guitar. That and my dad’s record collection-Beatles, Stones, Led Zepplin, Hendrix-the usual stuff.

I bolted out for college as fast as I could, where I majored in alcohol abuse and minored in oversleeping for class. I tried the army for a while after that, sensing that perhaps I could use the discipline, but it didn’t really take. After my short stint was up, I tried college once more, but my heart wasn’t really in it. There just wasn’t anything I wanted to DO with that piece of paper.

I started playing in bands somewhere in there; and my obsession with the guitar really took hold. I drifted away from college and to Kansas City in search of musicians to play with. I played in some good bands that just didn’t get anywhere. I started doing some live sound and got interested in recording. I met my wife Abigail Henderson, and together we started a little alt.country band called The Gaslights which went all over the place including Europe three times, but in the end, it was just we two, sitting on a pile of bags on Christmas eve at the airport. We tried a couple of times to soldier on, but it was time to blow it all up and start over…

We had a rough couple of years with cancer (among other things), but Abigail and I started doing some shows just as a a duo-me on electric guitar/atmospherics and Abigail on acoustic. We called it Tiny Horse. People liked it, and we liked it too, but we missed the power of bass and drums. We got our old friend Amy Farrand to play drums and my buddy Dutch Humphrey to play bass, and Atlantic Fadeout was born. It’s a LOT more rock and roll, and I’m really enjoying it. I get a little itch now and then for Tiny Horse to do some more shows and record some stuff too, so I figure both have a future. We’ll see how it all plays out, I guess.

Dutch Humphrey at Crossroads Music Fest 2010
Dutch Humphrey at Crossroads Music Fest 2010
Photo Courtesy: Michael Forester

Dutch Humphrey

Dutch Humphrey is a newer addition to Kansas City’s music scene. He has been working in venues such as Static Bar, The Riot Room, Jerry’s Bait Shop, Crosstown Station, and Czar Bar. His former band, Elkheart, was a Honky Tonk outfit that held a weekly residency at the Riot Room until fall of 2009 when that collective sought new direction. Dutch maintained his time by writing and performing as a songwriter for fun and as an exercise at getting “better.” In March of 2010 Dutch was approached by Chris and Abby about the idea of picking up a bass guitar and joining in a project that has since become Atlantic Fadeout. Dutch had never played bass, let alone with others, but thought, “eh! Why not?? What was the worst that could happen?!” And so began this journey. And since, he claims that Bass Guitar has become his favorite instrument!!

His other bands have included O Town Posse, Elkheart, Horse Thief, The Penny Sheets, and currently, with Atlantic Fadeout (bass) and Cherokee.Rock.Rifle (vox)

Amy Farrand at Crossroads Music Fest 2010
Amy Farrand at Crossroads Music Fest 2010
Photo Courtesy: Michael Forester

Amy Farrand

Bio Coming Soon.