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Out of Grief Emerged KC Songwriter Dutch Humphrey
The Kansas City Star, by Timothy Finn- June 8, 2011

“I met Dutch … in 2006,” Meck said. “I had gone to work (at the Hurricane), tending bar. I liked Dutch right off, and he had just started playing live with Elkheart. I thought he had promise; he just seemed to be a musical cat.”

In 2010, Meck and his wife, Abigail Henderson, were talking about new music project, having retired the Gaslights.

“We were at a show at the RecordBar, and Abby and I had been talking about putting together another band,” he said. “I saw Dutch and thought that his attitude about music might make him a good candidate to make the switch to bass.

“It takes a certain kind of person, a real ensemble-oriented approach. I asked him if he’d ever thought about it, and he said no, but he’d like to give it a go.

“So there it was. He’s really become quite a good rock ’n’ roll bass player (for Atlantic Fadeout) in a very short time. He contributes harmonies, plays interesting parts without ever playing too much and is a big part of the sound of our band. Asking him aboard was one of the very best decisions I’ve made.”

Featured Artist Interview
ArenaCast – May 23, 2011

1).What do you think will happen to music in 50 years?
I dunno, it will be played,purchased, listened to, shared, stolen, given away, laughed at, cried over, cherished and despised I suppose.

2).What are the main difficulties for being a musician in your country?
Everything is difficult. Mostly, I imagine the same difficulties musicians face everywhere. A bunny dies everyday and someone gets a lucky foot, you don’t see me cryin’ about it.

3).Would you like your children to become musicians, just like you do? Why yes or why not?
I would love for my children to learn to listen and appreciate what all music can deliver even the most soul-less of bastards among us. To discover it on their own. To love it for themselves. Why? angels trumpets and devil’s trombones.

4).What is the instrument of your dream? (type/brand/model)
A 1987 model Cherry Brunette Pale Skinned Alto. Roughly 36-24-36.

5).If you could raise one music idol from the dead – who would it be?
Joe Strummer.

Review of Better Run of Bad Luck
The Pitch, by Abbie Stutzer – May 17, 2011

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.

Local Supergroup Atlantic Fadeout Has a Run of Better Luck
The Kansas City Star, by Timothy Finn – May 11, 2011

The music and that live, raw vibe comes collectively from the four band members, but the words are Henderson’s. They are inspired by the past few years of her life, which have been arduous, to say the least. She has been fighting cancer toe-to-toe for a few years, and in 2010, her mother died.

“Better Run” is a record about loss, she says, but it isn’t an offering of quiet, contemplative folk songs. It’s a loud, brash and sometimes dark rock album that manages to celebrate life, despite all its sorrows and sucker-punches. Here is her take on a record that wears her heart on its sleeve:

“ ‘Better Run’ is a record about losing. I’ve written a few whiskey records already. But you can really only make so many of those. I wrote the traveling record, too. But these songs were coming from a different place. They were certainly informed by the fact that death’s been ringing round our door for several years now, sort of nipping at the ankles, whispering.

“I really don’t know how else to say that. Just a bunch of bad things happened all at once, and it seemed so ridiculously awful and maudlin and almost laughably tragic, it made me look at living completely differently. Life is short. Truly. Loss is real.

“Don’t waste your time!

“That’s sort of what strings all the songs together and colors all the songs on the record. They are all fevered and impatient, with no time for ghosts. You can either have the bad stuff beat you down, or you can meet it on the line and beat it back. Period. That’s my mother talking: Hope, when all else fails, shut up, get up, and then fight on. She’s all over this record. It’s pretty haunted.

“The song ‘Better Run of Bad Luck’ is about how lucky we are in the minutia, the little stuff, the everyday: The home team won and no one called me a bitch tonight. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make me happy, I guess.”

Kansas City Has a Music Pulse?
The State of Rock Review, by John Caniglia – March 11, 2011

But there is one band that could be my favorite, and I think is the ambassador the rock scene in Kansas City. This Band is Atlantic Fadeout.  Made up of members of bands, like the The Gaslights and Elkheart. Led by a wonderfully battle ridden and empowered woman named Abigail Henderson,  Atlantic Fadeout oozes allover what Kansas City and the Midwest is all about in rock and roll today.

Wednesday Midday Medley
KKFI 90.1FM, with Mark Manning – March 9, 2011

Chris & Abigail talked with Mark Manning about the MidCoast Takeover of SXSW.  They also debuted a new song Better Run of Bad Luck off of Atlantic Fadeout’s upcoming debut album of the same name.

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Local musicians turn ‘Brass in Pocket’ to Gold at Sonic Spectrum’s Pretenders tribute
The Pitch, by Jenny Kratz – February 28, 2011

Finally, Abigail Henderson and Atlantic Fadeout took to the stage for the final Pretenders homage. Henderson, having just participated in the “Exile on Main Street” tribute show last week, is a veteran when it comes to channeling the sound of someone as classic as Chrissie Hynde. With the full band behind her, she rocked and wailed through a choice set that included my favorite performance of the night, a cover of the Pretenders’ “Stop Your Sobbing.” It seemed only fitting in that moment as Henderson rocked out the lyrics, It’s time for you to laugh so stop your crying. It’s time for you to laugh so keep on trying. It was a peak moment in the heat of the tribute.

For most people, the highlight of the night came when Atlantic Fadeout nailed a cover of the sometimes sappy but always powerful song “I’ll Stand by You.” Henderson pulled it off with ease, and without coming across as sappy or cheesy, which is impressive for a song that is so often misused and misinterpreted.

Exile on Main Street Brings the Best of KC to Crosstown Station
The Pitch, by Danny Alexander – February 20, 2011

Exile on Main Street: A Tribute to the Rolling Stones

February 18, 2011

Crosstown Station

Toward the end of the show, a lead guitar-wielding Amy Farrand would command a blues healing out of “Stop Breaking Down.” Then, Abigail Henderson would summon something like a golden glow of hope from the darkness on “Shine a Light.”

Exile is Kind to Local Musicians
The Pitch, by Danny Alexander – February 15, 2011

.. the Stones’ 1972 masterpiece, Exile on Main Street.

“Nothing is even about that one,” towering guitarist Chris Meck explains in a low voice. “There’s four bars of this and five bars of this, then two bars of something else.” Scene stalwart and multi-instrumentalist Amy Farrand chimes in: “A lot of it makes no sense,” she says.

.. the musicians have had no problem tearing up the album’s dense stew of country, rock, gospel and blues. Meck does Keith Richards proud with “Happy.” Atlantic Fadeout’s Abigail Henderson, the Grisly Hand’s Lauren Krum, and Hearts of Darkness’ Erica Townsend and Rachel Christia nail ragged harmonies on the chorus of “Tumbling Dice.” Henderson follows with a gorgeous “Shine a Light,” as sweet a song as the Rolling Stones have ever been accused of delivering.

The compassion in Henderson’s voice erases the distance between the Stones’ losses — the death of original bandleader Brian Jones, the Altamont-concert murder — and the hard facts facing small-time musicians in a collapsing economy.