Rachel's - Handwriting Rachel's

Rachel's began when Jason Noble joined forces with Christian Frederickson. Within months of their meeting on a crowded trolley, they had formed a small ensemble to perform original compositions. In the next three years, madness ensued. Christian finished his degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, travelled to Switzerland to study, returned home, then wound up in New York City to attend the Juilliard School. Jason didn't finish his degree, moved back to Louisville, began employment as an artist by day, dishwasher by night, and began working with friends in a band that would become Rodan. This insane, all-over-the-world lifestyle led to a barrage of telephone calls, demo tapes, notepaper, sheet music, and mail communication. This, combined with sporadic two-week or two-day person-to-person collaborations in whatever city was central enough, became the bizarre process behind the music.

During this long gestation, Rachel Grimes became involved, first assisting Jason in his brute comprehension of written music, then joining as a pianist and confidante. Soon she was fully entrenched, providing the strange coincidence of possessing the name "Rachel", and an incredible backbone to the project. Several recordings had been finished, some in the studio, hundreds of 8-track cassettes, and a few jambox cuts, but the time for a concentrated attempt at an LP seemed far away.

Finally, Rachel, Christian, and Jason began assembling musicians whom they respected: John McEntire, Mark Greenberg, and Barry Phipps from the Chicago supergroup The Coctails, Kevin Coultas from Rodan, Bob Weston, and several other string players from various walks of life. The result was a group of semi-vagrants, some reading from sheet music, some rambunctious noisemakers, working in an equally improvisational and tight-assed way. The real character comes from the musicians involved, participating in what can only be called a "labour of love."

Handwriting, the band's debut album, was originally released by Quarterstick Records in 1995 in a custom screen-printed sleeve by Jeff Mueller.