THE FREDDY JONES BAND

In 2000 The Freddy Jones Band went on hiatus. During the ten previous years of recording and touring, the band had amassed a body of work that included five albums of ambitious, wide-reaching rock and a reputation for expansive and energetic live shows that made the quintet a hot commodity on the tape-trader circuit. And now the Freddy Jones Band is back and reminding the world what was so special in the first place. The group's original lineup -- singer-guitarists Wayne Healy, Marty Lloyd and Rob Bonaccorsi, bassist Jim Bonaccorsi and drummer Simon Horrocks –reunited in the summer of 2005 for a charity show in it’s former home base of Chicago. Now the FJB is playing for keeps again. The group's new album, TIME WELL WASTED – it’s first since 1999's MILE HIGH LIVE -- is at once a recap and a step forward. It features 10 tracks recorded live in 2007, reprising favorites such as "Take the Time," "Waitress," "One World" and "In a Daydream." That's exciting enough, but TIME WELL WASTED also has three new songs -- "Home Thing," "Contender" and "Empty Room" -- written by the Healy and Lloyd team and marking the start of a new era in the group's interrupted history. "We felt like it was time to put out a new piece of product that had new material and is also deeply rooted in the history of the band -- but sounds like today," says Horrocks. The sessions for the new songs took place in Atlanta, which Healy and Horrocks now call home, and were among the easiest of the group's time together. "Everyone had such an open mind," Lloyd recalls. "We didn't care who was writing, playing or singing. If it was working, we used it. We all accepted each other's support and direction openly and as a team, and I think it shows in the recordings. Though starting out as "Jam Band," according to Healy, the FJB began concentrating on its own material, and Capricorn Records signed the group after its self-titled and self-released 1992 debut sold more than 10,000 copies. The FJB steadily built an audience from there with 1993's "Waiting For the Night," 1995's "North Ave. Wake-Up Call," and 1997's "Lucid" -- which reached No. 19 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart -- as well as radio play for songs such as "In a Daydream," "Waitress" and "Mystic Buzz." Rolling Stone praised the group's "fine line between schizophrenic jam band and sensibly-minded pop-rock." The All Music Guide opined that it’s "sound at times is reminiscent of the Allman Brothers" -- high (and accurate) praise indeed. The FJB were also road warriors, rocking 200-250 nights a year, everywhere from intimate club dates to amphitheatre’s full of fans on the H.O.R.D.E. Tour. "We worked hard and the record label supported us and it worked out pretty well," Healy says. "There were some tough times, but overall we were very fortunate." Fortunately, it was just as easy when the group came back together for its fateful reunion at the 2005 Riverview Music Festival. "When we get together, it really is fun to be able to pull the skeletons out of the closet and play some songs," Healy says. "We've played these songs thousands of times, but sometimes you look around at sound check and feel like, 'Oh my God, it sounds like we never stopped." Since the reunion, FJB has also started a new tradition -- donating a certain portion of the proceeds to a local charity. "We're just really enjoying the fact we can play music together again," Horrocks explains. "And we're really playing better than ever. We've all kind of matured. We've kind of grown into our material in a way. We're like a new band with a long history."