BAND SPOTLIGHT | Iron Orchard

Hailing from somewhere between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers not far from Macomb, singer-songwriter-guitarist Bill Harroun leads his group of heartland rockers through a terrain of proudly alt-country, no-nonsense tunes as honest and true as the day is long and the night is too. Featuring lead guitar and pedal steel wiz John Gorlewski, bassist Larry Andrew and drummer/percussionist Joe Gallagher, the Americana, roots-rocking band recently released the EP/CD Too Much Culture Can Kill You to critical acclaim. Almost a year old as a musical unit, the band brings decades of musicianship to bear on the songs of Harroun, a life-long resident of the area using music to present the character of his homeland through landscapes and lives. And in the finest representation of acceptance, the group performs regularly within the land they live, playing consistently in north and west Illinois with intermittent forays across the mighty Mississippi into the fertile Iowa country, always holding fast to the pledge to not play “Brown-Eyed Girl,” “Gimme Three Steps” or “Mustang Sally” while delivering cool classics and hot originals.