It happened in lovely Bloomington, Indiana. Summer of 2003. One "Simon P. Moore" had a line on a show in August, and the idea of starting a band called "Kentucky Nightmare" had already been cultivated in his mind by a friend's reference to a Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast episode. He had been writing songs for almost ten years, and was eager to front a band. He joined forces with friends Ben C. Fowler (drums) and Evan L. Farrell (bass and vocals).
Kentucky Nightmare began playing like a good power trio usually ought to: dynamic, classic, and powerful songs with Evan's dancing bass lines and Ben Fowler's furious drumming.
The band started playing bigger and bigger shows in Bloomington, with great bands like the M's, Mock Orange, Manishevitz, and Asobi Seksu. Gray clouds were on the horizon, though. Evan, being the
sparkling, effervescent fountain of joy and brilliance that he is, was snatched up by Sub-Pop's Rogue Wave for a tour in the winter of 2003/2004, and successively asked to join the band. With what little time they had with Evan between tours, the band optimistically began to self-produce their debut release, *There's Vampires in Them Hills! (2004)* Evan and Ben transformed into a stampede of horses. Simon laced a joint of J. Mascis with some Cream-era Eric Clapton and shredded. But Evan soon was far too busy to continue working with the band.
Simon began writing songs that required two guitar parts, so in addition to recruiting Karen Jensen to take the reigns on bass and vocals, he duplicitously coerced David Woodruff into playing guitar and singing, as well as acting as art director.
The new Kentucky Nightmare meditated together in the spring of 2005, mixed their blood in a crucible, bicycled to Nashville, Indiana to buy belt buckles and knick-knacks, came back, set the blood on fire, and waited to see what would happen. The results were unanimously satisfactory. The band was rocking more melodic, clever, and crafty songs. The three-part harmonies rose to meed the clouds and taunt them with their cuteness. If this wasn't the internet, one might say they were almost sounding like a really good band. Things, as they say, gelled.
This unit got much more serious--mastering their sound, practicing diligently, playing on the road, playing more shows in town, challenging themselves. They were included on the 2007 Live from Bloomington CD. They placed third in a highly contested Bloomington Battle of the Bands. In the spring of 2007, they began work at Russian Recording in Nashville, Indiana. They heard that Mike Bridavsky could help them produce another album there. They heard right. After excruciatingly enjoyable sessions at Russian, Kentucky Nightmare are ready to release their second effort, *Take Her Favor*, to the world. They are currently playing out as much as possible, rubbing their hands together excitedly, taking deep breaths, and feeling all the beauty as they send out demos, rehearse, write, play, and live out the strange dream that is Kentucky Nightmare.
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