13th Hour
A performance by 13th Hour is much more than a trip down memory lane. Although they play plenty of gems from earlier decades, you are just as likely to hear an original tune for the first time or a clever pop song that you thought you forgot years ago. With over a century of professional experience between them, these veteran West Michigan musicians will delight you with song favorites old and new, strong vocal harmonies, and a tight, energetic performance that reflects their considerable talents as instrumentalists. Featuring Ken Bierschbach on acoustic guitar & vocals, Mark Swanson on guitar, harmonica & vocals, Jay Round on bass & vocals, and Tom Davis on drums, 13th Hour represents the melding of four distinctly different musical backgrounds. Ken and Mark joined forces in 2001 after several years of solo performing. Jay joined the band in 2008 after many years of performing in various bands all over the world. In 2012, Tom Davis, who sat in often with Ken, Mark and Jay, joined the band full-time.
Ken Bierschbach, with four solo CDs to his credit, has been a singer-songwriter on the local scene for more than 25 years. His music is found at the place where pop, rock, folk, and country meet. Ken’s CD releases include “The Bold Type” (1998), “Somewhere Out There” (2001), "Voyeur Constant" (2004) and "Brand New Clothes" (2010). He was also a featured writer and performer on “Winter in West Michigan,” a 2001 Christmas compilation CD featuring nine West Michigan songwriters and musicians. Visit Ken's personal site at http://www.kenbierschbach.com
For Mark Swanson, 13th Hour represents a loop back to where music first became a passion in his life. Although Mark has played electric guitars in much louder bands over the years, he was originally pulled into music by more gentle and contemplative artists such as Simon and Garfunkel. Mark founded the country-rock band “Horsefeather” in the mid-1970s, enjoying a great deal of local and regional success before he changed musical directions and “went solo” in the late 1980s. A nationally known maker of guitars and other stringed instruments, including clients such as Joel Mabus and The Dixie Chicks, Mark combines an encyclopedic knowledge of songs with an enviable talent for playing them. Visit Mark's personal site at http://www.markswansonmusic.com
Jay Round started learning the guitar when he was 4 years old and could play a number of stringed instruments before he was 10. Around 1970 he began his professional music career, and it was at the Arkansas Folk Festival in the early 70's where Jay met Grand Ole Opry star Grandpa Jones who took a liking to Jay's upright bass playing. Grandpa Jones invited Jay to Nashville in October 1973 during the taping of Hee-Haw and hired him to play bass with his band throughout the latter half of the 1970's. Jay recorded his first record album using the hammered dulcimer in 1974, and three others followed. During this time Jay was also the opening act for several Nashville stars including Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, Crystal Gayle, Little Jimmy Dickens, and Dotty West throughout the United States and Canada. In 1984-85 the United States Department of Defense hired Jay to join the band Trans-Mason-Dixon Interplanetary Pickers for an extended concert tour of military sites throughout Asia, northern Africa, and Europe. From the mid 80's to the mid 90's Jay became more involved with audio production, working the sound system for such well known acts as the Marshall Tucker Band, Captain and Tenille, Neil Sedaka, Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons, and many others.
Tom Davis has over 40 years of musical history. He's toured and performed with such musical luminaries as Roy Clark, five time Grammy winner Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, B.B. King, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Barbara Mandrell to name a few. He's played throughout the United States, England, Belgium, Russia, and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland He has appeared twice on the popular PBS series, "Austin City Limits" with two different artists, the "Hee Haw" series on syndicated television in the U.S, and on European and Russian television. Throughout his career Tom has called many different cities his home, including Nashville, Tennessee, Titusville, Florida, Lubbock, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana. He was instrumental in helping launch River City Studios in Grand Rapids, Michigan as the on call session drummer back in the 80¹s. Tom has been able to adapt to many different musical situations. He takes pride in his musical skills and gives credit to the diversity of performers with whom he has had the pleasure to work.
Although the four of them took quite different paths into the same band, their shared passion for music and their uniquely special chemistry is what continues to drive them. 13th Hour shows feature a fresh-sounding mix of original compositions and songs from their favorite writers and musicians. Audiences have responded very well to the mix of classic and new material.
