February 1996 

             "And she danced alone in her long black dress, skirting the issue,
             breaking the still air of the room, painfully graceful..."

             We were sitting around here in Kent, Ohio, on a Friday night,
             watching some moustached and working men poke and strike with
             their smoky pool cues in a deli which was serving the region's best
             Reuben sandwiches when it occurred to us midstream in the flow of
             our desultory chatter that we were playing a coupla preview concerts
             and hadn't bothered to let anybody know.

             So much for the Protestant work ethic.

             We're still embroiled in the writing and rehearsing of our fourth
             record. There are at least several dozen new songs hangin' around.
             We'd like to try out some of these in front of a few friends. Hope to
             see you...

             I'll be waiting by the statue of the angel with the broken wing.

             Yours,

             Orchard boy