Kalispell is the songs of Shane Leonard, who lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His music is influenced by the old song forms of Appalachia, timeless American songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, and contemporary minimalist composers alike. On recordings and live performances, Shane is often accompanied by Ben Lester (AA Bondy, S. Carey), Dave Power (Adelyn Rose), and Kevin Rowe (The Barley Jacks). The Last Year EP is Kalispell's first offering, a well-rounded representation of the band's lush alt-folk sound. The striking lyrical balance between blunt sentiment and abstract wordplay shows Leonard's affinity toward wordsmiths like Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Carl Sandburg. Although his studies of Appalachian music are an influence, Leonard avoids tired folk cliches, instead mixing old instrumentation with contemporary song craft and ambient minimalism. Kalispell reflects Leonard's experiences of family, admiration for great songwriters, appreciation of tradition, and search for originality within it all. It is his most self-realized effort to date. http://www.kalispellband.com/index.html Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.