The Collegian
Wytheville Community College
October 29, 2003

San Francisco Band Rocks College and Community
by Pamela Carpenter


WYTHEVILLE- Ten Mile Tide, an independent San Francisco-based sextet, will return to Wytheville this Saturday night at Turn One as they continue on their two-month national tour in support of their latest CD, Flow.

“This is our first major tour,” said guitarist Jason Munning. “We’ve played New York, Boston, Philadelphia – we’ve been all over the place.”

The band evolved from college roommates having a good time to a sincere and productive musical effort that’s a unique blend of blues, bluegrass, groove and rock, and the band is very comfortable with the fact that there is no record label backing them up.

“We’re not actively seeking a contract with anyone,” said fiddle player Steve Kessler. “We’ve had a lot of luck doing things for ourselves and we really believe that the more we can do on our own, the better off we’ll be.”

According to statistics, Ten Mile Tide is one of the most downloaded bands on Kazaa, the premier file-sharing community on the Internet and the band attributes a great deal of their popularity to this medium.

Kessler said that their partnership with cornerband.com, a website for independent musicians, has been very beneficial to them and he would recommend this venue to other independents.

The music holds a definite appeal for every age group, every musical taste.

“One of the things that’s amazed me most on this tour is the age range of our audiences,” Kessler said. “We have seen kids, teens and grandparents and it’s an amazing feeling when you look out at the crowd and see them singing along.”

Ten Mile Tide’s new release, Midnight Is Early, is expected in December of this year and the band hopes to see even greater things in the years to come.

“We do our recording at an independent studio owned by John Vanderslice,” Kessler said. “We all kind of work together as independents – a networking thing – so it helps everyone.”

Ten Mile Tide rocked the WCC campus last week and will bring their eclectic blend to Turn One in Wytheville tonight at 9:00 p.m.