The Baseball Project at the Codfish Hollow Barn -- September 16.
Tuesday, September 16, 8 p.m.
Codfish Hollow Barn, 5013 288th Avenue, Maquoketa IA
A revered supergroup composed of Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Scott McCaughey (all of R.E.M.), Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), and Linda Pitmon (The Minus Five), the Baseball Project brings their latest tour to Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn on September 16, their most recent album Grand Salami Time boasting such guest artists as Stephen McCarthy of the Long Ryders and Steve Berlin of Los Lobos.
Originally, the Baseball Project's performers came together from discussions between McCaughey and Wynn at R.E.M.'s March 21, 2007 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. They invited Buck to play bass guitar and Pitmon on drums, and recorded their first album, Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails later that year. Their first public appearance was on The Late Show with David Letterman in June of 2008, preceding the release of any recorded material. Buck and McCaughey have previously played together in Robyn Hitchcock and The Venus 3, The Minus 5, R.E.M., and Tuatara. Wynn is the former leader of The Dream Syndicate as well as Gutterball and has played with Pitmon in Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3. Pitmon also plays with Buck and McCaughey in Filthy Friends (with Kurt Bloch and Corin Tucker) and their project with Luke Haines (of the Auteurs).
The Baseball Project went on to record a "real time" commentary on the 2010 baseball season for ESPN.com, with one song every month made available as a free download. The collection was released in 2011 as The Broadside Ballads and also includes a few unreleased extra tracks from Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails and second album Volume 2: High and Inside, which was released on March 1, 2011, on Yep Roc Records. The band followed the record's release with a tour covering the U.S. and appearances at spring training games in Arizona's Cactus League. Mike Mills begins touring regularly with the band in 2012, taking over bass duties from Peter Buck, who consequently moved over to his signature 12-string guitar role.
The rockers' third album, 3rd, finds Mills playing bass on all tracks for the first time on a Baseball Project recording, and was released in 2014. Not long after that the band played a special show in Cooperstown, New York, at the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2019 they played a three-day residency at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland as a part of the All-Star Game festivities in the city. And The Baseball project's fourth album, Grand Salami Time, was recorded with early R.E.M. collaborator Mitch Easter at his Fidelitorium Recordings studio in Kernersville, North Carolina, and was released on June 30, 2023, on Omnivore Recordings.
The Baseball Project performs their headlining engagement in Maquoketa on September 16 alongside Linda Pitmon's band The Minus Five, admission to the 8 p.m. concert is $30-35, and more information and tickets are available by visiting CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
