The Gang

John Bizzack
Songwriter, Guitar, and Vocals

Marvin Adcock
Songwriter

J.P. Pennington
Producer, Songwriter, Guitar, Keyboard

Dwight Dunlap
Engineer, Drums

Andy Reiss
Lead Guitar, Session Leader

The Pistol River Players

In 2002, John Bizzack came up with a concept for a new project with a spellbinding story line. He and Marvin Adcock, developed the plot into an epic requiring three CDs to tell and play the entire saga which became known as The Western Ballad Opera. They intentionally broke traditional songwriting rules and completely discarded the sacred "three-minute" production in favor of telling an unadulterated story of 28 songs about the timeless theme of good and eveil set to the backdrop of the Old West. Their character arcs rival any work by Larry McMurty and the music is so rich in prosody it is used as a model in university music theory classes. The Western Ballad Opera was released and marketed with fanfare and the buzz ultimately resulted in the nominated of the CD and Pistol River in seven categories by the Western Music Association (WMA) and the Academy of Western Artists (AWA). The unique, three CD box set deign was nominated for a Grammy and the Western Ballad Opera as well as Pistol River became a cult class with a following throughout the West.

"..fresh approach to production and musical styling seamlessly crossing musical borders at will."The three CD trilogy was followed up the next year with the release of Prairie Winds, a project declared by critics as “providing western music with modern roots,” and “breaking new ground in the western music genre.” The project was hailed as, “one of the finest written, produced and performed western CDs to come our way in many years,” and went on to be voted Best of the West Album of the Year by True West Magazine after being nominated in four categories to the AMA and WMA.

Pistol River instantly became a strong contender in the modern western music genre with songs flavored with rock, soft country ballads mixed with the backdrop of western lifestyle. The success of the first CD, Memory Like Mine in the country market, along with the recognition of the playing and song writing in the western market, Bizzack and Adcock created another series of unhurriedly crafted songs reflecting styles from rock, bluegrass, country, power ballads and pop leading to the anticipated release of Pistol River’s next project, a double CD titled, A Lesser Heaven.

A Lesser Heaven caught critics by surprise again with its fresh approach to production and musical styling seamlessly crossing musical borders at will. The strength and timbre of the songs on the project featured high energy performances along with compellingly sensual songs further establishing Pistol River and the Bizzack-Adcock song writing with a special niche described as, “Good solid music, intelligent lyric - lively and classically eloquent!”

The latest CD project, Runaway Train, creates yet another surprise for Pistol River fans who have come to expect lyrical pervasiveness and strong, distinctive and cleverly produced music from Bizzack and Adcock, thus leading one major critic to claim, ‘You won’t have the will to stop listening!” The project is a departure from the Nashville recoding studios and was recorded entirely at Toys in the Attic Studio in Lexington, Kentucky and taking over a year to produce.

The CD was produced by J.P. Pennington, who has written thirteen # 1 songs and who leads and performs with the pop and country supergroup Exile. The songs on Runaway Train are the most lyrically reflective and accompanied by the most infectious melodies yet written by Bizzack-Adcock who were joined in writing some of the songs on the CD by J.P. Pennington. The entire project is tunefully understated and stands as testament to the enduring appeal of heartfelt music across the landscape and wide variety of musical taste.

Meet The Other Players

Mike Schrimpf Harmonica	Arvel Bird Fiddle, Mandolin, Engineer, Mixes	Bob Hatter Acoustic Guitar
John Rees Keyboards, Piano and Strings	Pat Sever Steel, Banjo, Dobro	Pat Lassiter Bass
Peter Young Drums	Ray Barnette Vocalist	Mak Kaylor Vocalist
Tim Buppert Vocalist	Wayland Patton Vocalist	Tim Hopkins Vocalist
Joe Spivey Fiddle