bio

It's Rock and Roll.

Jesse Lee Miller - Vocals, Guitar, Lap Steel

Kyle Olson - Vocals, Guitar

Ben Brezing - Bass

Jason Chase - Drums

Missouri Mule is heartbroken, beat-down, and overworked. And they prefer it that way.

Because from this turmoil comes a tattered and dusty sound, their music rooted in dense

bones of corn-fed Bakersfield Country and wrapped in taut veins of punk rock. Mule brings

songs of drinking and devotion to the glossy bar top of American country punk, taking

the rattle and shakes of Dwight Yoakam and Hank Williams and connecting the bye-gone

era to a teenage love affair with Jawbreaker and Lagwagon.

With the exception of Ben Brezing (bass) who was raised in Germany, Kyle Olson (vocals,

guitar), Jesse Miller (vocals, guitar, lap steel), and Jason Chase, a.k.a. Cannonball, (drums)

are all California boys who started playing in punk bands in their teens. Today, in addition

to Missouri Mule, Olson and Chase both play in SecondShot and Van Hammersly, never

letting go of a passion for discordant musical rebellion.

This desire to be defiant carries over to Mule’s uncompromising and raucous live shows,

a band working on the idea that country and blues are the original punk rock. Like lost souls

in the dust bowl, Mule hold a smoldering candle to the country music of eras past as their

sound wanders along the same state lines as contemporary acts like Lucero, Gaslight Anthem, and

Drive-By Truckers.

Blue-collar boys living much like modern day working-class hero Bruce Springsteen, Missouri

Mule craft their songs of heartache and tribulation for the everyday man and woman. Their

debut EP was produced and recorded with friends and mentors Pete Bernhard and Cooper

McBean of The Devil Makes Three. Due out this Fall, the finished product promises to

be a shuddering and overcast look at the working man’s everyday life.

By Bree Davies (The Onion ,www.breedavies.com)