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'Blue Merle' was a music group centered in Nashville, Tennessee. Their name comes from the lyrics of a Led Zeppelin song, ''Bron-Y-Aur Stomp'' from Led Zeppelin III, referring to a "blue-eyed merle". Their lead singer Lucas Reynolds, has a voice that has been compared to those of Chris Martin and Dave Matthews. The band is also known for live renditions of the Talking Heads song ''.
The band was first formed when Luke Reynolds and Jason Oettel met and began to work together. A friend in a studio offered them some recording time, and they began recording several demo tracks. While they were doing so, the President of Sony Publishing happened to be there, and offered them a contract. While they passed on it, it was a start. Reynolds then met Beau Stapleton, a Mandolin player, on his way back to his home in Vermont and invited him to join. Oettel brought one of his own friends, William Ellis, a drummer into the band as well. It was William who came up with the band's name. The last member to join was Luke Bulla, a fiddle player, who had been asked to fill in for a couple weeks, and soon was a full time member.
In February 2005, Blue Merle released "Burning In The Sun", which features the singles ''Burning In The Sun'', ''Every Ship Must Sail Away'', and ''Lucky To Know You''. Blue Merle played Lollapalooza in 2005.
In April 2006, the band broke up. They played their last show, 45 minute set, on Friday, April 21 at Vanderbilt University's Rites of Spring music festival along with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and My Morning Jacket.
Since the band's breakup, Luke Reynolds released a solo EP entitled ''The Space Between the Lines''. Beau Stapleton also released a solo EP, ''Will I Shine For You Still''.

Contents

External links

External links

★ Official Site

★ Bio at Yahoo! Music including name source

★ Blue Merle collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive