Search - Michael Cerveris & Loose Cattle :: North of Houston - Live at 54 BELOW

They were a couple at the time. And it was hard times. And because therapy was damned expensive, they thought if they spent more time singing in the living room, there'd be less time for fighting. The idea was pretty simple: squeeze a bunch of friends together in a living room and play through some country tunes. Good time songs and sad ones, old ones and new ones. Not too much planning, not too much drinking (well...not everything went as planned), and they became Loose Cattle, making themselves at home on your stereo and grazing their way into your heart, so long as the cooler's got ice. Bad luck, bad jokes, bad decisions, bad jobs and through it all, the Cattle were lowing.

Though they only ever meant to play in folks' living rooms, somehow they ended up appearing with Arlo Guthrie on Mountain Stage, playing the Allen Room at Lincoln Center and the four night residency at NYC's 54 Below preserved on this rollicking recording. Putting aside his Tony Award and accolades as an actor (Broadway's Tommy, Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Evita, Hedwig, as well as September the Observer on FOX's Fringe and Marvin Frey in HBO's Tremé) and time spent touring with the likes of Bob Mould and Pete Townshend, Cerveris embraces his West Virginia upbringing along with Jersey-born co-vocalist Kimberly Kaye (New Direxion), Gabriel Caplan (Naomi Shelton), Jon Graboff (Ryan Adams, Shooter Jennings), Alex Harvey (mandolin star of the Geico ads), Justin Smith (The Defibulators), Lorenzo Wolff (The Lisps), and Eddy Zweiback (Losers Lounge).