The Lonely H:

Road Revivalists

Words: Mary Manchess

Photo: Kirt Reynolds

There is no genre of music that identifies more with American culture than classic rock 'n' roll. It's as essential as baseball, hot dogs and Coca-Cola.  

But this tradition is in danger of becoming extinct - at least to Mark Fredson.

REAX got a chance to catch up with the vocalist and keyboardist for Washington State's The Lonely H before they kicked off their summer tour, and talk about everything from their new album to the true meaning behind their name and what we can do to save an important piece of our culture.

A mix between The Eagles and The Allman Brothers, The Lonely H has created an album that might as well be considered a time capsule. Concrete Class captures the soul, storytelling lyrics and bad-ass attitude of classic rock 'n' roll.

“There are a couple of songs that we drew from the production style of The Eagles with a lot of layering, background vocals, lots of guitar work and lots of acoustic guitar work,” Fredson says. “There are some 'Eaglest' sounding songs on the album, such as 'The Singer' and 'Girl from Jersey.'”

While The Lonely H is influenced by a lot of bands circa the 1970s, such as The Beach Boys and Jefferson Starship, they do realize that the year is 2009 and don't want people to think they are mutually exclusive to today's times or genres. Fredson admits to being familiar with today's music scene, but just isn't as influenced by it as much.

“There is something about the soul and the way of life and that really rich, timeless sound of that era, which is organically emulated in our music,” he says. “It just comes out because that's what we love, and you pretty much just make songs that sound like the other songs you love.”

Aside from just preserving the sound of classic rock 'n' roll, they are also continuing its lifestyle by taking to the open road. With their Levi jeans, long hair and worn boots, these boys from Port Angeles, WA, hope to revive the world of rock 'n' roll by spreading its gospel in one crazy bar after another.

“Hopefully we can turn some young cats on to the old sound and rejuvenate rock 'n' roll, because it's the best thing I've ever heard of,” says Fredson. “We are trying to just do a show at a time, and it's pretty much the only thing we can do. It's a lot of work, but we are willing to put in the time.”

Seeing hopeless drunks and dirty hardwood floors isn't exactly glamorous, but one of the best things the band enjoys about performing in bars is the different type of people they meet. As this summer tour will be their sixth across the country, they have come to learn that the people in these towns are quite hospitable.

“We definitely love the country we live in,” the singer says. “We haven't really been anywhere else other then Mexico and Canada, but as far as my ethnocentric view goes on the world, America is the best place to live.”

A typical day on the road for them starts with waking up at someone's house they met the night before and throwing some eggs in a pan or finding a local Cracker Barrel to eat at. Then they pile in their van to hit the road for an average of five hours each day, filling out crossword puzzles to help the time pass by. Fredson says sometimes they'll try to find an open field to get a football game going so they can stretch their legs and take a break. When they finally reach their destination, they just try to dip their feet in the local water and connect with the people there.

As these four northwestern cowboys pretty much grew up together, their life on the road and their music has strengthened their friendship. They have been performing together since middle school. Their name, The Lonely H, was created when Fredson was just a freshman in high school. It's in reference to the essential questions of any situation, the “five w's and an h.”

“Well you have the five w's of who, what, when, where and why. Then there is how, which gets left out and abbreviated, so we are just kind of representing it,” he says. "It's a central question, so we are just trying to represent the lonely h.”

While it's rather metaphorical, when you think about it, isn't how the most important question for The Lonely H's cause? How could we allow rock 'n' roll to fade away?