Biography
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Years Active
2010 – present (13 years)
Balto is an American band.
Following an ill-fated six-month stint as a copy editor and telemarketer in Moscow, Russia, guitarist and songwriter Dan Sheron lost his marbles and went to Siberia, where he wrote a cycle of songs describing the life he’d decided to leave behind. That winter (2010), Balto laid those songs on its first record, October’s Road, in a single blustery day in a Brooklyn basement and went on to tour the United States & Canada for the first time. Critics from outlets such as - AP magazine, Folk Radio UK, and Slowcoustic - praised the debut as an undiscovered songwriting gem of 2011, with features on several best-of-the-year lists. Beats per minute wrote "October's Road may just be the best album I've heard by an unsigned new artist.”
Following a move to Portland, Oregon, the band released 2012’s follow-up, Monuments, and hit the road again, touring up and down the East and West Coasts, joining national acts (Roadkill Ghost Choir, A Hawk and A Hacksaw, etc) in Portland's premier live rooms, and giving one-off performances in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.
Balto emerged again in 2014 as a five-piece rock’n’roll band – electric guitars and Hammond organs, chiming acoustic guitars and the occasional Bonzo flourish, all held down on bass by a retired fighter with a deep admiration for James Jamerson. This is mercurial, psychedelic country-rock – song-driven rock’n’roll – a hair-raising live performance burning its way across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
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