Growing up in rural Escanaba, MI, rustic singer/songwriter Jeff Krebs incorporates elements of Appalachian hominess with his more standard Americana flourishes. Growing up on the usual mix of AC/DC, Cheap Trick, and Elvis Costello albums, Krebs formed a musical vocabulary that would later be mixed with more traditional elements and the work of beat writers. After taking numerous Kerouac-like jaunts across North and South America and serving stints in country-rock bands (even briefly linking up with Everclear's Art Alexakis in a band called the Easy Hoes), all of which turns up in the genealogy of his music, Krebs finally settled in San Francisco and started his solo career in 1994. Somewhere along the way, the influence of songwriters like Townes Van Zandt and Tom Waits had begun to take hold, and Krebs found his voice as a songwriter. Songs of Love and/or Death, a mix of power-trio renditions of folk-based songs with brief ventures down reggae and swing side roads, was released soon after. 2000's Keep an Eye Out was a leap forward, both in musical and lyrical songcraft, mixing just about everything in the American pop and rock landscape with the help of friends like Tom Waits' crony Ralph Carney. When not recording solo, Krebs indulges in more heavily traditional sounds while playing bluegrass as a part-time member of the KLM Camp Band. ~ Matt Fink