Bill Fox

After the disolution of the beloved Cleveland mod-punk band the Mice, frontman and chief songwriter Bill Fox released a pair of exquisite, bittersweet folk-pop albums. The simple, spare recordings recalled an indie-rock version of Bob Dylan on the surface, but also contained an enigmatic emotionalism that set him apart from both more typical singer-songwriters and other lo-fi bedroom troubadours of the 1990s. Fox had given up music professionally and essentially vanished into workaday obscurity by the 2000s. In 2009, St. Louis-based Scat Records announced that they would reissue Fox's mini-masterpieces TRANSIT BYZANTIUM and SHELTER FROM THE SMOKE, prompting a rare live performance from the artist.