The following article is from the The Inlander. October 2000.

Three for the road
by Mike Corrigan

THE MAYFIELD FOUR is a living, breathing example of a local band that escaped the lethargy and ambivalence of Spokane to score it big in the music industry. After scraping it out for several years in various popular local bands in the early '90s (Shoveljerk and Citizen Swing immediately come to mind), vocalist Myles Kennedy, drummer Zia Uddin, bassist Marty Meisner and guitarist Craig Johnson formed a band talented, cohesive and driven enough to attract major label attention. They signed with Epic in 1997, and in 1998 released their debut album, Fallout.

Fifteen months of almost non-stop touring to support the album followed, transforming the band into a seasoned live act able to turn on club audiences and arena-size crowds with equal aplomb. They'll be back in front of the home crowd on Saturday night at Fort Spokane.

A lot has happened to the Mayfield Four since the end of the last touring cycle more than a year ago. Johnson is no longer with the group, a follow-up to Fallout is in the can (slated for a late February release) and Kennedy has caught a flu bug.

"I'm pretty much bedridden," he says in a thoroughly gravelly voice via phone. "And if you hear any loud noises, that's my parrot yelling at me to come get him."

About the changes in the lineup (and, as I discover, in management), Kennedy is frank but guarded.

"Craig is gone, and we have a new manager now. It was a divorce of sorts, and I can't really go into details. It was just really hard. These are people we really care about, and we went through a lot together."

The tour to support Fallout was educational to say the least. It was also the first time the guys got to rub elbows with their peers in the their competition, if you will.

"We got great tours, but it's always real hard when you're up and coming, you know, you're a baby band. And you have to prove yourself every night. We were out there for 15 months, and after awhile it's just pretty draining."

The new album, produced by Peter Collins (Letters to Cleo, Jewel, Brian Setzer), is a slight departure from the approach the group took on Fallout.

"It's much more rock," says Kennedy, adding with a laugh, "It's melodic, hard-rocking rock. Much more aggressive than Fallout. It's more condensed with simpler song structures. On the last record, there were certain tracks where we'd go off into a kind of an 'art school' rock direction. We got away from that. [The new record] is more of a reflection of what we are, which is a bunch of thugs from Spokane."

With all the shakeups in the Mayfield Four camp, and the specter of the sophomore jinx to contend with, the group took its time on the new material and at the same time redefined their essence.

"We played a show over a year ago at Pig Out in the Park, and ever since then we've been wanting to just totally reinvent this band. We went through a lot of changes with management and members, so we basically just locked ourselves up and wrote and wrote and wrote. It was a real rough year for all of us, given what we went through professionally. We just tried to stay real focused and work real hard, and we're really happy with what we got."

The band as a touring unit has essentially been in dry dock for a year and a half. For Kennedy and the others, that's just a bit too long.

"It's been nice to be back home and just get to create every day. But I think we've all built our immunity back up, and we're getting ready to go out and perform. That's part of the reason we wanted to do this just to kind of warm into it gradually. It's gonna be a lot of new material. It's going to be the new Mayfield Four. I started playing when I was 15, and this is the longest I've ever gone without performing with a band. I don't know if it'll be nerve wracking, but I'm hoping that we'll get back up on stage and it will feel just like it did for our entire tour."

Is Kennedy copping to a case of the jitters?

"I might get the jitters this time. I don't know. I'm wondering about that. But you can use that adrenaline."

Until the record hits the shelves and the new tour begins, the members of the Mayfield Four need something to do besides shop for shoes and nurse minor viral infections.

"I'm really getting eager to get out and play," understates Kennedy sardonically. "I mean it's like, what do you do? I guess we could all work on our solo albums now."

The Mayfield Four and Mulligan play Fort Spokane on Saturday, Oct. 21, at 9 pm. Tickets: $7. Call: 838-3809.