Railway Records – Folk, Americana, Bluegrass, Alt-Country, and Roots-Rock from America’s Great Midwest.

Micki Croisant

Everyday artists take their experiences and transform them into works of art; expressions that are heard and felt. Everyday people hear these songs and translate them through their own devices, giving the song personal meaning. Micki Croisant’s deeply rooted connection to her art shows in her natural ability to attract and captivate audiences. An individual truly nurtured by the arts, her unmistakable tone resonates with warmth and genuine talent. Micki’s seemingly delicate delivery often masks the torrential emotion conveyed in her lyrics. Micki’s voice is her songs and her songs are her voice.

Born and raised in Midland, MI, Micki grew up in a community heavily supportive of their arts programs. Prominent individuals in the community, upon their death, would donate sizable portions of their wealth to programs such as the township’s choir and other forms of fine art programs. She reminisces on her earliest memories singing, “I didn’t realize this until later but when I was five or six, I would narc on myself everyday cause I would sing about all the bad things I had done that day. And I had no idea that sound traveled through the house. My parents are watching TV and listening to me singing about a stolen piece of candy.” Yet it wasn’t until a family tragedy and an enduring piece of advice well into her teens that set her journey as a musician in motion.

After her fathers passing her mother made the decision to move her family to Chicago, not only to continue her education but also to open other windows of opportunities for her children. As many teenagers would find, the move to Chicago was difficult. She sought a haven to express her sentiments and vent her frustrations but found little solace in her new surroundings. The comfort and safety she was looking for lay in guitar and songwriting. After a pivotal meeting with one of her mentors, it finally became clear to Micki that a musician was the path she needed to take.

Since her move to Chicago, she has been exposed to the, finding inspiration and direction from the many genres and talented musicians that reside in the city. With modest intentions of building a life around her musical aspirations, her goals are to share a stage with other singers and songwriters with genuine messages.

Outlaw Family Band

Outlaw Family Band’s raw blend of country, rock, folk and bluegrass elements combined with dark and gritty themes has made the band a favorite in the Chicago area. Rocking at one moment and meshing four part harmonies with fiddle and banjo at the next, the seven-piece band moves from style to style without losing what is at their core – a dedication to stories well told through powerful lyrics and bent strings.

The Band:
James Weigel – guitars, vocals
Daniel Padgett – bass, vocals
Justin Gilliam – guitars, vocals
Ryan Hinshaw – fiddle, vocals
Ben Wright – banjo, vocals
Mark Corsolini – drums, vocals
Brian Koehler – pedal steel

OFB has grown over the years, from its beginnings as a group of a few college friends making music at bars that paid in tips and beer to today’s solid band that plays regularly in the Windy City and throughout the Midwest. But even today, you’ll still see a bucket of beer on ice sitting up on stage for the band, and a round of whiskey from the crowd won’t be turned down either…

OFB released it’s first full-length album in April, 2005. Featuring many of their most popular songs, and with some engineering and production help from Wilco‘s Jay Bennett, Outlaw Family Band is an excellent debut effort.

In 2006, the band began getting national attention from their association with Mike Leonard, a documentary producer for NBC’s Today Show. Leonard, who takes banjo lessons from Ben Wright, asked the band to provide some music for some of his video segments, and then for more music to score the DVD that accompanies his book “The Ride of Our Lives” (the tale of an extended family road trip that was originally featured in four parts on the Today Show. Leonard even took the band on the road with him for the Midwest portion of his book signing tour, and they appeared in a segment for the Today Show promoting the book.

Lyceum, their second full-length album was released in the summer of 2006, a collection of acoustic numbers, several of which were used for the “Ride of Our Lives” project.