The Horse Flies : Human Fly (1987) and Gravity Dance (1992)

01. Human Fly
02. Hush Little Baby
03. Jenny on the Railroad
04. Rub Alcohol Blues
05. Cornbread
06. Who Throwed Lye On My Dog
07. I Live Where It's Gray
08. Link of Chain
09. Blueman's Daughter

Judy Hyman - Violin
Richie Stearns - Banjo
Jeff Claus - Banjo Uke , Synthesizer , Guitar
John Hayward - Bass

Bill Usher: emulator, tube drums, African beatbox, congas, claydrums, balliphone, seed pod, and all other percussion.
Brent Barkman: synthesizer & emulator (Human Fly, Hush Little Baby, I Live Where it's Grey, Blueman's Daughter).
George Axon and Jamie Sulek: Macintosh Programming


The Human Fly - Rapidshare





01. Life is a Rubber Rope
02. Sally Ann
03. Roadkill
04. Passion is an Art Form
05. What Does family Mean
06. Two candles
07. I Need a Plastic Bag (to Keep My brains in)
08. Needles on the Beach
09. Starvation waltz
10. Cold Out There
11. Time is Burning
12. Your Eyes Are Elevators

Jeff Claus - Banjo Uke , Harmony Vocals , Lead Vocals , Electric Guitar
Richie Stearns - Banjo , Harmony Vocals , Lead Vocals , Electric Guitar
Judy Hyman - Violin , Harmony Vocals
Peter Dodge - Harmony Vocals , Keyboards , Accordian
John Hayward - Electric Bass
Taki Masuko - Drums


Gravity Dance Part 1 - Rapidshare
Gravity Dance Part 2 - Rapidshare


One of the earliest bands to bring truly inventive ideas and energy to traditional American fiddle music, The Horse Flies have created a unique sound that remains fresh, powerful and captivating. Artful original songs, a wild groove-oriented approach to fiddle music, esteemed instrumental skills, and emotive singing come together as old-time fiddle music meets alternative rock, minimalism, modern songwriting and world percussion.

Critics have said:

“ … a world without the Horse Flies' wholly unique music would be a much, much poorer place.” (Melody Maker, London).

"The Horse Flies combine musical and lyrical quirkiness with beguiling wit and intelligence … a melange of rock, folk, and minimalism … music that challenges the brain without sacrificing the groove." (Chicago Tribune).


"Music of astonishing centrifugal force … breathtakingly complex rhythms … unexpectedly rich textures … stunningly modern … gravity and grace … their ancient, yet modern sound and their easy, seemingly limitless energy make The Horse Flies special." (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland).

"The textures are a blend of the ancient and the ultra modern. Realism coexists with surrealism, and synthetics and acoustics are interwoven. A record of dark brilliance." (Melody Maker, London).

"Demented, post-modern mountain music …" (Village Voice, New York).

"The Horse Flies have figured out how to hold a hoedown in a physics lab." (New York Times)

"Brilliantly peculiar … new music with gnarled and twisted roots." (The Boston Herald).
"Bewitching and beguiling … a band for our trying times" (The Dallas Observer).

The Horseflies released their eighth album, Until the Ocean in June 2008. Their other albums are: Gravity Dance (MCA), Human Fly (Rounder/MCA), In the Dance Tent (Live and Kicking), Two Traditions (Callin' the Kettle Black), Chokers and Flies (Rounder), Where the Rivers Flow North (film score, Alcazar Records), and A Stranger in the Kingdom (film score) and appeared on a number of compilation recordings. Both Human Fly and Gravity Dance reached the top 40 on the Gavin and CMJ charts. Gravity Dance was nominated for a New York Award.

The band has been written about in major publications such as Rolling Stone, Musician Magazine, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, The Chicago Tribune, New Musical Express (London), Melody Maker (London) …

They have performed throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe at major venues such as the Central Park Summerstage (NYC, U.S.), WOMAD (Toronto, Canada), Big Beat Festival (Vienna, Austria), Vancouver Folk Festival (Vancouver, Canada), Birmingham City Stages (Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.), Independence Days (Berlin, Germany), Philadelphia Folk Festival (Philadelphia, PA, U.S.), Tonder Festival (Denmark), and the Telluride Festival. They have also appeared numerous times on radio and television programs including MTV News, MTV’s Week in Rock, Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, The Entertainers, and many more.

Flies Judy Hyman and Richie Stearns have toured and recorded with pop singer Natalie Merchant, appearing on her album, The House Carpenter's Daughter. The album's lead cut, "Sally Ann", is a song by Flies' Jeff Claus, which Merchant’s band performed on Late Night with David Letterman and which also appears on Merchant’s Retrospective album. Hyman and Stearns have just finished recording with Merchant again (August 2008) for an upcoming release.

The Horse Flies are: Judy Hyman (violin, vocals), Jeff Claus (guitar, banjo uke, vocals), Richie Stearns (banjo, vocals), Taki Masuko (percussion), Jay Olsa (bass) and Rick Hansen (accordion, Moog, organ).



Bio by Craig Harris, All Music Guide

The old-timey tradition is brought to modern standards by the Horse Flies. While their sound retains elements of turn of the century string band music, the Horse Flies have taken things much further by adding Caribbean rhythms, avant-garde jazz improvisation, classical minimalism, and punk rock dissonance to create what they've dubbed "neo-primitive bug music." Fiddler Judy Hyman and guitarist John Claus launched the Horse Flies shortly after moving from Bloomington, IN, to Ithaca, NY, and running into banjo player Richie Stearns. They had previously met Stearns, who played with the post-punk band Bubba George, three years earlier at a party in Lexington, VA. Recruiting bassist John Hayward (then playing with the Correctones), the Horse Flies were born. The group later added drummer Bill Usher and keyboardist Brent Barkman. As the Tompkins County Horseflies, the band made its recording debut by splitting an album, Chokers and Flies, with similar-minded band the Chicken Chokers. Their second album, Human Fly, was originally released on Rounder and reissued by MCA, who also released their third effort, Gravity Dance. Both Human Fly and Gravity Dance reached the Top 40 on the Gavin and CMJ charts. With their hard-edged approach to tradition-rooted music, the Horse Flies aimed at a rock audience. The group opened ten shows during 10,000 Maniacs' Blind Man's Zoo tour, while their song "I Live Where It's Gray," from Human Fly, was used by Rock the Vote in a series of specials about adolescent health issues that aired on MTV in 1995. The Horse Flies' fourth album, released by Alcazar, featured their soundtrack for the Jay Craven-directed film Where the Rivers Flow North. The Horse Flies also supplied the music for the movie A Stranger in the Kingdom. They released In the Dance Tent in 2000, a live recording from the 1996 Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in upstate New York, and dedicated it to Hayward, who succumbed to cancer the following year. After a lengthy hiatus that found the members engaged in various solo pursuits, the Horse Flies returned to the studio in 2008 for Until the Ocean, an all-new collection of songs that echoed their Human Fly heydays.


The Horse Flies Homepage

Samples of the two albums can be heard here

Wiki entry for The Horse Flies

Free Audience Recordings of live performances


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