J.W., vocals/guitar
Mike Bay, vocals/ld guitar
Ric Kavin, drums
Donnie Caronna, bass

Things were going smoothly enough. Haymaker had wrapped up rehearsing new songs for its second album and were set to record just as they had their first album--in the Long Beach, California home of drummer Ed Heavener.

That's when they got the news. Heavener's rare liver disease was getting worse and his ability to play the drums becoming almost impossible. He made the announcement that he was leaving the band. He knew he couldn't play up to the level he was known for.

He urged the band to continue on. They found a kindred spirit in veteran drummer Ric Kavin (Maria McKee Band) and longtime friend Donnie Caronna joined in on bass. The band pressed on with the recording sessions moved from Ed's house to the Burbank studio of roots rock super guitarist Peter Anderson, where the band self-produced the 11 songs on Beyond The Break.

Six months after leaving the band, Heavener died in his sleep from complications of the liver disease. Heavener's death cast a dark cloud over the session and recording stalled for a couple of months.

The band was buoyed by what it felt was a huge artistic leap forward in songwriting of J.W. and Mike Bay and arrangements from it's first album, Music From Ed's House. The result: song themes that explore the travails of getting older and finding out little or nothing went as planned. Amid this thread of longing, there's a resolve for the future. The songs are wrapped in a spirited blend of crackling guitars and snapping drums with touches of pedal steel, mandolin, piano, organ and fiddle to augment the more fully evolved songwriting.

Bent on surviving rather than breaking, Beyond The Break shows the next stage in the up and coming life of Haymaker.