Less Than Supper is the first album by Greensky Bluegrass, released on the band’s Big Blue Zoo label in May 2004. The band had formed in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 2000 around Michael Arlen Bont on banjo, Dave Bruzza on guitar and Paul Hoffman on mandolin, who all sing on the record; Chris Carr plays bass and Al Bates plays Dobro. The disc’s notes say the music was recorded at the Burr-Hoff Pad on Big Blue Lake, with Ian Gorman and John Campos credited as recording and mixing engineers.
Eight of the twelve tracks are band originals or co-writes, including “New Rize Hill,” the title song, “Greensky Breakdown,” “Depot Bay” and Bont’s “Bont’s Breakdown.” The rest are John Hartford’s “Steam Powered Aeroplane,” joined to the traditional “Texas Gales”; Peter Tosh’s “Stop That Train,” joined to “Salt Creek”; Bob Marley’s “Small Axe”; and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” Carr and Bates left the band soon afterward. Mike Devol, who had first approached the group about helping with management, joined on bass in the fall of 2004, and Anders Beck came in on Dobro in 2007.
Tracklist
- 1 New Rize Hill 4:09
- 2 Steam Powered Aeroplane alt version 6:54
- 3 Less Than Supper 2:24
- 4 Out & Under 2:40
- 5 Greensky Breakdown 2:38
- 6 Stop That Train/Salt Creek 4:03
- 7 Old Glory 4:12
- 8 Depot Bay 2:55
- 9 Bont's Breakdown 3:02
- 10 Small Axe 5:43
- 11 Through The Trees 3:07
- 12 Swing Low Sweet Chariot alt version 3:55
