The Wallflowers

The Wallflowers started in Los Angeles’s clubs in 1989. They released their self titled Debut album The Wallflowers in 1992. The album was praised by critics but only initially sold 40,000 copies, but now up to this date, it has sold about 1,000,000. At this point the band still consisted of the band’s original line-up, which included: Jakob Dylan (guitar and vocals, also the son of the legendary Bob Dylan), Rami Jaffee (Keybords and vocals), Barrie Maguire (bass guitar and vocals), Tobi Miller (guitar), and Peter Yanowitz (drums and percussion). This line-up of the band broke up quickly after the albums release due to internal conflict within the band and the band’s relationship with their record company Virgin Records.

Around this time the band played many venues in the Los Angeles area with the groups favorite place being the Kibitz room which is a legendary LA hangout. The band played here every Tuesday night, it was at these gigs that the band attracted the attention of many groups such as 10,000 Maniacs and The Spin Doctors who invited the band to join them on their tour.

The band stormed back into the musical scene in 1996 with the release of their album Bringing Down the Horse. Horse produced may hit’s including “The Difference,” “One Headlight,” “6th Avenue Heartache,” and “Three Marlenas.” These hits led to the album going platinum 4x. The album was released this time on Interscope records instead of Virgin. The only members left of the original line-up on this album were Dylan and Jaffee. For the new band Jakob Dylan got together Michael Ward (guitar), Greg Richling (bass guitar and vocals), and Mario Calire (drums and percussion). The album won two Grammy’s: Best Rock Song for writing “One Headlight” and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “One Headlight.” At the MTV music video awards the band performed a special version of “One Headlight” with Bruce Springsteen joining the band on stage.

The Wallflowers released their next album (Breach) on October 10, 2000, four years after the release of Horse. The first single the band released for the album was “Sleepwalker,” the accompanying video poked fun at Jakob Dylan’s status as a “rock star.”  Many felt that this song was a statement by Jakob about being Bob Dylan’s son. Elvis Costello is a guest vocalist on the albums track “Murder 101.” (Breach) was certified gold and peaked on the Billboard 200 at #13.

The band’s next album, Red Letter Days, was released on November 5, 2002 and peaked at #32 on the Billboard 200. This album produced one music video for “When You’re On Top” and it was a smash hit on AAA radio stations. This album is significant in the fact that it’s the first Wallflowers album where Dylan played the majority of lead guitar parts, although this was mostly due to the fact that Michael Ward left the band before the recording of the album.

The most recent release by the band was on May 24, 2005, Rebel, Sweetheart. The band produced a AAA radio hit “The Beautiful Side of Somewhere.”  Along with the release of Rebel, Sweetheart the band released an iTunes Originals release which featured interviews with Jakob Dylan and rare versions of the band’s songs. The band did not tour Rebel instead Rami Jaffee toured with the Foo Fighters on their acoustic tour.

The band parted ways with Interscope records in 2006. The Wallflowers did not play together as a band until 2007. When the band announced that they were going to play some clubs in the Northeast it was announced that keyboardist Rami Jaffee would not be touring with the band.

Jakob Dylan released a solo album on June 10, 2008 entitled Seeing Things.

The Wallflowers released a Greatest Hits record in 2009 called Collected: 1996-2005. The band also announced they would be touring the album with Jaffee returning for the tour.