The Izzys

A brilliant and mercurial thread winds through the landscape of the American songbook like a Cadillac on a lost highway. Chameleon-like, sometimes it shows itself as the high-lonesome yelp of Bill Monroe or the haunting misgivings of Robert Johnson. Other times it is the reverb-drenched bravado of a Sun rockabilly record. And sometimes it's the can't-stop-dancing boogie of any number of dance tunes by Rufus Thomas, The Mighty Hannibal, or Prince. This thread is timeless; it is the quintessence of The American Song.

The Izzys, a fully realized rock and roll outfit—cast in twang, thunder, and boogie—is driving this thread forward. Their namesake comes from an Alan Lomax field recording and an obscure slave term referring to the friction between sexual and spiritual love, the distance between the sacred and profane; it’s a theme that rock and roll couldn't exist without.

Mike Storey (guitar and vocals) first picked up on this thread hearing live bluegrass music in his neighbor's yard as a young boy growing up in Maryland. He started on the guitar and mandolin in his early teens, learning the sounds and cadences of blues, country, soul and rock and roll, writing songs that would lay the architecture for what would become The Izzys.

Fast forward to New York City a decade later.