The calm, boring life of a small Midwestern town drove Max Holmquist to pick up a guitar at the age of 15. Four years later, South of Lincoln started in 2006 as his solo project. Starting with a post-punk/emo sound in the vein as Juliana Theory, Saves the Day, etc. somewhere along the line his style shifted with his personal musical tastes. With the introduction of Alt/Folk from people like Damien… Jurado, Neko Case, M. Ward, Andrew Bird, Rocky Votolato, etc., South of Lincoln became Great American Desert, a collection of honest, heartfelt folk songs.

 

Themes of alcoholism, heartbreak, love triangles, a sense of home, etc. run thick through Great American Desert’s music. “I’m sort of obsessed with where home is and what makes a home and how many homes one can have and whether a place ever ceases to be a home,” he says.

 

He started working on the album “Homes” in the studio a little over a year ago (Fall 2009). He had help instrumentally from John Feuerbach (from Bandit Sound/The Incredible Heat Machine) and Mat Hovanec (from The Incredible Heat Machine/Plan C Recording Studio) playing Accordion and Keys respectively. The debut album “Homes” was released on at Duffy’s Tavern on January 19th (2011) and is available on iTunes. Six months later, on June 26th (2011), he released “The Monsters/Bathrooms Sessions” which is also now available on iTunes. A re-release of this EP will be available soon under the name Great American Desert

 

In July, Great American Desert set out to record a split EP with Plains frontman Collin Pietz for what is called “The Frontier Project.” They spent ten days camping at various areas of note in Nebraska writing and recording with engineers Cole Voss and Nicholas O’Bradovich. The split is set for release in mid to late Fall.