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Q: You do not appear to be girls.
A: That's not a question.
(But we'll tell you the story anyway)
In early 2004, Tom was acting in a play. One day
backstage
the girls in the show were discussing feminine things.
They didn't pay
Tom no nevermind. He was just one of the girls. Meanwhile, Tom
and his brother Al wanted to put together a band for St. Patrick's Day
2004. So they did. But they needed more than a banjo. They contacted Tripp. Trish, one of
the girls in Tom's play, was Tripp's fiance (now wife). Tripp was one
of the girls too. A week before St. Patrick's Day, Sean, who was in a play that Tom was assistant directing, asked to join the band. Are you
following? Being that Sean was the youngest sibling of several sisters,
and given the above-documented "invisibility in the presence of girls"
of the other band members, One of the Girls was born just before St.
Patrick's Day 2004. Then Mike got married and moved back to Vermont, but not before he helped us record and mix our second album, Blueirishfolkgrass (2010). |
Biographies
lead vocals Tom
grew up listening to his mother's old Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem
records. From the musically talented German-American clan of
Schorsch, Tom is somehow more than half Irish. Trained as an actor on
the stages of Chicago and at the British American Drama Academy at
Oxford University, Tom has sung to himself, to musical theatre
audiences, and in von Trapp--I mean Schorsch--family gatherings.
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guitar, vocals Sean Michael Francis carries
the patronym of his fathers before him; the O’Sullivans were a proud
and distal mob, carousing the so’westerly shoals of the Emerald Isle.
‘Til fortune came, and they paid their dues on the ships to America,
seeking newer and loftier horizons. Their long legacy, frought with
toil and strife, has culminated to this moment: the sole bearer of the
Sullivan/Riley patronym (the youngest of four, and the only boy), an
actor and stagehand, playing guitar and singing in a 21st century folk band.
God bless America. Sean has appeared on A&E's The Beast, has been nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for his stage acting, and currently plays the role of Johnny Cash in the musical sensation Million Dollar Quartet. |
|
Roger
Sherman
bass, vocals Fed up with
political corruption and expensive auto registration, Roger moved from
Vermont to Chicago several years ago. He found himself under a powerful Voodoo
spell, most likely woven by some mandolin playing baptist minister with
a beard, glasses, and a wife named Trish. Now, against his will,
he responds to the phrase "Hey, you're one of the girls, aren't you?"
As a bass player, Roger has shared the stage with the likes of Dave Brubeck, Victor Wooten, The Chicago Bluegrass Band, The Hen House Prowlers, The Sons Of Susan, and the Night Watchmen of the Lake View Lounge fame.
Always up for another set, another tune, or another Guinness, Roger is a fundamental part of the arrangement process in One Of The Girls. On top of being a musician, he also considers himself a writer and lover of plants. His head spins around 360 degrees when he plays and he speaks in an evil tounge not spoken on this earth for thousands of years. Muhahaha! |
Tripp Hudgins
mandolin, vocals (West Coast) Tripp has sung professionally with His Majesty's Clerks, Chicago Choral Artists, The Schola Cantorum of St Peter as well as other Chicago area churches. He appears on more than a dozen professional recordings. He plays mandolin (and the related Celtic bouzouki and tenor banjo) and guitar. His vocal experience covers a wide swath from the Gregorian to jazz, classical, the Irish and back again. Tripp is married to Trish (a bay area actor) and is an American Baptist pastor. He is a happy man. He currently serves as the associate pastor of First Baptist Church Palo Alto. He likes to perform impromptu baptisms on unsuspecting pedestrians. (Oh, and he has a blog. Check it out.) |
Al Schorsch
A founding member of One of the Girls, Al returns to the band in 2011 with his amazing claw-hammer banjo skills. banjo Check out his band, Al Scorch's Country Soul Ensemble. |
Michael Scott Duplessis
Mike
was born on
the top of a hill on the shore of Lake Champlain. Soon
thereafter, he moved to the top of a hill nestled in a
valley of the Green Mountains. As a teenager, he began
reading "Sassy," "YM" and "Seventeen" to learn more about
the secrets of the fair sex, but instead just became one of
the girls, years before he officially became one of One of the
Girls. At age fourteen, one of Mike's father's high school
friends told Mike that the way to get girls was not to be one
of the girls, but was by being a musician. Inspired by this
middle-aged janitor/rock drummer, Mike picked up the guitar
and began to rock. After being paid for a gig five years ago
not with money, but instead with an accordion, he decided that
the accordion player would replace the lead guitarist as the
new millenium's rock and roll sex symbol. Since the midwest
is America's accordion heartland, Mike moved to Chicago,
joined OOTG, and lived happily ever after. accordion (East Coast) Mike has played at many Chicago venues including The House of Blues, Martyr's, Kinetic Playground and The Hideout. In former bands he has shared the stage with acts such as Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Crash Test Dummies, Dale Watson, Mike Gordon and many others. Michael is a multi-instrumentalist who has played guitar, bass, piano and accordion in various styles from Americana to hardcore to ska. |
*Except photo of Al above, which was taken by someone else.