It wasn't long after moving to Salem that a friend introduced me to Andy Wiseman (thanks Angela Jones). He had recently started a band called Shorthanded and we hit it off right away because of our common love of all things punk rock. Andy had played bass in bands that I enjoyed like Empty Tomb and Crux. With Shorthanded he became the primary songwriter and both sang and played guitar. Right away I started doing artwork for Shorthanded and I think it was a great partnership for many years. When they signed to Tooth and Nail Records and recorded their album for the label in 1999 the record company had other ideas about who they wanted to do the album art. Although I wasn't too happy about it at least they had Mitch O'Connell do the illustration. The fact that I was a fan of his work and knew he would do a great job softened the blow to my ego. I think the whole thing turned out great, especially the recording of Andy's great songs.
Although Shorthanded has been out of commission for quite a few years and Andy has moved away from Salem we still stay in contact and have worked together on some projects (not just music related). You can see one of these in the Album Covers section of my site, it's called Truth or Consequences which is his honky-tonk band.
Andy is currently writing and recording a new Shorthanded album and just like the good old days I worked up an album cover for him. It may not come out for a while as there are some exciting people showing interest in working with him on it and I'm sure they have to coordinate all their busy schedules to get it finished but I got permission from Andy to show the art here on my site.
I had a lot of fun working on this and I hope you like it.
