Massachusetts based Yoke Shire first came to the attention of the CRS in 1999 with their first album proper, 'Masque of Shadows', on their own Zygo Records. It proved popular and their latest release, 'A Seer In The Midst' will prove equally popular once it finds its way in to the classic rock sales outposts.

     Yoke Shire are basically brothers Brian (36) and Craig (31) Herlihy with some drums and backing vocals being supplied by Brad Dillon on the latest album.

     It was typically English weather in New England (about 50 degrees) when I called the brothers, warm enough for us to sit comfortably linked up so we could have a triangular conversation.

     Yoke Shire! Yorkshire! Sounded curiously similar to me but as the brothers soon explained, Yoke Shire has nothings whatsoever to do with the UK's largest and finest county.

     "There is English inspiration in the music, most definitely," said Craig.

     As for the music, the inspiration lies firmly in the progressive rock movement, as Brian explained. "Oh yes, definitely in progressive rock, because it comes in so many different styles, so I guess we got interested in it initially through bands like Yes, Led Zeppelin and stuff and started checking out the things that they got into to make their sound and sort of broaden our horizons from there."

     So there's a lot of British influence in the Yoke Shire direction of classic rock, something that might be seen as surprising with so much rock coming out of the States these days.

     "Well actually our roots are from the 70's," explained Brian, "all those great bands like Queen, Jethro Tull, when everything was in its heyday. So that's the core of our musical beginnings. We haven't lost touch with those roots and other bands like Deep Purple, with Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore, and we kind of harken back to that and try to pull that sound forwards because we think it's great. We try to give it new life for a new generation."

     However, no matter what the Herlihy's may say about their direction and inspirations, any Gentle Giant fan will easily connect with Yoke Shire, such is a similarity now and then.

     "I've heard that from a few people. Strangely enough though we weren't heavily influenced by them, but there are some similar spots along the way," said Craig.

     Being brothers has its advantages, living in the same house, playing music together, learning to play instruments together and eventually bringing it all together in tune, although I bet Mr. and Mrs. Herlihy were not always too pleased with the noise.

     "It all started very early," started Craig, "Brian and my other brother Joe used to jam in the bedroom and I'd watch the chord changes and stuff like that, before I jammed along with them. We had more amplifiers and drums in the bedroom than furniture."

     "Craig's first guitar was a hand-me-down guitar," laughed Brian. "Instead of clothes we'd hand down musical instruments. First we got interested by just listening before we picked up playing, Craig even at an earlier age than me. We'd literally learn by jamming in the bedroom and drive mum to the brink of insanity with the noise cranking out of our bedroom, shaking the china downstairs," he said laughing.

     "We have the same foundation in the bands and music that we like because of that, so we are headed to the same place musically," added Brian.

     As with many progressive rock bands over the years, fashion has played its part and with Yoke Shire stage attire is important too. Craig is seen regularly with a bowler hat for instance.

     "Oh most definitely," confirmed Craig. "That sort of came out of the rebirth of the 60's, with the clothing that goes back to earlier times and kinds of melds in with the sound."

     Brian: "We try to present ourselves in a way that represents the music."

     The live Yoke Shire experience is something that comes across as something special if you hear some of the live recordings, something Craig agreed with. "Yeah, most definitely, it helps expand the music too with the energy between the audience and the band. That's really where it all began and our first love of music comes from the live reaction and the crowd responding to what we're doing. There's something great about that and striving to find a higher level. We've used it as a forum to home in the new material."

     The bands sound has a lot to offer with Craig supplying flute, mandolin and harmonica on top of all the usual and expected instruments. "These came with the inspiration of the songs that I was writing," explained Craig, "as we'd go along we'd say 'wouldn't it be nice to have a flute here or a mandolin there' and before you know it you just gotta go down and pick yourself one up," he laughed.

     "Early on we played in some different groups but we'd always jam at the house together," said Brian. "Whenever Craig played I'd be his guitar tech and then he'd be my guitar tech, but that was really early on, now we've been playing live together for about fifteen years."

     The name Yoke Shire is a curious one and Craig was keen to explain; "Well Yoke Shire is a combination of things, "Yoke" is a word that means union and it also kind of ties in to our spiritual prospective on music, in a way. The word yoke is also an English translation of the word yoga which includes the mind, body and spirit prospective of the Eastern philosophy. The "Shire" thing is definitely our love of the medieval and English."

     Brian: "Yoke also came to represent our union as musicians as well as our different types of styles from Celtic to classical to rock."

     The Yoke Shire sound might not be fashionable today but it does seem to have a following of sorts in this corner of America.

     "I think for anything done well there is always an audience. There's been awakenings in America and last year they had a revival when the Bluegrass thing kicked up with the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou", so anything can be revived when done well. We're presenting a thing that I think there is more of a market for than the big corporations have recognized. We've found globally that due to the Internet, we've connected up more easily with like-minded people, take yourselves for instance. There seems to be a network of classic rock people who are dedicated fans that don't give up, and bands like Jethro Tull still tour and still make records, so the bands are still there too," said Brian.

     Is the Yoke Shire plan on course thus far?

     Craig: "It's sort of hard to plan a musical road," he laughed. "So much depends on what happens as you go along, but we've found that we've maintained our inspiration and we're still excited as we look forward to our future music."

     Brian: "Yeah, we've definitely felt that the road that we intended to follow is the road we've remained on musically."

     Both brothers agree that there has been a good response to the band in Europe with plenty of fan mail and reactions from radio stations. "It's a worldwide thing but it would be hard to say if there is more interest in one place than another," said Craig. "There has been good reaction down in South America too."

     Did the word frustration come in to the Herlihy vocabulary as they worked hard to produce good music with little real reward?

     "Yeah I think the music business, especially over here in America, has become very stifled with the conglomerations buying up of radio and the mergers of all the record labels. It's really stifled some of the creativity by just manipulating the market. I can imagine people like Rick Wakeman enjoying the fruits of the heyday in the 70's, when radio was a lot more free and there were more little record shops. I can definitely imagine some frustration there today," said Brian.

     "I think there's a certain stigma for older musicians like Rick as opposed to the blues for example, where musicians like John Lee Hooker were revered in their older age, whereas for rock musicians there is a stigma to retire even though they have had so many years of productivity. There are certain frustrations along the way but there's a rewarding aspect of it, just like any career, there are things to contend with and things to revel in," said Brian.

     There still remains a common denominator among 99% of classic rock musicians in that they do the music for the right reasons, they do it for the pleasure of the music, something that Craig and Brian agree with.

     "Most definitely," said Craig, "it's like we're hoping that enough quality music will come out and help a revival of sorts.

     "Back in the late 60's a lot of bands would play off each other, The Beatles or The Who would hear each others records and they'd sort of be an inspiration to do better themselves with their next record. We're hoping to contribute and try and kick up something like that with other bands, and to inspire the album making to an art form by making all the tunes the best they can. I do think there's a strong underground network of progressive and classic rock bands and I'm always optimistic."

     So the theory of a classic rock or progressive rock revival stretches across the oceans and the limited success of albums like Yoke Shire's first album 'Masque of Shadows' gives hope to the theory.

     "That was our first real album and we were kind of breaking on to the scene and it got a real good reaction, especially seeing that, for the most part, people didn't know who we were prior to that. We had been playing around in this area for several years but that album continues to sell and we're proud of it and stand right behind it. I think in thirty years we'll still be proud of it and when we recorded it we had in mind the longevity and always felt that it was something we wanted to stand by," said Brian.

     The new album is sort of split in to two with new material and some from an earlier EP.

     "That early material was recorded in '95 and later went out of print for a while. People were asking whether the material would be available again. We decided to put out a few select things from our career and try to give people an idea how long we'd been around," said Craig.

     "Yeah, we're hoping to tie them over, until our next record is available. We're working on a new record now, and we're pretty excited about it. We're hoping to have this one out within the year," said Brian.

     A visit to the UK is something that both Craig and Brian would welcome. "We would most definitely like to find ourselves across the pond there doing some gigs for sure. It's a matter of finishing up this album then lining some things up," said Craig.

     "When the right opportunity presents itself, there's a certain balance of considerations, but we'd absolutely love to," said Brian.

     Watch this space for a Yoke Shire visit to the CRS, but in the meantime there's always the new album.