The release of LIVE VOLUME 1 (Home Grown Music Network) marks the next step in the evolution of Boston's MOUNTAIN OF VENUS, a quintet whose sound is at once timeless, yet thoroughly of the moment. Founded in Steamboat Springs, CO in the winter of 1999, MOUNTAIN OF VENUS is a total musical package. The band delivers a peerless combination of intelligent, radio-friendly songwriting, sparkling vocal harmonies and mind-boggling instrumental virtuosity that can't help but capture the hearts, minds and ears of discriminating listeners. Perhaps the key to MOV's particular magic is that its music seems so familiar, even as it explores some of the more esoteric precincts of the contemporary realm. That, says lead singer Tanya Shylock, can be explained by the individual members' influences, which encompass a wide variety of classic templates, from the Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead, to Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin and the legendary Motown artists of the 1960s. But these were only jumping-off points for the musicians. 'I don't think our music really reflects those artists,' says Tanya, a New Orleans native whose shimmering, versatile vocals set the pace for MOUNTAIN OF VENUS. 'You really can't compare us to anyone else.'

Although its roots are in the Rocky Mountains, the band reached a turning point in October, 1999, when it relocated to Boston, a city with a long and glorious history of nurturing original music, after establishing a strong following throughout Colorado. Basing MOV in Boston, offers Tanya, 'places us in a really challenging environment.' Because 'Boston has a lot of amazing musicians,' she and her band mates have been spurred to aim for ever greater musical heights. MOUNTAIN OF VENUS has already become a fixture at the House of Blues in nearby Cambridge, MA, with monthly appearances as 'house favorites.' Back in Coloroado, the band regularly sells out Quixote's True Blue in Denver and the Tugboat in Steamboat Springs. MOUNTAIN OF VENUS and its members also have shared the stage with Little Feat, WAR, Buckwheat Zydeco, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Dave Mason, Derek Trucks, Melvin Seals and the David Nelson Band, among others. Mountain Of Venus will be performing at the Twelfth Annual High Sierra Music Festival, July 4-7th, 2002 in Quincy CA alongside Bruce Hornsby, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Sound Tribe Sector 9 and many other artists.

That MOUNTAIN OF VENUS has easily scaled such heights is evident in the individual tracks of LIVE VOLUME 1, traversing the musical landscape from delicate, melodic folk-rock to adrenaline-pumping improvisations that seamlessly blend jazz, pro and funk concepts into you-gotta-hear-them-to-believe-them sonic montages. According to Tanya, recording a live album was not a matter of choice -- it was mandatory. While a studio project is on the agenda for the latter part of 2002, the live setting will, she promises, always be MOUNTAIN OF VENUS' natural habitat. 'Our live performance,' she says, 'is a really powerful, strong and energetic thing to witness.' And it's a prime example of why you'll find MOV constantly conquering new musical peaks.