The project began when Morris (Warsaw, Indiana) and Bates (Kansas City, MO) met in Leipzig, Germany. While working as ex-pats, the duo began musically reanalyzing the folk forms of their homeland in the decaying buildings of East Germany. In this environment, they developed a special kind of alternative bluegrass. The music is stuck somewhere between the electric blues of Chicago and the bluegrass of Kentucky, and has acquired the filth and abandonment of post-communist, ex-patriot life.