History

The Midnight Stations Bio (updated from the archives)

Kurt Wolter: vocal, guitar, percussion

John Jackson: guitar, vocal

Jim Stipe: bass

Keith Grogg: mandolin, banjo, vocal

The Midnight Stations were founded in 1991 when John Jackson and Peter Haskins began to assemble an acoustic rock/folk outfit to play clubs in Indianapolis. Both could sing and had begun writing songs; Peter was learning guitar from John. John brought on board his friend Keith Grogg, who had been active as a composer/guitarist/singer in the central Illinois-based acoustic duo Grogg & Wolter. Grogg was looking to expand into banjo, mandolin, and other traditional instruments.

Shortly after bringing Grogg into the fold, Jackson extended the invitation to Keith’s old partner Kurt Wolter. Kurt had been the lead singer in Grogg & Wolter, and had written several songs and played guitar. Keith, who was in graduate school in Chicago, invited fellow seminarian and former Cincinnati area punk band drummer Jay Kanerva to join as percussionist.

The quintet enjoyed each other's company, but prospects seemed limited. Although most had performance experience and several had had formal musical training, the band lacked a degree of professionalism, and still needed a bass. Enter Jim Stipe, the anchor the band needed: a classically trained cellist active in a string quartet in Chicago, Stipe was mainly brought in as bassist because Grogg knew him as an extremely nice person.

Still operating under the radar, the band exercised their creativity but performed only rarely and did not pursue professional opportunities. By late 1992, Haskins had pulled out, and when Grogg graduated from seminary in 1993, Kanerva stayed on in Chicago.

Over the next decade, almost every duo or trio combination possible among Jackson, Grogg, Wolter and Stipe performed publicly (Grogg and Stipe joined with vocalist/lyricist Nicole Wilkinson in the mid-1990s to form Signs Following, who composed and performed regularly, but did not record). All four Stations officially reunited in 2004, armed with a raft of increasingly sophisticated new material, for studio recording sessions in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Where the group had started with the intention of mainly playing folk songs and cover tunes on stage, the focus had shifted to recording original compositions and only rarely performing. Having produced hours of underground original material, the band’s first formal CD Heading for Home made it as far as post-production, but was eventually shelved as the band members had differing ideas about its suitability for commercial release.

All four Stations continue to hone their musical crafts while advancing their careers outside the music industry. John is with a major architecture firm in Indianapolis and maintains an active presence in the local music scene, performing regularly in both public and private venues. Wolter teaches and coaches in northern Illinois. Grogg is a Presbyterian minister outside Asheville, North Carolina; a solo studio project with musician/producer Dave Schrider in Wilmington, NC in the late aughts left some great backing tracks and demos, but did not result in a finished product (a recurring theme in the perennially unsatisfied Grogg's musical career). Jim is a celebrated, world traveling professional photographer for Catholic Relief Services based in Baltimore, MD. All four are happily partnered and have eight children among them at last count.