Rory Cummings and Jim Bird met in college in the mid-1970s. Jim occasionally organized coffee house events and sometimes played in the student lounge. Seeing an opportunity to capitalize on Jim’s entrepreneurship, Rory invited himself in to play. They forged a friendship and musical partnership that went on to include a six piece rock and roll band that recorded an EP and also once played in front of about a thousand boy scouts at the Boy Scout Jamboree. Around the same time, Ralph de Jonge and Rory were working at a local TV station. Ralph had done some theme music and was occasionally asked to play work-related events. Cummings and de Jonge realized they had complementary skills and both enjoyed composing. Eventually Rory, Ralph and Jim started playing and writing together and founded The One Shot Band.
The original One Shot Band wrote and recorded two full length albums, but when Bird found his time constrained by the twin demands of self employment in the video production business and a young family, Cummings and de Jonge started Redhill Road. They played and recorded under that name for about 10 years starting in 1998, with Cummings writing or co-writing 36 of the 37 songs on the band’s three CDs.
Cummings and de Jonge also developed a sideline writing and recording music for TV and film. Early adopters of computer recording technology, these projects taught them how to record and mix their own music and how to work effectively in a sound studio. They were involved in writing and recording many soundtracks and six CDs, and even recorded and packaged Charly Chiarelli’s one man hit show Cu Fu. Meanwhile Bird co-wrote and performed the cult hit Working on the Radio for radio station CFNY’s campaign to save its alternative music format.
Bird and Cummings reintroduced the One Shot Band in 2009, with Wayne Allison on drums. Dan Shields and Barry Smallbone started playing regularly with the group in 2011 and have become an integral part of the band’s sound. Rory and Dan have been friends since they were little kids in public school (when Dan taught Rory how to play guitar). Dan and Barry first played together in high school. A long, strange trip indeed...