Star City is a five-piece rock band based in New York, with roots in pop, punk, and country rock. A major profile of the band in No Depression magazine (July 2001) began with the simple question: "Could the best twang-informed roots band you've never heard be alive and thriving in, of all places, New York City? It could well be. The outfit in question is Star City.." Throughout 2000 and 2001, crowds outside of Star City's regular downtown Manhattan haunts have been cheering their appearances-during a stand in London, a tour that took them from Raleigh-Durham to Nashville and Chicago, appearing with the likes of the Blood Oranges and the Bottle Rockets, and a dramatic show at the celebrated Twangfest gathering at St. Louis. Star City has just released their second CD, Inside the Other Days, produced by Dennis Diken (drummer for the Smithereens) and Dave Amels (Lenny Kravitz). Built on a dozen new Lewis originals,a mix of hook-driven mid-tempo rockers that build into high-energy screamers and goosebump-raising modern ballads, the disc shows influences from hard '70s rockers such as Neil Young, John Lennon and the Allman Brothers, to '90s alt.rock and alt.country- adding up to a sound that's utterly their own. Leader and founder Jason Lewis was singing solos in the church choir in his native West Virginia by age five, and went on to lead experimental indie rock bands while majoring in music at Morgantown. With a songwriting career begun, and a unique "Pavarotti-of-Punk" voice in place, Jason moved to New York in '93, pursuing both the rock and roll dream and the girl who'd become his wife. While writing and performing within the East Village "anti-folk" scene that also spawned Beck, he met the musicians who'd partner with him in the earliest version of Star City the following year. The band has since evolved, member by member, into a congregation of regional alt.country all-stars: On electric guitar, lap and pedal steel, David Chernis contributes everything from sweet steel licks to soaring guitar leads so in synch with longtime collaborator Lewis's songwriting and singing that the partnership has been described as a "mind meld.". Chernis studied jazz guitar at the University of Miami, working in the same musical circles as the fledgling Mavericks, and has frequently sat in with such diverse NYC performers as, Neil Cleary, Tandy, power popper Alex Dezen, and Barbara Brousal. David says that making Inside Other Days has: "like building a super-freighter to carry lots of cargo...but it's got the power to turn!" Nancy Polstein has anchored the pulsing Star City rhythm section with imaginative, enthusiastic, and aggressive drumming since early 2000. Her impressive resume already included work with Cheri Knight, Bob Woodruff, Will Rigby, and Silo Walter Salas-Humara, and she was recently assigned the seemingly inevitable role of Mo Tucker in a Velvet Undergiound tribute show with Ms. Tammy Faye Starlight. Scott Yoder completed the Star City rhythm line-up on bass in the past year; also the bass man for ambient twang band Tandy, Ohio-raised Scott is a veteran of such celebrated New York alt.country outfits as: The Blue Chieftans, The World Famous Blue Jays, and, The Delevantes, Kevin Salem and plays bass on Tim Carroll's latest CD, "Free Again." Kevin Karg rounds out the band as an irreplaceable jack-of-all instruments (keyboards, mandolin, guitar pickin'). Kevin also fronts the veteran Philadelphia band The Rolling Hayseeds and is bass player for Star City's New York buddies The Hangdogs. A native of Elizabeth, PA, Karg wants to say: "Star City is the best band that I've ever been a part of--and, hell, I've been part of dozens!"