TVD Recommends | Thornley & Friends, The One Year Anniversary, Monday (2/1) at Solly's Tavern

John Thornley’s Monday night outing at Solly’s, Thornley & Friends, celebrates its one year anniversary this coming Monday night (2/1) and it’s not only spawned a fine evening of spontaneous music in its lifetime, but a brand new collaborative whose track streams below. John gives us the back-story:

"So this is a little collaboration between John & Paul Thornley, Matthew Hemerlein, and Ryan Mitchell called The Four Horsemen. We play mainly guitar, ukelele, banjo, violin, mandolin and whatever else we can carry around on our stagecoach. We play a mix of originals, gospel/spiritual tunes, blues, and 80's power pop.

This number is a tune John Thornley wrote on a borrowed ukelele from Ryan Mitchell while at home for the holidays. Everyone then pitched in on several different instruments until we came up with the song you hear now. It's just a demo version but we thought it would be fun to stream it to promote the show on Monday.


Named after the four great Notre Dame linebackers in the 1920's, The Four Horsemen have no relation to these men, just admirers. A perennial group comprised of, John & Paul Thornley(1), Matthew Hemerlein(2), and Ryan Hunter Mitchell(3) formerly of Deer Wolf(4), their live shows are seldom performed beyond the confines of their chateau in Montreal. With a keen knowledge of Russian(5) literature, The Four Horsemen lyricist writes strictly on such topics. This show will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to broaden your musical horizons. There will be sing alongs.

Also opening up the gig is good friend Sonny Kilfoyle, "Sonny Boy", from NYC via Boston. Previously in acclaimed bands such as "Blonde Acid Cult" and "Calypso", he will be making his debut solo appearance this Monday in DC."

Doors: 8:30pm | Cover: $5



(Thanks to BYT for the streaming link!)

1. It should be mentioned at this time that the Thornleys, John (1982- ) Paul (1984- ) are brothers by birth and any other rumours to the contrary are suspicious.
2. Mathew Hemmerlein (1983- ) was awarded the Tchaikovsky Award of Honor for his aptitude in violin, but donated his award to various charities.
3. Ryan Hunter Mitchell IV (1984- ) is a recent novelist and world expeditionary.
4. Deer Wolf (tm) is a fictional band with no offense intended to bands such as Deer Tick, Deer Hunter, WolfMother, Wolf Parade or Owl City.
5. Russian in the soviet sense. Referring but not limited to Czech, Ukrainian and other Cyrillic based languages.