Benton is a city in and the county seat of Franklin County, Illinois. The population was 6,709 at the 2020 census. In 1839, Franklin County was split roughly in half and the county seat was permanently fixed “at a hill at the south end of Rowling’s Prairie”, the site of the future city of Benton. Benton’s namesake is Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton. The village of Benton was organized in 1841 on 20 acres (8.1 ha) of property donated by John Ewing and Walter S. Akin. In 1902, the village became a city, and incorporated under the mayor/commissioner form of government.
Benton, today with a population of 6,709 people, that’s where we are heading today.
The band Cruces, formed by Derek Cook on vocals, Christopher Fouke on guitars, Danny Wilson on bass and Matt Arms on drums, was around in the early 90s it. They released a tape album in 1991 called “Painted Grey”.
The name of the band seems to be in Spanish and would translate to Crosses. I do a little bit of digging and find a Youtube channel for Chris Fouke were he has uploaded tracks from the album as well of many of his own videos showing his own guitars. It looks like he makes industrial guitars and here in this channel he demoes lap steel playing in different styles.
The songs in the album are “Tapestry of Change“, “A Summer Afternoon“, “The Cabin Song”, “Shade Me Grey“, “Dear Harriet” and “To Touch so Fine” on the A side and “Remember Me”, “The Forbidden“, “Skin“, “So There“, “Peaceful Rock”, “I Tell Myself”, “Thirteen Hours” on the B side. I have linked the ones that are on Youtube. It is important to mention too that “Dear Harriet” is a tribute song to Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays.
The songs from the album were recorded at different periods. So “Thirteen Hours” is from October 1990, “Shade My Grey” and “The Cabin Song” from November 1990, “To Touch So Fire” from December 1990, “Peaceful Rock” from January 1991, “Remember Me” from February 1991, “Skin”, “The Forbidden”, “Dear Harriet” and “So There” from March 1991, “Tapestry of Change” and “A Summer Afternoon” from April 1991 and “I Tell Myself” from June 1991.
The other bit of information we have is that the album was produced by the band and Scott Munson. Scott also is credited as the engineer. The songs were recorded and mixed at Soundcore Studio in Carbondale, Illinois.
The design of the cassette sleeve was done by Todd Freeman and Derek Cook with art by Derek Cook and Christopher Fouke.
On Discogs I looked if any of the band members were listed in other bands, but no, no other bands show up.
And that’s all I could find about them. Anyone remembers them? Did they play much live? Are there any other recordings by the band?
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Listen
Cruces – Dear Harriet
