paul and bob found drummer alan baster at a jazz night, and hired him on. after several auditions for a bass player yielded no results, paul convinced mike to be an interim bass player. the band as a four-piece started hitting chicago area open mic nights and outlying bars, developing their roots-oriented jamband sound and weaving a large amount of reworked grateful dead songs into their sets to supplement the originals being penned by paul, mike and bob. as their audience grew, mike quit being a lawyer and became a full-fledged member.