Watershed // Shazy Hade // Coolhand Band

Watershed

Formed in 1985 by Colin Gawel (vocals and guitar), Joe Oestreich (vocals and bass), and Herb Schupp (drums) while they were still in high school, Watershed signed with Epic Records in the early nineties. After the release of a live EP and a studio album (1995’s Twister), Epic dropped the band. Many artists would have broken up at that moment, but Watershed—owing to equal parts optimism and stubbornness—found a new drummer (Dave Masica) and kept plowing forward, producing their best work, including the albums TheMore it Hurts, The More it Works;Fifth of July; and their most recent studio effort, 2024’s Blow it Up Before it Breaks. Thanks to significant airplay on WWCD, tracks from these albums cemented the band’s place in the annals of Ohio music.

Watershed’s journey from rock’s minor leagues to the majors and back—and their refusal to call it quits—is the subject of Hitless Wonder, which Donald Ray Pollock called “the best and most honest memoir about the thwarted desire for rock stardom that you will ever read.” Oestreich has published three additional nonfiction books, including Lines of Scrimmage (w/Scott Pleasant), Partisans, and Waiting to Derail (w/Thomas O’Keefe, about Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown). He’s currently working on his debut novel, Southbound, while teaching at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC.

For his part, Gawel has been relentlessly performing as both a solo artist and with his backing band The League Bowlers. He also founded the band Why Isn’t Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? while another of his projects, Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine, led to the city of Columbus naming a street Willie Phoenix Way, after the legendary Columbus rocker. He also runs a website called Pencilstorm and works seven days a week at his small shop, Colin’s Coffee.

Shazy Hade

Madison, Wisconsin

Coolhand Band