Like A Freight Train is the 6th release from The Giving Tree Band (available April 7) and paired with a concert film of the same name. This new live album embodies the Illinois band's imaginative American rock 'n roll with their finest songwriting and musical versatility on display. It features past favorites, new originals and soulful covers of songs by legendary artists Jackson Browne, The Who, and the Grateful Dead. Powered by gratitude, this train is full-steam ahead.

With nothing to prove and only something sincere to share, The Giving Tree Band love what they do and approach their craft like a sacred art. This includes tuning all their instruments precisely sharp in order to access hidden yet wonderfully potent tones that trace back to an ancient mythology of healing and miracles. Their musical strings vibrate in alignment with natural cycles of the Earth and Moon, and this frequency of love and message of harmony resonates the heart strings of many thousands of people from all walks of life.

The band has had many unique opportunities to connect with all kinds of music lovers and grow a community of "Giving Treehuggers." Going back to 2010, their third studio album (The Joke, The Threat And The Obvious) climbed into the Top 40 of the Americana Airplay Chart and other roots radio. This helped establish the band as a promising folk rock act to many in the country world who could appreciate the crossover stylings of some influences like Kris Kristofferson, The Band, The Byrds, Gram Parsons/Flying Burrito Brothers or The Eagles. And so, the group hit the road and toured extensively for years straight.

In 2012, a spontaneous and inspiring winter collaboration with singer/songwriter Joe Purdy at the Auditorium Theatre for the Chicago Bluegrass And Blues Festival lead to a full summer tour of packed concert halls across the eastern United States and Canada including back to back sold out shows in NYC at the Bowery Ballroom and City Winery. The Giving Tree Band opened each night and then served as Joe's backing band. In 2013, the GTB was invited on a run through the Midwest with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and again at ESMZ's first Big Top Festival in Los Angeles. These tours exposed the band to larger indie and alternative audiences. Additionally, the band appeared at major music fests like SXSW, Wakarusa and Forecastle with standout performances at folk and roots fests such as Philly Folk Fest, Four Corners, Old Settlers, and ROMP.

Perhaps, the band's most interesting turn came with a rendition of the Grateful Dead's "Brown-Eyed Women." The accompanying music video was entered into the Dead Covers Project and won. Words of appreciation came from Jerry Garcia's songwriting partner Robert Hunter, and it was praised by the Dead organization as "beautifully executed on all counts." The version of the song was featured on the Grateful Dead official sites and social media pages along with many radio programs. The video was also screened at theaters nationwide during the Dead's annual "Meetup At The Movies." The song itself was featured on The Giving Tree Band's critically-acclaimed 4th studio album, Vacilador, and ranked #1 on The Austin Chronicle's "Best Songs Of 2012" list. Most importantly, Deadheads around the world warmly welcomed The GTB to their passionate family.

Formed in 2004 by enigmatic brothers E and Todd Fink, The Austin Chronicle explains the band's sound as bringing to mind "Seventies American music with The Band and the Dead as obvious touchstones, plus the kind of country/almost-bluegrass of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and the New Riders of the Purple Sage." Metromix called The Giving Tree Band "the American answer to Mumford And Sons." Relix Magazine wrote "the folksy bliss is the sound of a group playing as one" and featured the band as one of their monthly artists "On The Verge." They've been the monthly "Player Spotlight" in Acoustic Guitar Magazine while multiple nods have come from Paste Magazine, including a #9 ranking on a list of "13 Emerging Bands For 2013" among many other media features.

When off the road, the members of GTB all reside at "Crooked Creek" - their home and studio outside Chicago named after the street where it sits. There, they have meticulously honed their craft, devoting thousands of hours to practice, experimentation, and the development of a sound greater than the sum of its parts. At the same time, music has always been just one component of their life as art. The Brothers Fink (E - guitars and lead vocals and Todd - banjos and lead vocals) are joined by longtime friend Norm Norman (mandolin, piano, guitar, organ and high harmonies) and the long-haired rhythm section of college roommates, Charlie Karls and "Z", on bass and drums, respectively.

"The Giving Tree Band is a rare grouping of individuals who refuse to be kept from their goals. Every aspect of their lives is innately tuned, like the tip of a spear, carving a clear path and meeting little resistance on the air. All the effort, the life force of the band, comes to fruition on the stage. When they're diving around like ninjas in a kung fu film while playing delicately crafted musical treasures, there is a lifetime of work that is condensed into those fleeting moments. The professional integrity that The Giving Tree Band practices is unequaled, and it is firmly rooted in a house at the end of Crooked Creek." -Jambase