VERONIQUE

Don Hammontree is a prolific songwriter and musician based in Salem, MA who has recorded seven albums worth of original material since 1997, and is in the process of recording his eighth, slated for release in 2025. Influenced by artists as diverse as U2, Ritchie Blackmore, Chicago, Liz Story, Miles Davis, Shawn Colvin and Vince Guaraldi, Hammontree started playing keyboards at 14 and picked up guitar shortly afterwards. He started writing songs around the age of 16 and performed/recorded them with his band The Stalins in the few places his hometown of Peoria, IL allowed underage bands to play. After graduating from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a B.A. in English in 1992, Hammontree performed with the punk trio Sharp Round Edges before forming the alternative pop band 6 Feet Over, which played bars and clubs throughout the Chicago area and recorded two CDs of Hammontree’s compositions, “Another Day Like Today” in 1997 and “This” in 1999. After relocating to Massachusetts in the year 2000, Hammontree started performing acoustic gigs around New England as a solo artist, while also releasing three CDs under his own name, “Mount Hope Days” in 2003; “The Mumbai EP” in 2005; and “Brutalist School” in 2010. Eager to start playing lead guitar again, Hammontree formed the pop/punk trio Bad Fogelberg (named as a tribute to singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg, a fellow Peorian and alum of Hammontree’s high school), which released their self-titled debut CD in 2017. During the 2020 pandemic, Hammontree started writing more keyboard-oriented pieces, eventually recording them under the name Why England Slept with the assistance of Bad Fogelberg drummer Eric Roebuck. A mix of post-rock, jazz, new age and prog influences, the band released its debut CD, “House of Pizza,” in 2024. In addition to his musical work, Hammontree is a painter, writer and former journalist. He is married and has four children.