The resident filk band of Archon (regional St. Louis MO SF & F Convention), The Unusual Suspects formed officially in June of 2011. The founding members of the band are “Magic Mark” Ewbank, Bari “Barigato” Greenberg, Sandra “LadyCat” Greenberg and Valerie “The Wanderer” Ritchie. They are often joined by Gary “Mo Filker” Hanak as guest musician/vocalist and David Greenberg as guest vocalist/drummer.
The members had been part of the core of Archon filking for years, performing not only in the Bardic Circles of the Archon open filk but, thanks to Gary Hanak, in round robin concerts at Archon. After performing in Chicago at the request of DucKon, the four decided to formally declare themselves a group and, as opposed to being referred to by Archon programming as “you know, the usual suspects” decided there was nothing usual about them, and thus The Unusual Suspects was born.
The group’s first CD titled Accidental Filk Band is available on this page. It is aptly titled since the group did form a bit by accident. They credit Gary “Mo Filker” Hanak with bringing them together, for which he refuses to take the credit and/or the blame. (Which is still being debated.)