Music fans across the Northeast are talking about CNY-based The Unknown Woodsmen - Phil Muka, Casey King, Pete Dawes, Kevin Whitlock, and Zac Doob - who draw from the classic sounds of rock to create their own blues-reggae flavor of infectious rock grooves.  

Since its inception in 2011, the band has spent countless hours honing their signature sound and tirelessly gigging throughout the Northeast.  Whether it is their crafty hooks, old-school grooves, or energetic stage presence, The Unknown Woodsmen have been captivating crowd after crowd at well-respected venues.  Woodsmen fans, or “Woodspeople” (as they are affectionately referred to by the band), seem to come from incredibly diverse musical listening backgrounds, yet are somehow all able to converge and groove in complete solidarity at shows.

For 8 years, this dedicated crew of musical circus-ninjas has been hitting different cities and rocking faces across the Northeast.  They’ve shared the bill at shows and festivals with musical greats such as Rusted Root, Ryan Montbleau, Wild Adriatic, The Budos Band, Jimkata, Spiritual Rez, Sophistafunk, Funktional Flow, Driftwood, Big Mean Sound Machine as well as many others.  In the summer of 2014 the band launched an Indiegogo campaign to let fans pre-order, and thereby fund, their first full-length studio album, “Beauty in the Machine.” Over the course of the campaign they raised over $5500 and were able to release the album on December, 26th, 2014 to a packed-house crowd of over 300 people in the band’s hometown of Cortland, NY.  A month after its release, “Beauty in the Machine” was one of five albums nominated for “Best Rock Album of the Year” at the prestigious Syracuse Area Music Awards (SAMMY’s).

The Unknown Woodsmen have played high profile venues including The Westcott Theater (Syracuse, NY), Rockwood Music Hall (NYC), Papermill Island Amphitheater (Baldwinsville,NY), Oneonta Theater (Oneonta, NY), The Saranac Brewery (Utica, NY), Grassroots Presents: Big Splash Sustainability Weekend (Owego, NY), Sterling Stage Folkfest (Sterling, NY), and the Taste of Syracuse Fesival (Syracuse, NY).  Their music has been played across the central NY area on radio stations such as 95X Syracuse, 91.7 WICB Ithaca, I100 Classic Rock (Cortland and Ithaca), 96.7 The Vine, 97.7FM Fulton, and 88.1 WRFI Ithaca.