The Flat Five

The Flat Five is a Chicago pop vocal group made up of Kelly Hogan, Nora O'Connor, Scott Ligon, Casey McDonough and Alex Hall. All five are working session and touring musicians, and the band began when Ligon and Hogan found an immediate and effortless blend between their voices. Ligon, from Peoria and trained in blues and jazz, fronts NRBQ; Hogan sang with the Atlanta band The Jody Grind before building a Chicago solo and session career that has taken in work with the Mekons, Tortoise and Neko Case; O'Connor is known for her harmony singing with Andrew Bird and Iron and Wine and plays several instruments; McDonough shared lead vocals on the 2017 Pet Sounds tour; and Hall is a drummer rooted in the Chicago jazz scene and its rooms, including the Green Mill. Because the members spend most of the year touring and recording with other artists, among them Mavis Staples, Jakob Dylan, The Decemberists and The New Pornographers, the Flat Five spent years convening only occasionally, which made its Chicago dates function as an event rather than a standing booking. Its recorded output is small and deliberate: It's a World of Love and Hope, released on Bloodshot Records in 2016, and Another World, released on Pravda Records in 2020, a record that took more than a year to finish because sessions had to be fitted around everyone's other commitments. The music is built on close five-part harmony rather than a single lead voice, and the band names influences ranging from the sunshine-pop of The Free Design and the soul of The Three Degrees to Captain Beefheart, a span that accounts for how far the repertoire travels between vintage pop, country, jazz and outright novelty writing. The group plays listening rooms and theaters in the upper Midwest, including the Stoughton Opera House in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

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