In the late 80s, after years of gigging, personnel changes, and demo tapes, the Chicago-based, Beau O’Reilly-led Maestro finally recorded a cassette designed for sale to the public. Recorded at James Bond’s home studio, the first official Maestro Subgum and the Whole full-length album, A Diamond In The Dumpster, featured songs and players from all over the Maestro history. Musical guests included youthful vocalist Colm O’Reilly, Paul Amandes on banjo, Josh Huppert on violin, and Pat Fleming on guitar. Steve Hashimoto made important contributions, as did former drummer Johnny Machine, but Joe Tech was the only player who actually played live with the band. Several songs also featured Jenny Magnus, who had moved down from Madison, on vocals (and one on flute), though she was not yet a regular performing member of the band.

Available now for the first time on disc, A Diamond In The Dumpster features a band in transition, but the songs are strong, and many of them survived well into future iterations of the Whole. Chamber songs, rock songs, music hall songs – they’re all here.

Originally released in 1987.