When Eric graduated high school in 1990, he went to West Virginia University to study engineering, but that changed. Who does Eric blame?

The Snake Worshippers...

Before his freshman year was out he had formed The Snake Worshippers with Bryan Stealey (editor, Racer X Magazine) and Gregg Lowley (drummer of The Recipe). The band lasted about three months and had a three song demo; "A Date With Mary Jane," "Six Feet Under," and "Not Operates" but had to go their separate musical ways because they knew The Snake Worshippers would never live up to what it needed to be. They knew it was not worthy to convey the message, just as you, dear reader, are probably not even worthy to receive that message. Whatever that message was...

In Eric's sophomore year he thought he should join another band so he bought an electric guitar and called Loren Duffey. Loren said that they weren't looking for a guitar player but they could really use a bass. Eric said "Right, that's what I meant," dug out a bass guitar and joined the band DV8." Alan Kozlay, was the keyboard player.

After a couple of good, odd, crazy years with DV8 the older members graduated. Loren, Alan, and Eric decided to look for another player to do some original stuff and found Greg Riordan. Thus started Hush.

After a year with Hush, Eric decided to form Balloonhead with Gregg Lowley and Mike Walls (I the Low and Lester James and the White Flames). Balloonhead gained a meager following and contributed the opening track on one of the Morgantown Compilation Records released in the mid 1990s.

After Balloonhead, Eric moved to Baltimore, rejoined Hush (with name changed to Once Hush due to legal concerns) and signed a deal with Terri Sommella at Finetune Management. In the five years Once Hush was together, they released three CDs; "Say It Anyway," "New Live Switch," and "Superior Machines."

In 2000, Once Hush called it quits but Eric remained in Baltimore to record his first solo CD "The Speed of Light," then moved to Frederick to record his second album "Clear."

Soon the West Virginia hills were calling him to come home, and here he is again settling back into the WV lifestyle, finding work to support his music addiction, playing with a variety of musicians, building his studio and writing more material.

In 2006 he completed his sixth recording project "Long Walk Home". Says Eric, "Long Walk Home" is a decent album, but the next one is going to really kick ass!

Glen Shaffer is a high energy singer-songwriter-musician. He was born in Grafton, West Virginia and grew up around Bridgeport and Clarksburg. Glen is a self-taught guitarist with a unique style, boundless energy and unstoppable enthusiasm. Glen is well known for his solo acoustic shows all over West Virginia as well as Nashville and played in Crimson Reign with lead vocalist Shannon Shields. He released a solo CD album and a second acoustic album is a possibility.

Glen's composition "Comforting Shoulder" won second place in the July 2004 Song of the Month contest. "Mountain Man" won first place in the Folk category in the 2004 Song of the Year contest and his composition "Song for Jay" recieved honorable mention. He also won first place in Level Two of the Colgate Country Showdown contest with Shannon Shields.

Glen played and sang with Rodney Atkins on the recordings "Honesty" and "Someone To Share It With" and with Mike Walker on the recordings "Honey Do" and "Memphis Women & Chicken". He appeared as an extra in the Montgomery Gentry video "Hell, Yeah" and played on the Food Network's TV show "Forty Dollars a Day in Nashville".

Song of the Year recognized Glen for his exceptional songwriting ability for the song "Mountain Man." Glen competed against songwriters from all over the world for this honor. When asked what inspired the song, Glen commented that "After living in Nashville for three years, on a trip back home I realized where my heart was, in West Virginia."

Jason started as a freelance drummer with various local groups.

He played for several years with Crimson Reign and Glen Shaffer before assuming the drum throne in Long Walk Home. He is a versatile drummer able to play many styles, extremely dedicated to his art and a hard worker.

In 1961, Mike started with The Royals, one of the hottest bands around. It included Bob Schmidt (Mole), Dave Glendenning (Rabbit), Tom Wesman (Weasel), Jom Basile (who passed on), and Mike (Indian Joe). Other bands at that time were PeeWee and the Prophets with Jim Cinalli, The Jokers, Jim Talkington, The Bonnevilles, Johnny Barill and others.

Mike then formed Little Joe and the Monarchs featuring Joey Cerisano, lead singer, now of Silver Bullet fame. Since then Mike played with numerous groups including, Incognito, Shanghai, JB and the Midnighters and countless more.

In the seventies Mike traveled throughout the North-East with a nine-piece horn band called Malebox. a very popular Chicago outfit that recorded a single called "Seasons." During his stint with Malebox, he shared the stage with Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners, David Cassidy, The Jaggers, Biff Rhodes and The Vogues.

Mike has appeared on two CD's with Melofin, local musician and friend Jim Pulice and Crabby Red. He wrote numerous singles including the sports theme for Dave Stingo of WBOY TV.

Mike has a B.A. in music from Fairmont State College and W.V.U. and two masters from W.V.U., one in Music Education and the other in Applied Music. He retired as high school band director after 28 years. Mike has played every instrument in production including all orchestral string instruments.

Mike is a keyboard technician and not just a pianist or organist. He cut his teeth on a Hammond B-3 and Fender Rhodes Piano, but since then keyboards have evolved to the point were he uses a three pound Roland B-3 sound module instead of carrying in a five-hundred pound Hammond B-3 organ.

When his church bought a new Yamaha Clavinova, he recorded about 30 hymns normally played with piano and organ and then layered strings, brass and vocals over top. The piano, strings, brass and synth sounds are real life sampled sounds of baby grands, real orchestras, real voices and real brass and sax sections. That's progress, huh?

Jim Poling is from Parsons, W.Va. and has played with MzBHavin/Long Walk Home off and on for the last year or so. He handles guitar parts, vocals and crowd motivation. His past efforts include Soul Kitchen, No Romance and The Keep, among others. Jim grew up in West Virginia and Ohio and lived in the DC area for years, but loves being back home watching West Virginia's music scene grow. Jim has worked in local music stores and enjoys solving equipment problems for folks just about as much as he does playing !

Laura grew up in West Virginia. Her vocal qualities mimic Janis Joplin and she is very dramatic on stage. She enjoys blues music most but can sing almost anything. She is a newcomer to the music scene and has never been a member of a live touring group, except for sitting in once with Dennis McClung.