When a European record shop asked Lawrence, Kansas-based band The Appleseed Cast to give an acoustic in-store performance, frontman Christopher Crisci wrote a series of new songs for the occasion. Such material formed the basis of Old Canes, a lo-fi project spearheaded by Crisci and performed by a loose group of backing musicians. The band's debut album, Early Morning Hymns, appeared in 2004, and Crisci issued two albums with The Appleseed Cast (2006's