The Only Children

Hard as it may be to imagine, emo has been around long enough as a musical style that not only are there second- and third-generation emo bands, there are now bands that could logically be dubbed "post-emo," such as the Only Children. The Only Children's leader, Josh Berwanger, was guitarist and singer for the Lawrence, KS, emo stalwarts the Anniversary from 1997 to 2004. Over the course of two albums and a blizzard of singles and split EPs, the Anniversary were the textbook definition of emo, down to having been discovered by scene godfather Matthew Pryor of the Get Up Kids and being signed to the canonical emo label Vagrant Records. But when the Anniversary split in early 2004, Berwanger, bassist James David, and drummer Christian Jankowski formed a new band, Josh Berwanger & the Holy Ghosts, with Canadian Heidi Lynne Gluck (also one-third of Some Girls with Juliana Hatfield and Freda Love) on accordion and organ, Hot Rod Circuit's Casey Prestwood on pedal steel, and blues guitarist T.K. Webb. Those three new members pointed toward Berwanger's new, rootsy Americana direction. Soon renaming themselves the Only Children, the band released its warmly countrified debut, Change of Living, in the fall of 2004, but after an extended tour, Webb returned to his solo career and David and Jankowski left the band. Retaining Gluck and Prestwood and adding new guitarist Ricky Salthouse and drummer Ryan Benton, the Only Children returned with their second album, Keeper of Youth, in the spring of 2007.