Catfish Haven took its name from the rural trailer park nestled on the southern tip of Missouri where the trio's singer and main songwriter, George Hunter, spent his early childhood.

His father is a welder and, as with many trades, you must go where the work is. So the family packed up and left Catfish Haven for a Chicago suburb.

It was there as a teenager that Hunter met future bandmates Miguel Castillo and Ryan Farnham.

Their friendship was born out of a mutual love of skateboarding and music. After a few months and a move into the city, the three-piece stormed Chicago with a self-financed CD, complete with handmade beer box covers, to begin spreading the gospel of "The Haven".

Word travels fast in the Windy City's music scene, and soon Catfish Haven had intrigued enough people to be invited to play alongside the likes of My Morning Jacket, Daniel Johnston, Kings of Leon and Zwan, flooring audiences with the raw intensity of their live set.

Akin to guitarists/ vocalists like Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty, Hunter, a howling crooner with gravel in his honey-sweetened voice (a la Sam Cooke), is known to strike his acoustic while stomping through each number.

Castillo's pounding bass grooves are heightened when joined by Farnham's forceful, yet tasteful, drumming.

Consider this: howling + pounding = smooth. An improbable equation that Catfish Haven has managed to make work.

So this is it. The guys in Catfish Haven are who they are; there's no room for pretension here.

They play their hearts out for anyone who will listen 'cause they've got a love for music that drives them.

And every note they play is intended to recapture those magical moments back at Catfish Haven.