The Exoneree Band Inspires at Cleveland’s House of Blues

The Exoneree Band, a rock group made up of five wrongfully convicted and exonerated men, headlined last Thursday at Cleveland’s House of Blues. The New York Times featured their coverage of the concert on the front page of Wednesday’s arts section.

William Dillon, Eddie Lowery, Darby Tillis, Raymond Towler and Antoine Day formed the Exoneree Band in 2010 and first performed at the Innocence Network Conference in Cincinnati in 2011. When Tillis died in 2014, Ted Bradford took over in his stead. Together the exonerees write and perform songs about injustice and their own wrongful convictions.

“We do our music and share our stories basically to stay sane,” bassist Eddie Lowery told the Times. “Each of us comes from somewhere different culturally and musically, but we all do songs that talk about what happened in our lives.”

Grammy-winning producer Jim Tulio, who produced Dillon’s 2014 solo album, told the Times he hopes to produce a full-scale musical featuring the music of the Exoneree Band as well as the stories of each man’s wrongful conviction. Until then, the band continues to inspire on a smaller scale with performances such as Thursday’s.

“These guys’ stories are amazing,” Michael Donnelly, a Cuyahoga County common pleas judge, told the Times. “Beyond their music, which is pretty good, they make me, as an officer of the court, want to fix the system.”

Read the full Times coverage here.

Listen to music by Eddie Lowery

Listen to music by Raymond Towler

Listen to music by Bill Dillon’s

Band members Eddie Lowery, Ted Bradford, Antoine Day, William Dillon, and Raymond Towler outside the Cleveland House of Blues. Courtesy of the Exoneree Band.

Related: Exonerees Use Their Music to Shine Light on Wrongful Convictions