The band of musicians known as Moving Star came together in New York's Hudson Valley in the latter half of the nineties.  The story goes like this.
    In July 1995 JANET HAMILL opened for  Patti Smith  at Summerstage in Central Park.  In the audience were BOB TORSELLO and JAY LORUBBIO, AKA two-thirds of  Shrubs.  (Shrubs is a NY/NJ bar band planted in the mid-Hudson soil in 1994.)  In October Bob went into Jyl Fox's Village Bookstore in Goshen, NY to order a copy of Janet's book Nostalgia of the Infinite.  Jyl told Bob that Janet was a local author and that she worked right down the street at the Goshen Library.  Pleasantly surprised by this bit of serendipity, Bob decided to go over to the library and introduce himself on Thanksgiving weekend.  Over the next year or so Bob made frequent visits to the library and a friendship developed.  Bob suggested that Janet try reading her poetry to Shrubs music.  But Janet was totally involved with fiction writing then, so any collaboration had to be deferred.
    In February 1997 Janet presented the first of her Poetry Festivals at the library and invited Shrubs to close out the proceedings.  Bob asked Janet to read with Shrubs that day, but she still wasn't ready.  Undaunted, Bob pursued the idea over the next few months, and on July 4th, Janet, backed by Bob Torsello (bass), Jay LoRubbio (guitar), and Rob Takleszyn (drums), performed three of her poems with Shrubs on the library's front lawn.
    After that there was no stopping the partnership.  In late August Janet went off to Ireland for the Liss Ard Festival with Patti and her band.  She did a set there with  Lenny Kaye  accompanying her on guitar.  When she got back to Goshen she read with Bob and Jay - Shrubs sans Tak who lives in Jersey -  at the Village Bookstore.  On December 12, 1997 Janet and Shrubs (again sans Tak) had their NYC debut at St. Marks Church, with Lenny joining in on guitar on the last three poems.
    Moving Star became official in February 1998 when the band, backing Janet, was introduced as such for the first time at the Goshen Library Poetry Festival.  Bob and Jay chose the name, taking the title from one of Janet's poems.  Moving Star was a twosome then, playing with Janet at poetry venues in the Hudson Valley.  When   Bob Holman  asked JH and M. Star to headline his "Shut the F***k Up" Spoken Word Festival on Memorial Day weekend at the Knitting Factory, Bob T. and Jay decided it was time to have a permanent drummer.  SEAN HEALY - a neighbor of Jay's and a musician Bob had worked with in the singer  Ariel's band, was asked to come on board.  Sean played at the Knitting Factory.  It was an exciting performance, made all the more so by a surprise appearance by Patti on clarinet.
    In 2000 Janet and the band released their first spoken word CD, Flying Nowhere.  Lenny Kaye produced the recording (with Bob Holman acting as executive producer) at two separate locations - a remote shack on top of a mountain in the Minnewaska Preserve and a brand new state-of-the-art studio in Chelsea.  Patti came to Chelsea to record two brilliant clarinet cameos and Lenny made magic with an oud solo on "La Messagere Nocturne."  EVAN TEATUM, also of Ariel's band, came to the mountaintop to lay keyboard tracks on a number of pieces.  Evan's sound made such a significant addition that he was later asked by the band to become the fourth member.
    In September 2002 Sean Healy gracefully bowed out of Moving Star to committ himself full-time to teaching.  A few months later GREG FELLER(Jay's young cousin) became the drummer for Moving Star.  In his early twenties, Greg is already a veteran drummer, playing regularly with the Armedelite Rifles, a great Orange County punk band with roots in the music of the Clash and the Jam.
    From 1998 to the present Janet Hamill and Moving Star have performed consistently at venues in New York City, the Hudson Valley, and beyond, including Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival, the Kerouac Celebration in Lowell, MA, the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, and the People's Poetry Gathering and First Annual HOWL Festival in NYC.
    Janet and the band will soon be heading into Evan's Gung Ho Studio to record CD number two.

Read Janet and Bob's interview with the   Rocknrollcurmudgeon    in "Rhythm n News."