Much like Five for Fighting or Dashboard Confessional both musically and in theory, Secondhand Serenade is a project name for a solo artist, singer⁄songwriter John Vesely. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in a musical family that included his professional jazz musician father, Vesely spent a number of dues-paying years in a variety of local bands before switching from bass to acoustic guitar and beginning to write his own songs. (In his official artist bio, Vesely claims that the inspiration for the band name Secondhand Serenade is the fact that all of his autobiographical songs are directed first and foremost to his wife, thereby making the audience mere bystanders to their pas de deux<⁄i>; he seems not to notice that some potential listeners might find this attitude a bit condescending.) Vesely recorded his debut album, Awake, in 2005, originally self-releasing the disc and selling it through his MySpace page and iTunes. Online buzz led to a deal with Glassnote Records, a pseudo-indie funded and distributed by the Warner Bros. offshoot The Independent Label Group. Glassnote released an expanded version of Awake in February 2007. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide