This Week Refestramus New Album “Morri’s Rock Boutique”

Refestramus’ third studio album, “Morri’s Rock Boutique,” is available through Melodic Revolution Records. This nine-track release is available on all streaming media.  Fans can order a the CD with two bonus tracks (“Wasteland Pt. 1” and “Another Country”) at refestramus.bandcamp.com/album/morri-s-rock-boutique .   

Prog UK calls “Morri’s Rock Boutique” “enjoyably vibrant and hooky.”

Echoes and Dust praises the album’s “cinematic landscape with its surrealistic wonders, ghost-town amusement parks, and the haunting ghost that spooks the location”!

Powerplay writes the album features “Grown up prog full of Great musicianship and songwriting.”  

“Morri’s Rock Boutique” charts a path through collapse and illusion toward clarity—where the joke turns serious: right and wrong still exist, and you still answer to them.

A concept album about surviving the absurd—emotionally, spiritually, and politically— “Morri’s Rock Boutique” moves through storms of loss, collapse, and memory toward moments of humor, tenderness, and human connection. Blending folklore, mental health, myth, and modern life into an eclectic progressive-rock soundscape, the record explores the fragile beauty of becoming: not perfection, but refinement.

Across the album, each song presents its own vignette. “Storms” frames a human life like a thunderstorm—powerful, beautiful, and temporary. “The Lucky Ones” nods to the Sermon on the Mount’s upside-down blessings and features Crack the Sky guitarist Rick Witkowski. “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” (feat. Lynx of Old Blood) plays like a David Lynch noir—dreamlike, unstable, and haunted by the question of what’s real and what’s remembered—until the only way out is forgiveness.

“The Cossack’s Dream,” featuring Kansas electric violinist Joe Deninzon, is Refestramus’ English-language adaptation of a traditional Slavic song. “Lakeview Samurai” is a surreal character sketch set in Chicago—part satire, part fever dream. “Hell or NYC?” features Van der Graaf Generator saxophonist David Jackson, leaning into the album’s vertigo and dark comedy.

The record’s culminating epic, “Deathless,” draws on Slavic folklore’s Kashchey the Deathless—a figure who feeds on conflict and feels at home in the smoke of war—unfolding as a three-part suite: “Above Volokov’s Mill,” “Goodbye, America!,” and “And He Always Will.”

“Morri’s Rock Boutique” is produced by Ian Beabout, mostly in Dan Bozek’s studio at Aardvark Productions in Steubenville, Ohio. The group Refestramus is a Chicago-based progressive rock project blending literate songwriting, political reflection, and classic prog influences. Led by Derek Ferguson (songwriter, drums), Refestramus features Jan Christiana (vocals/keys/guitars/bass) and Dyanne Potter Voegtlin (keys/vocals) of Octarine Sky, with Mitch Lawrence (saxophones, clarinet).  

Refestramus are booking concerts and have confirmed they’ll be returning to the International Pop Overthrow in Chicago at the Montrose Saloon on April 25.

Track-list:
1. Storms 04:33
2. The Cossack’s Dream (feat. Joe Deninzon) 05:37
3. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (feat. Lynx) 07:37
4. Lakeview Samurai (feat. Nam Chumo) 04:15
5. Hell or NYC? (feat. David Jackson) 06:02
6. Deathless (incl. Above Volkov’s Mill, Goodbye America! and He Always Will 08:32
7. The Lucky Ones (feat. Rick Witkowski) 04:21
8. Wasteland, pt1 04:19
9. Another Country 04:02
Total Running Time: 47:98 Minutes

Musicians
Ian Beabout – Production, Mixing, Mastering, and Screaming “Watch out for the katana!”
Derek Ferguson – Drums and Screaming “Hey buddy, shut the fuck up!”
Mitch Lawrence – Clarinet and Saxes

Associated Artists – Special Guests:
Jan Christiana – Bass, Guitars, Keyboards, and Vocals (Tracks 1-3, 5-7)
Dyanne Potter Voegtlin – Keyboards and Vocals (Tracks 1-3, 5-7)
Dyanne Voegtlin and Jan Christiana appear courtesy of Octarine Sky
octarinesky.com
Arrangements by Refestramus and Jan Christiana
Derek Pavlic – Additional Guitars (Tracks 1-4) and Viola (Track 2)
Dan Bozek – Additional Bass (Track 4)
Tanaka Seijin ( ⽥ 中 正 ⼈ – Shamisen, Koto, and Shakuhachi (Track  4 ）
Cover art by Refestramus and Veseli ć &Veseli ć
Produced by Ian Beabout and Refestramus

All words and music by Derek Ferguson, except:
“The Cossack’s Dream” – traditional Russian song, lyrics translated by Derek Ferguson

Mixed and Mastered by Ian Beabout at ShedSounds Recordings
Recorded Feb-May 2025: Aardvark Productions & The Rec Room, Steubenville, OH: Studio L, Weirton, WV; Uberwald Elektroakustik Chicago, Il
Engineered by Ian Beabout, Jan Christiana, Dan Bozek, and Rick Witkowski
©2025. Published by Refestramus Music Publishing.
Licensed to and Distributed by Melodic Revolution Records

Meet Refestramus’ Main Instrumentalists in New Music Video, “Side Hustle” Stay in touch with Band Muse, the Amazing Agent M!

Refestramus’ new music video “Side Hustle, from the group’s “Intourist” album, introduces the Refestramus’ instrumental members (drummer/composer/wizard Derek Ferguson, guitarist/bassist Derek Pavlic, producer/flute player Ian Beabout, and saxophonist Mitch Lawrence - saxes) and continues exposing the on camera life of the band’s muse, the Amazing Agent Mikrovolnovka! 

The song, “Side Hustle” presents a multitude of entendres. Derek notes that as “side hustles” are “little entrepreneurial efforts that people try while they are working their main jobs – hoping to find some way of becoming their own bosses.  Then there’s the phrase ‘side piece, which I’m told refers to someone with whom someone is having an affair. I think the protagonist of the song is trying to convince the object of their affection – a noble person– to think of an affair not so much as becoming a ‘side piece’ that it’s ‘only’ a ‘side hustle.’”  In the video it’s Agent M when she’s undercover -- first as an accountant and then as a librarian.  Those were her ‘side hustles.’” 
 
The song, which originally recorded on Colouratura’s recent album "WTF Was That?!." Was inspired while Derek was walking his dog, and thinking it was a great piece for his band, Refestramus…. But then he remembered that Colouratura’s Ian Beabout played flute. "So, the song itself has become a kind of side hustle for me.’” 

ProgUK says “Intourist” is “likeable, uplifting… a home-cooked slice of melody rich prog.” They conclude that “… the smile on its face is infectious.”

Progressor.net calls “Intouríst” a “love letter to the music and spirit of the 1970s” that is “worth a check”

Refestramus.  Named after a word his mother made up to mean “rearrange,” Derek and his producer – Colouratura’s Ian Beabout – liked it because it wasn’t a legitimate word. “A web search will only turn up our band!”

Refestramus was born May 2020 as Derek’s home studio project during the COVID pandemic. Having been in a variety of progressive rock bands in his native Chicago and an avid listener of Ian Beabout’s Internet radio program “Prog Rock Deep Cuts,” he reached out to Ian to mix and master the recordings. Ian, who plays flute and sings on some tracks on Intourist, introduced Derek to Colouratura bandmates Derek Pavlic and Nathan James, Saxophonist Mitch Lawrence and Wisconsin multi-instrumentalist Jerry King, who plays bass on Intourist. Adding prog multi-instrumentalist Dave Newhouse, who contributed accordion, helped Derek Ferguson guide the album to completion.

Refestramus’ debut album, "Decoupage," was released in December of 2021. In 2022, Refestramus released the EP, "From the Sublime to the Ridiculous."