Enchant

From Mae Dae to The Great Divide

Enchant formed in San Francisco in 1989 after a late-1980s stretch as Mae Dae, the title of a track on their debut. Doug Ott sang lead until 1991, when Ted Leonard replaced him as vocalist and Ed Platt joined on bass; the early line-up also had Paul Craddick on drums and Michael Geimer on keyboards. A Blueprint of the World (1993) came out on the small German label Dream Circle. The band was unhappy with the production by Paul A. Schmidt, so Marillion's Steve Rothery was brought in to co-produce with Ott and Craddick, adding guitars and remixing some songs. Wounded (1996) on InsideOut, produced by Ott, brought new fans, and Time Lost (1997) was released for a tour with Dream Theater. Break (1998) was promoted with Spock's Beard and later Marillion, followed by Juggling 9 or Dropping 10 (2000), Blink of an Eye (2002) and Tug of War (2003).

Sean Flanegan joined on drums in 2002 and Bill Jenkins on keyboards in 2003. The band was filmed on March 13, 2004 at I-Musicast in Oakland, playing a set of 23 songs in about two and a half hours, for Live at Last (October 26, 2004); the DVD was delayed about six months after a mastering error left the first 86 minutes in mono. A European headlining tour in 2005 and the Inside Out 10th Anniversary Tour with Spock's Beard and the California Guitar Trio were their last before a long break. Ott said they never had plans to stop, but setbacks and life events kept interrupting; about 2011 at Leonard's 40th birthday they played five or six Enchant songs and wondered what the hell they were doing.

The Great Divide followed on September 30, 2014, 11 years after Tug of War, produced by Ott. They toured in 2015, played Cruise to the Edge in 2015, 2018 and 2019, and released the 10-CD box A Dream Imagined... (July 20, 2018) for the 25th anniversary of the debut. Setlist.fm lists about 107 setlists from 1993 to 2019, the most played songs "Oasis" (35), "At Death's Door" (29) and "Sinking Sand" (27). Leonard also sings for Spock's Beard and Pattern-Seeking Animals. We found no verified Enchant release after 2018.