Big Boss Sausage started as a novelty act with comedic intentions, but developed into a formidable band, whose music ran the gamut from hard rock and blues to funny, tear-jerking country ballads. Big Boss Sausage, formerly Serf Cowboy Solution, pursued independent ways to express its music. ~Sausage on the Mountain, where the band performed at ~the Hidden Valley resort in Vernon, NJ, in 2001, was the successor to the group's previous annual three-day summer event ~Rampage on the River in Barryville, NY. The band underwent numerous personnel changes since its inception in the early '90s, but at the beginning of 2001, Mingo Lodge (aka Matthew Checkur) was joined in the group by his brother, co-founder, and co-songwriter Dmitri Thomas (aka Thomas Checkur), both hailed from Woodbridge, NJ; bassist Les Keil, from Brooklyn, NY; and drummer Bill Muchler, from Chatham, NJ.