Due to the fact that I need a new camera and the stage lights in the Black Flower need some adjustments, this picture is about two thirds of the whole band. But it was definitely a good shot of Eric Chessen. Eric shares the lead guitar spot with Charlie Chamberlin. It's fun to see these guys play; their styles are almost night and day but, it's very complimentary. Two extremely talented players; Eric lead style is bit more rock and roll and Charlie, who also plays the mandolin, has sort of a bluegrass twinge- lightly dancing on the strings compared to Eric's ability to shred the neck from the bottom to the top in one swift movement.
I'm gonna go with sort of the jam / party description for this band. They're doing a bunch of originals coated with a wide variety of covers. This of course puts them in a pretty flexible position of playing festivals, and bars alike. For this show they were even networking w/ Tennessee Jed, a sort of bluegrass / folk artist from Asheville. Jed's got a powerful voice with a great range and it was good to see him get up and play a couple of songs with the band.
But, before that, and after that- the singing is left up to Scott Davenport. I think Scott's voice is what gives this band the Widespread Panic feel. His voice and sort of rough and tumble and mixes great with the grooves served up by the shuffling guitars and the very tight rhythm section.
So on the drums and bass it's Conal Veazey and James Mitchell. You can tell these guys do it for the love of music and it shows. They both of a big bag of tricks and a tight sound for the pocket - it never seems to fancy and it's always fun. They do a great job of holding everything down - event when the band does these crazy unison licks while they're changing gears of headed for a big finish.
Hey, these guys are playing on the Fourth of July down a Carolina Beach festival/park party! - I got a bad bug for the beach this year - I'm there!
Great show, Thanks guys.
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