Feedback -- Emma Gibbs Band

From the April 2000 issue
"My landlady is a double amputee; she has nothing from the knees down," says Emma Gibbs Band vocalist/guitarist Richard Upchurch. We're discussing how music, at its very best, can affect not only hearing but the other senses as well. Upchurch continues, "This lady is like 70 years old and she listens to anything -- rap, metal, you name it. I take her to get her prescriptions once a week. The other day I went to get her and I opened the door and she was sitting there all by herself drinking a beer, listening to Kris Kristofferson. I said, 'What are you doing?' She says, 'I'm having a beer with Kris Kristofferson.'" Upchurch smiles.	Richard Upchurch (guitar) and Brent Buckner
It's slices of life like this that move the music of Emma Gibbs Band. Every band is into music, of course, but Emma Gibbs Band seem to be into it a little more than most. Talking to Upchurch after a show at Smith's Olde Bar the guitarist's conversation is a pastiche of moments of musical revelation. Still on the topic of music affecting the senses he cites a concert by violinist Stephan Grapelli. "Grapelli was about 90 years old and couldn't even walk onto the stage, but when he played...," Upchurch shakes his shaved head with disbelief, "I could close my eyes and see color. That's the kind of music I want to make."	Jeff Remsburg, bass -- the band is named after his grandmama!
Emma Gibbs Band began making music in Chapel Hill, North Carolina around 1996. The lineup consists of Richard Upchurch along with Brent Buckner on harmonica, Drew Cannon on lead guitar, Andrew LaVasseur on drums and Jeff Remsburg on bass. Mandolinist and co-lead singer Will Straughan was still in college in Illinois and didn't join the band until later that year. Upchurch says that touring the jam band circuit was not a goal when the group first formed. "When we got together we were extemely young. These guys were in high school and we got together just to jam. There was no vision of, 'Hey, let's hit the road.' It was all about hanging out and playing music," he says. The name came from bassist Jeff Remsburg's grandmother, who opened her home as the band's first practice space.
Emma Gibbs' primary influence was not a person, but a place. Upchurch says that a club called Ziggy's Tavern in Winston-Salem introduced the band to a number of influential, now mega-star acts, "Ziggy's has been a huge draw for a lot of music: Widespread Panic, Phish, you name it. Major acts have all been there and packed the house for years. I remember seeing Widespread with Dave Matthews; Colonel Bruce, Doc Watson..," Upchurch recalls. Eventually the band's music began to take a pronounced folk-rock turn, "It just evolved into taking rock n' roll, bluegrass and blues and blending them together."
The band had recorded one self-titled CD when Richard Upchurch called his friend Will Straughan and invited him to join the band on mandolin. Only one hitch -- "I didn't play mandolin at the time," Straughan says. He quickly learned the instrument and began sharing lead vocal duties with Upchurch (Straughan also plays trumpet, dobro and lap steel).
Straughan says audiences have always embraced the band's music, but at first they didn't seem to be sure how to react to it, "A couple of years ago when we got onstage people would listen and were like, 'This is cool but we don't know whether we should boogie to this, or is this a jam song, or a "song-song" focused around the words?' I think its evolved into almost a kind of a mood that people are attracted to."	Drew Cannon, Paul Reed Smith guitar
Audiences soon figured out how to react and the band quickly began to gain notice around the Southeast, scoring side stage dates on the 1998 H.O.R.D.E. tour and opening for James Taylor on New Year's Eve in Raleigh. More recently they sold out a show at the Lion's Den in New York City, a 350 capacity club. They've also already found a certain place in music history by being included in the book, Jam Bands: a Guide to North America's Hottest Live Bands by Dean Budnick, who also founded Jambands.com.
The band first came to this writer's attention opening for Georgia favorites the Urban Shakedancers and Day By the River. Though only the opening act, the Gibbers threw down a serious groove that threatened to blow the headliners off the stage (and when I say that about a band in comparison with the Shakedancers you know I mean bidness!).	Will Straughan, mandolin and lead vocal
Watching Emma Gibbs perform at the Brandy House for Z-93's The Dunhams radio show, however, the hippie set on hand seems to be having the reaction Straughan described. They're either sitting at their tables or standing still and just listening, which is unusual for the Brandy House crowd. The band is tight but the feel of the show is generally low-key. The show a week later at Smith's Olde Bar makes the case for what a little energy from the crowd can do. The moment the curtain opens Emma Gibbs Band hits the stage like a harmonica-powered MX missle, forcing khaki pants conservatives and sandal-wearers alike to shout and shimmy.
Straughan and Upchurch point out that Emma Gibbs' music is as much about songs as it is dance grooves or solos, which cannot be said for everyone labelled a "jam band." "It's a pretty nice combination of a lot of elements, which is something I don't think you experience at every show," Upchurch explains, "A lot of bands, you go and its two hours of jamming. Other bands you go and its two hours of hanging onto every word. With the Emma Gibbs Band you get a little bit of everything. There are some nice, solid jams in there that just let you release and then there are songs that are really built around stories that we're trying to tell."
What's striking about the Gibbers' music is that it sounds as much Star Bar/alternative country as it does jamm-y. Envision the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" harmonies crashing into Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Looking Out My Back Door" homespun funk. Straughan and Upchurch cite a number of alternative country singers as inspiration including John Prine, Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen. Straughan even says he's become a pretty avid reader of No Depression, the alternative country magazine, "The deeper you get into that the more you get into different labels like Bloodshot, all those guys out of Chicago; some very, very cool bands. That all comes from the punk scene but it's still people who appreciate music a lot and who are die-hard and don't want to sell out. That aspect to me is always awesome because the people really believe in the bands they're buying and the music that they're sharing with other people."
For a taste of the band's tunes check out their new CD, SevenEven. Upchurch says R.E.M. was a favorite of his growing up, and Emma Gibbs Band's second album was produced by R.E.M. producer John Keane. Upchurch recalls the band was chased out of the studio one night to make way for Michael Stipe to record vocals for a tune for the film "Man On the Moon." As well as superstar producer Keane the album features fiddling from David Blackmon, ex-Blueground Undergrasser and occassional Widespread Panic fiddle man. "It was a great experience for all of us," Upchurch remembers. "I mean the guy's a legend. He comes in and picks up Will's mandolin and they just have a jam. He felt our music. He felt what we were trying to accomplish."
Someone else who seemed to have felt what Emma Gibbs Band was trying to accomplish was Relix magazine reviewer Mick Skidmore. In the March/April 2000 issue Skidmore wrote of SevenEven, "What a breath of fresh air it is!...If 'Travelin' Tune' or 'Unstuck' don't liven up your day, then nothing will...I can't say enough good things about this album. More, please!"
More is just what Emma Gibbs Band want to give their ever-growing audience. "We've done this grass roots so far. We're trying to draw people who love music across the board. We're in this as musicians and songwriters," Richard Upchurch concludes. "Just keep pluggin' away and hope for the best, focus on the music, look inward and get down great songs for the future."