Kent County String Band: The Local Spins Live Artist Spotlight (podcast, video)

With a repertoire of acoustic standards from the 1890s to the 1950s, the Grand Rapids quintet oozes a vintage feel in every performance. Next week, the band plays the Tuesday Evening Music Club at Meijer Gardens.

 

Playing turn-of-the-20th-century Americana songs, pre-World War II ditties and bluegrass standards might seem like a dated musical approach appealing to a limited – and aging – audience.

But the Kent County String Band has turned that modus operandi into an infectious, refreshing twist on the New Millennium’s folk and bluegrass revival, captivating young fans as well as older music mavens who grew up with songs such as “All of Me” and “Hong Kong Blues.”

Better yet, there’s an impressive authenticity to the quintet’s performances that even extends to the vintage mandolin played by Tony Shechtman, who started the string band with fiddler Chris Eddy and banjo player James Lorenz in 2008.

“It had this circuitous route back to me,” Shechtman says of the Kalamazoo-made Gibson mandolin he inherited from his grandfather who lived in New Jersey. “There’s this sort of resonance. Doing these traditional tunes has really been a blast. It’s a lot of fun.”

Says Eddy: “We try to keep it as close to something you might see in the ’20s or ’30s as we can. We try to connect with the audience and make sure everyone’s having a fun time. We really just try to keep it true to what you actually might have heard in the old days.”

Interestingly, he adds, “kids love it. You’ll see them dancing around and stuff. We found that going out on the street and just playing in the street, we’ll draw a crowd of every age group and everyone will be having a good time.”

The band – Eddy, Shechtman, Lorenz, bassist Jon Kempston and guitarist Eric Soules (who also plays bass for the DangerVille rockabilly outfit) – adds to its good-time vibe with a passel of novelty tunes and a boisterous attitude.

Four-fifths of the group (Eddy, Shechtman, Lorenz and Soules) brought that spirit to the studios of News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) this week to talk about their music on Local Spins Live and perform a couple of those timeless standards: “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby” and “Alabama Jubilee.” Listen to the podcast here and check out the videos below.

With its members boasting vastly different musical backgrounds and band experiences, the genesis of the Kent County String Band can be traced to a conversation “one night over a couple beers.”

“We decided to do it because no other bands were doing it,” Eddy says of the focus on old-time standards. And just as important, says Shechtman: “We all like different aspects of that kind of music.”

So on any given night, the band will deliver everything from 1929’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” to 1949’s “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”

“We actually I don’t think have quite worked through all the songs that we all separately want to do,” Eddy says. “We all have a backlog of our favorite old tunes that we’ve always loved and want to play.”

On Saturday, they’ll uncork a bunch of “favorite old tunes” at 9 p.m. Saturday at Pub 43, 43 S. Division Ave., following The Market presented on Division Avenue from noon-8 p.m. by the Avenue for the Arts. There’s no cover change.

(Also on Saturday, The Market also will present outdoor performances at 106 S. Division Ave. starting at 3 p.m. with the Wazobia drum ensemble followed by Amanda Anthony, KamiNari, Jake Stilson and FreddyFresh.)

The Kent County String Band also will perform at the next Tuesday Evening Music Club concert at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, along with the Celtic-flavored An Dro. The show begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday; admission is the cost of regular entry into Meijer Gardens ($12 for adults, with discounts for children and seniors).

For more information about the band and upcoming shows, visit the Kent County String Band’s Facebook page.

And check out the last two Local Spins Artist Spotlights here: West Michigan Jazz Musician of the Year Randy Marsh and Grand Rapids’ Ultraviolet Hippopotamus.

Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music