With the official release of its debut full-length this week,
Columbia’s Papa String Band has finally delivered on the promise it’s
demonstrated since forming six years ago as an acoustic duo featuring
Daron Labruyere and Brett Mello. Gradual additions — Will Smith on
keyboards; Gary Bishop on bass; Mike Fore on harmonica; Jackson Wools
on percussion; and Chris Jones on drums — have transformed the group
into an expansive seven-piece outfit that can tackle everything from
faux-reggae grooves to blues, bluegrass, country rock and plenty in
between.
“It has all been a work in progress up to this point as we continued
to find the people we needed in the band,” Mello says. “We still learn
new stuff about each other every day, too.” ....
The biggest thing the band had to learn to record the new album, Mello says, is how to play together in a studio.....
“It’s a very different experience, but it was kind of fun,” Mello
admits. “When we play live, no song’s ever the same twice; every song
evolves up to the point we last played it. For the album, we had to sit
down and organize the songs, put them in a format that would work the
way we wanted it to.” ....
That didn’t mean the band left its live roots behind, however.....
“We recorded every single song live for what’s called a ‘scratch’
track, just a guide that’s usually not the final track, but we kept
almost all of those and just added some accents like guitar and vocal
overdubbing,” Mello says.....
The end result is a live-sounding yet clean studio recording that
reflects only a small slice of what the band delivers in person, but
Mello says it’s exactly what its needed to do and represents the band’s
strengths well.....
“We had a good many songs going into this that we wanted to put on
the album, and a lot of them have long extended jams when we play them
live,” Mello says, “For the recording we wanted to just get the right
idea of each song, there was no reason to jam out too much. We made
sure we got the point of each song across.”....
The other point Mello makes very clear is that this is a group effort, not just the original duo surrounded by bit players.....
“Except for our percussion player and drummer, everyone in the band
has a songwriting credit on the album,” Mello says. “We’ve grown as a
band, surrounded ourselves with people who have different tastes in
music and we use all our influences.”....
One of the original influences that drove the early days of the band
was bluegrass, specifically the progressive side of it that includes
bands such as Yonder Mountain String Band and New Grass Revival. Throw
in some inevitable Grateful Dead and ‘70s country rock sounds, and it’s
no wonder Papa String is considered the most popular jam band in town.....
“I don’t really consider us fully as a jam band, though we can’t
deny we fall in that genre,” Mello says. “We draw a lot of inspiration
from the jam band crowd, but we just love music so much there’s not one
genre we want to be tied down to.”
Art Bar is at 1211 Park St. in
the Vista. Doors open at 9 p.m.; admission is $3. Tom Hall & the
Plowboys and Devils in Disguise open. Call 929-0198 or visit
artbarsc.com for more information.