Bands combine to form 'Moon-Groove'
Published Oct. 6, 2006
Perpetual Groove drummer Albert Suttle ponders "Moon-Groove," his band's collaboration with fellow Georgia jam-rockers Moonshine Still: "If it had a taste, it would be kind of like an aperitif, that you would take between courses at a meal. Something that cleanses your palate and gets you ready for something new."
One of the blessings of live music is the ability of artists to create and collaborate onstage, to alter the music in new and exciting ways.
Moonshine Still and Perpetual Groove will offer this kind of collaboration in action when they take the stage together for a special "Moon-Groove," set on Oct. 11 at The Blue Note.
Moonshine Still, a six-piece ensemble out of Macon, Ga., formed in 1996 and has become a live staple in the Southeast at clubs and festivals alike.
The group combines an eclectic blend of influences, from warm, exotic Middle Eastern and Indian overtones in guitar solos and percussion to vocals that hint at the slow and soulful Georgia gospel style. The group combines the styles with skilled musicianship, which is exemplified by keyboardist Trippe Wright's distinctive ability to blend the sound of a church organ with psychedelic jam-rock sensibilities.
Drummer Jon Joiner attributes the band's ability to defy the stereotypes of both the typical Southern band and the typical jam band to its growing fan base.
"There's definitely a Southern-rock thing that I personally grew up around," Joiner said. "But it's also something that we're trying to grow away from. We're making sure that new fans we're trying to get understand what kind of music we are."
Despite its desire to tour nationally, the band is still beloved in its home state, consecutively selling out the Georgia Theatre in Athens for its annual New Year's Eve show.
Perpetual Groove was born in 1997, the brainchild of Savannah College of Art & Design classmates Brock Butler and Adam Perry. The two began collaborating in a series of dorm room jam sessions with the original keyboardist and drummer, both of whom would later leave the band. Suttle and current keyboardist Matt McDonald met Butler and Perry in the spring of 2001, during their stint as members of a band while in the Army at Fort Stewart near Savannah.
As PGroove gains new fans and new experiences across the country, its members continue to develop a great appreciation for the new collaboration opportunities. This is not limited to merely other bands, but holds true for members of the crew. When asked what the highlight of the latest tour had been for him so far, Suttle said it was the addition to the PGroove team of sound monitor technician Newton Patrick, a former production manager for bands such as The Who. Suttle describes Patrick as "an absolute blessing."
Often, bands that hail from the same area and play similar styles of music will fall victim to competition and establish rivalries. But the members of Moonshine Still and Perpetual Groove were able to forge a sense of mutual admiration, which led to the creation of the "Moon-Groove" set. Both bands contend that the collaborations started out of a combination of friendship and mutual convenience.
"We just kind of got to know the guys, slowly but surely, and then as we started touring and started doing more and more stuff, we started getting billed with them," Suttle said. "And we did it enough early on, that it didn't really matter who was opening for who. It made more sense to make a seamless transition between the opener and the closer."
Joiner, who joined Moonshine Still this summer, came into the band after the "Moon-Groove" collaborations had begun. He attributes the ease and success of the tours to the sense of community and commitment to the music the band members have with each other.
"They were just friends from the same area who were in two different bands," Joiner said. "They thought it was just a good idea to team up and do some shows together and even do some short tours together. And it just worked real well with the styles of music and the personalities of the bands. Everybody just got along real well. We help each other out and exchange each other's fans."
Both Suttle and Joiner said they have grown as musicians and gained much from collaborating onstage with members of the other band.
"You might be on the stage with someone who's such a badass that it raises your game to a level that you'd either forgotten about or didn't even know you had," Suttle said, "and that, to me, is the inherent beauty of it."
According to both drummers, collaboration allows musicians to bring out the best in one another and discover more about their individual playing styles. Although the future of the "Moon-Groove" tours is uncertain, Joiner is certain that the experience has been more than beneficial.
"I think it's going to help in the future as much as it has now," Joiner said. "Whether we stay and keep doing this in 20 years or we do other things, we'll make the connections. Seeing live music is something that's so important for musicians, and being on the road as much as we are, it's hard for us to see live shows, so when we get to play with people and we open for them or they open up for us, I get to see different influences that I wouldn't be able to see."
The musicians gain the same insights the fans do from watching live performances, from diverse musical styles that will later impact the music to merely waiting for the spark of unpredictability.
"If ("Moon-Groove") had a visual aspect to it," Suttle said, "it would be like an urban jungle with trees growing out of buildings, something that doesn't seem like it fits together at all, but it still works."
Perpetual Groove and Moonshine Still
When: 8:30 p.m., Oct. 11
Where: The Blue Note, 17 N. Ninth St.
Price: $10