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Jambands.com
04-28-2004
When I recently spoke with Tishamingo's Richard Proctor,
he related that he and his band mates felt like they
were on top of the world.
Granted Proctor and Tishamingowere in the high altitudes
of the Rocky Mountains in the midst of the band's
first Colorado tour, but I digress. But no matter
how you look at it, Tishamingo has had a great couple
of years and it looks to keep getting better.
Formed in Tallahassee, but now calling the college
music mecca of Athens, Georgia home; Tishamingo is:
Richard Proctor (drums), Cameron Williams (lead vocals,
guitar), Jess Franklin (lead guitar, vocals), and
Stephen Spivey (bass, vocals). After touring steadily
in the Southeast for the past couple of years and
releasing the bands self-titled debut, Tishamingo
set themselves up to be come a jam band on the verge.
"We've been having a lot of fun and things have
been going well," Proctor said. "We've been
together for a little over two years and we've been
grinding it out on the road and now we're starting
to see some of it pay off."
Part of the pay off came in the fall of 2003 when
Inner State Records picked up the band and re-released
"Tishamingo" in early March of this year.
With the publicity push of a record label and an increased
distribution, Tishamingo's deal with Inner State Records
could do a lot for the band.
"It's been in the works for a little while and
we're really excited," Proctor said. "I
think they are definitely going to help us with this
album. We released the album in October 2002—we
put it out on our own, independently. We just sold
it at the live shows and off of our website and things
like that and also in stores regionally where we were
doing touring. Inner State will also help a lot with
distribution. The record will be in bigger record
stores all over the country and not just where we're
playing. They also plan to put a big publicity push
behind the record as well. We feel like it's a real
solid album and we were proud of it but we just didn't
feel like we were getting it in the hands of enough
people just based on our regional touring. We felt
like if we could get some help from somebody like
Inner State to get it all around then maybe we'd get
more recognition and people would get to hear it and
appreciate it."
Produced and recorded in the studios of famed Athens
producer John Keane (Widespread Panic, R.E.M., Indigo
Girls), "Tishamingo" clearly shows that
the finer qualities of Southern Rock are back on the
upswing. Cameron Williams vocals on tracks like "Whiskey
State of Mind" and "Lazy Susan" and
"Tradition" and "Way Back Home"
carry the whisky-drenched growl and gritty soul of
an elder blues man—making the listener want
to grab the closest can of ice cold domestic beer
and sing right along. With Williams often complementing
on guitar in true Southern dual guitar fashion; Jess
Franklin's lead slide guitar work shines on "Tishamingo."
From searing solos to silvery twang to mournful, melodic
wailing (check out "Palmer March"); Franklin
is tastefully putting the ‘guitar' back in guitar-driven
rock.
Thanks to the rhythm section of Richard Proctor and
Stephen Spivey, Tishamingo shows the band's own take
on Southern Rock is true to the jam mindset of adding
in much more. Grooves on the album range touch on
swampy-funk ("Lickity Split"), backwoods
two-step ("People See"), face-in-the-drink
blues ("Pete's Lament") hillbilly rock ("Turry
and the Tellico Militia") and even a little bit
of Latin spice ("El Perro Frio").
Keyboardist Jason Fuller (formerly of Ween) contributed
to "Tishamingo" as well and has been touring
with the band ever since its first release.
To be a relatively new band in a genre with a great
deal of history, Tishamingo's take on Southern Rock
is about as authentic as it gets.
"I'm not ashamed to call in Southern rock,"
Proctor said. "We're all from the South and whether
we try to or not—whether it's blatant or not—the
sounds of Southern music definitely influenced us
growing up. I think when we end up writing or playing,
I don't think we're trying to be a Southern rock band,
I think it's just that way by default. That's just
what comes out when we play and write, so it's pretty
authentic."
Along with the buzz created by the re-release of
Tishamingo, the band's popularity has also shot up
a couple of notches do Tishamingo's inclusion on the
maiden voyage of the Jam Cruise in January.
"The Jam Cruise was wonderful for us,"
Proctor said. "Most of all we just had a great
time and met a lot of bands and fans just by being
on the boat. But it's been good for us as well because
now we'll hit a town and people will show up and say,
‘yeah, we saw you on the Jam Cruise and loved
it so now we're out to hear you.' Even people who
weren't on the Jam Cruise will say ‘we saw that
you were on the list for the Jam Cruise and figured
you'd probably be pretty good.' So it's been really
helpful for us as far as people knowing our name and
knowing about us. It was definitely wonderful."
Tishamingo's two separate time slots on the high
seas ran the gamut of slight disappointment of true
elation. With a morning set on the second day of the
cruise, a good many Jam Cruise sailors were asleep
for Tishamingo's first set.
"Our first time slot was at 11 in the morning
one day and it was kind of brutal because so many
people had partied all night before and they slept
through the set or whatever. So we didn't have a huge
crowd by any means, but the second time we played
was the very last night in the evening in what turned
out to be an awesome time slot."
That slot brought about guest appearances by Karl
Denson, Jerry Joseph, Bill Nershi and members of Galactic,
the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Umphrey's McGee.
"By then we'd been on the boat for four days
and had gotten to know most of the musicians and bands
just by hanging out," Proctor said. "I think
because it was at the end of the cruise everybody
was just itching to get up and play with one another
and have some fun. So our set was ‘that' set
where all the guys were just coming and going and
sitting in—it was so much fun, it was just awesome.
A lot of diverse musicians got up and played with
us, it was great."
The buzz around Tishamingo should continue to grow
in the coming months. The group headed into the studio
in April on its second studio album. The new album
will be produced by Athens producer David Barbe (Bloodkin,
Drive by Truckers) and is slated for a release in
August of this year.
Tishamingo also appeared at the Three Rivers Music
Festival (Columbia, SC) and will be on the bills at
the Mountain View Jam (Elon, NC), the River Bend Festival
(Chattanooga, TN) and Wakarusa (Lawrence, KS).
With 2004 nearly halfway behind them, Tishamingo
has a great deal to be excited about and a great deal
to look forward to.
"A lot's been going on this year," Proctor
said. "We kicked it off with Jam Cruise and when
we were sitting on the boat we all said, "this
is a good way to start the year." I think it's
indicative of a lot of good things to happen with
the re-release of our album and then the release of
our second album. It's going to be a good year, it
already has been."
Mark Pantsari is a freelance writer living in Folly
Beach, SC
By Mark Pantsari, Jambands.com
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