About Our Music
The music probably started the same for everybody born in the fifties. You remember hearing something cool or being with friends when the Beatles came on the radio... air guitar. I remember hearing a John Mayall record in 1966...what was that sound? A guy in the park playing an acoustic guitar that I will always remember...great stuff, the way he bent those notes, I’ll never forget it. You do hear new, different stuff...late at night or by accident behind a TV commercial...something, somewhere that gives me a chill. It’s not even the tune, the voice, the guitar sound. It’s all of that, but it’s something else. It’s when the music is the moment...the car you’re in, the guys you’re with, the road you’re driving...The music can take your breath away...it can take you somewhere.
When you’re twelve or thirteen, life gets rolling. All the events like dances, graduations, girls, working, learning, breaking up with girls, crashing cars start to happen...and your guitar is still there. It’s always there, following you every time you start something new, or move your furniture in somebody’s old truck. And the music you’ve heard all your life has gone somewhere in your head...where it gets connected with all the other stuff you’ve heard and seen.
One day in the 80’s, Dan stopped by Geoff’s house. It had been a few years since they played in a rock band together, but Dan was no longer welcome at home (see “breaking up with girls”). Geoff had an old Martin guitar and was into Doc Watson’s music. Dan bought a Martin D-45 on his American Express card and soon they were playing traditional flat picking tunes and singing old time folk songs like “Shady Grove”...a long way from Allman Brothers and Outlaws, but the southern rock was still there too. They played for tips in the subway, but there was only enough for one beer.
About this time, Mike was stuck in some roadside motel in the middle of nowhere, working off his band’s bar tab and ready for a change. Dan and Geoff asked him to play bass at the Village Pub. ”And lets get all our friends to play too, cause we only have twelve songs” It was a great night, and The Village Jammers were born. All the diverse music that each of these guys brought to the pub that night became the Jammer’s sound...Bluegrass, Rock and Roll, Country, Jazz, Blues, Folk, Swing, Rockabilly, American, Roots music.
We’ve all seen the pictures of bands looking artistic and tormented and interviews that treat young rockers like wise old sages of the world. Maybe they do have some answers, I don’t know...
When you go to a Jammer rehearsal, you drink beer, argue about politics, help fix or build something, play music, borrow tools, watch Andy Griffith, eat beef jerky, and sometimes we laugh till it hurts. I love those guys.
The music comes from all that and it takes you somewhere.
You can listen to some of our music clips on the Downloads page. Drop us a note to let us know what you think.
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