Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Bluegrass
by Sheila Daughtry
Chesapeake is a young band of seasoned players who all honed their chops in traditional bluegrass ensembles. Now they're on their own and trying out every musical flirtation they fancy, in a "new acoustic" band that challenges all record store filing systems. The rich, layered sound of Chesapeake is distinctive among bluegrass, folk, blues, jazz or rock 'n' roll - all of which they touch on in their sharp originals and sparkling new renditions of old standards. Their complex tapestry of instrumental work creates a distinctive framework for soaring, heartrending vocals. Traditional tunes are twisted into a new, vibrant life. And Chesapeake's originals sound like they've been around forever.
On stage, they let loose with strung-out blues or a calypso beat - then verge into a spirited Beatles cover or an extended Bach intro to a song. "We don't consider what we're doing really bluegrass," says pedal steel player Mike Auldridge. "If people want to call it bluegrass, that's fine. But we're not. We have a very unique sound, we think. Because it's kind of a blend of about five or six different styles of music. And it all comes from not only who we've played with, but who we've listened to for all our lives.
"And each of us are born in a different decade," he laughed. "So we kind of have brought different influences."
You get a hint of their influences in their careful choice of cover songs: Little Feat, Tom Paxton, Ricky Skaggs, Tim O'Brien and Steve Gillette. They can switch from the exquisite harmonies of "Morning Blues" to a fierce rendition of "Cypress Grove." As they proclaim in liner notes, "The proof of any really great song is its ease of rebirth."
"To me, it's just American music," said Auldridge, "because it's a blend of a lot of different American styles. But this is all those things in one band."
"In one song," added bassist T. Michael Coleman.
"And we don't do that to do that," Auldridge clarified. "We do that to keep ourselves from getting bored and to please each of us. I'm very much into country and stuff because I play pedal steel. Michael's very much into rock 'n' roll. It's funny how we meet in the middle. Jimmy is actually out of rock 'n' roll and bluegrass. Moondi is classical."
A wealth of previous musical experience has given the four members of Chesapeake a unique perspective. Vocalist and guitarist Moondi Klein was trained in opera. T. Michael Coleman played for years with Doc Watson before joining seminal bluegrass band The Seldom Scene, where he worked with Auldridge. Mandolin player Jimmy Gaudreau spent many years in the Tony Rice Unit.
It was Gaudreau who, as Tony Rice's voice sadly deteriorated several years ago, began to cast about for a new kind of band. He and Klein had tried to get a band together earlier, but it hadn't panned out. He contacted Klein again, and they pulled in Coleman and Auldridge from The Seldom Scene.
"And it just seemed to be entirely too much fun," said Klein.
Chesapeake put out their first album, the stellar Rising Tide [Sugar Hill SH-CD 3827] in 1994. It was a striking debut, a gorgeous, earthy collection of strong originals, plus twangy covers of songs like Van Morrison's "Moondance." And then, in a twist, Klein joined The Seldom Scene.
"Moondi was filling in for John Starling, who's a doctor and who could not do all the gigs with the Seldom Scene," explained Coleman.
"It was easy to get into The Seldom Scene," agreed Klein, "because I was a Seldom Scene fan. My band in D.C. liked doing Seldom Scene material. It's kind of funny to do the same material as a band that's in the same city as you, but that's what hero-worship is all about."
The bands coexisted for a time, but conflicts arose as Chesapeake grew - with more musical challenges and greater demands on its members.
"The Seldom Scene seemed to be winding down," explained Klein. "[The late John] Duffy didn't want to go out and play as much as he used to. And we wanted to play a lot more. So we figured, why not just do Chesapeake? Because it's a new thing, and an exciting thing."
Coleman concurred. "Not only was it hard to split time between two bands, but musically, it was like splitting the hemispheres of your brain. The bands were so different, and you're playing one way with one band, and it's hard to turn that switch off and play with the other band."
In The Seldom Scene, "We were more strict [bluegrass]," explained Auldridge. "I wouldn't say very," he added wryly.
"But there's a certain team thing that kind of takes over when you're in a band," he continued. "And to be honest with you, I think it probably got in the way of The Seldom Scene team. It's hard to be on two different teams at the same time, mentally. It's like being married. Really. When you're in a band, you're married to four or five guys, you know?" he laughed. "So you kind of start feeling like you're not being true to what you really should be doing. So at some point, you have to make a decision."
"And that decision was not really selfish, to tell you the truth," said Coleman. "We had to make a decision to be fair to The Seldom Scene as well. If they're going to go on, we need to get out of the way."
"When you see that something is winding down," said Gaudreau, "or not particularly going in any direction at all, then you start looking out for your future. You say, 'I want to play in this business, at our age, maybe another 15 years or something like that.' When you're watching out for your future, you've got to be on an upswing. You've got to be involved in something that's got that kind of potential to it."
"The other two bands' days of challenge were over," explained Auldridge. "They were just kind of, 'We've done what we're going to do, now let's just do it until it's over.' But the mentality of the four of us was, 'We ain't scratched the surface of what we really want to do.' That's really the biggest part of it - the challenge."
But you can't get where you want to be without traveling a few points in between. Chesapeake wouldn't be Chesapeake without the diverse experiences that shaped the quartet's lives to date.
"What's so great about this band," said Coleman, "is that we do bring all those influences to the group. And the greatest part is we can actually use those. Because the musicianship of this band, to me, is outstanding. There's nothing you can throw at any of these guys that they can't do."
From listening to Rising Tide, 1995's Full Sail [Sugar Hill SH-CD 3841] and last year's Pier Pressure [Sugar Hill SH-CD 3872], that seems evident.
Though Chesapeake's covers of traditional and pop songs are always inventive and always unique, it's good to see that with their latest release, Pier Pressure, they lean more toward original songs, including many from T. Michael Coleman.
"I've been writing for a long time," Coleman admits.
"Yeah," chuckles Auldridge. "We're the first guys who would listen."
For the last few years, Chesapeake has been the host band at the Wings and Strings Festival in Polk City, Florida, each November. It's a relaxed outdoor two-stage festival with a bluegrass bent that still accommodates bands like Trout Fishing in America and Robert Earl Keen.
"We're the diplomats of the festival," chuckled Coleman.
"We hold no actual power," added Klein, "but we're sort of ambassadors of the festival. We go around in a van that has 'Wings & Strings' and 'Chesapeake' written on it and promote the festival at every gig that we play."
Despite the fact that things seem to be going Chesapeake's way, Auldridge admitted that music is a "scary business."
Gaudreau agreed. "No matter who you are or who you have been with other bands, when you start a band and put a name on it, you are still starting out from day one like everybody else. You have to put in some hard times all over again."
This is the full text from Dirty Linen #78
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© 1998 Dirty Linen, Ltd., Baltimore MD
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