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Most of the bands Triangle music fans favor are not quite poised on the verge of rock stardom, and many of the musicians who play in those bands are among us every day, holding down what they often refer to jokingly as "real jobs." When they’re young, most of these players would be happy if they could make a living just doing their music, but the longer they play in band after band that never lands the breakthrough record deal, the more life encroaches on their rock ’n’ roll dreams. Still, the music hooked them a long time ago and many players will keep a music gig together one way or another, just for the buzz they get from playing and writing tunes.
Big Mama E & The Cool is just such a band. Everyone in the band has been playing for decades, but mortgages, jobs and kids have redefined their world. The band is what they do to keep the music alive, and they’re a solid crew. They’ll be playing Saturday afternoon at Artsplosure in Raleigh’s Moore Square, and when they take the stage, they’ll rock.
Big Mama E & The Cool released their second CD last year. Titled High Maintenance, it’s a very good rock album; I considered it strong enough to be included it in my list of best albums of 2002 by North Carolina artists.
"All the songs on the album are originals," Emma Davis, Big Mama E’s lead singer, noted. "Everyone was involved. I write the lyrics to about 95 percent of the songs, and sometimes I come up with a melody. After that, everyone gets involved. It’s a remarkably democratic band. It took us a few years to make ‘High Maintenance,’ mainly due to money reasons. We worked with Wes Lachot at Overdub Lane [studio in Durham] on both our albums, and he did a top-notch job. He knows what he’s doing, plus he played organ on High Maintenance."
Big Mama E originally came together in 1996. Lead guitarist Mike Edwards joined the band in ’99 and the lineup -- Olly Roberts, Ken Weigand, Dan Davis, Emma and Edwards -- has remained intact since then. "Mike really influenced our sound," Davis said. "He’s taken us in more of a Southern rock direction. I think our first album was more bluesy, more R&B."
The band plays some club dates and festival gigs, but you’re not likely to find them doing a Wednesday night gig that starts at 10:30 p.m. "We’d like to play more clubs, but we all have families and full-time jobs," Davis said. "We’re limited to playing Friday and Saturday nights -- preferably a Saturday -- and our audience is older, so they don’t want to go out to hear us at some place where we don’t start till 11 p.m.
"We do draw a crowd," she added. "We’re always looking for venues that start fairly early, like 9 to midnight. In the meantime, we’re gonna play more festivals, and stick with the clubs that have been good to us, like The Berkeley Café, Tir Na Nog and the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh. We’re not a cover band. We want to play our own material, so that’s also been a problem, as far as getting booked in the places that like that sort of thing. We’re gonna play what we want to, and we’re not into playing to drunks in oyster bars."
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