Watching The Packway Handle Band sing high, lonesome harmonies and pick fiery solos while crowded around a single mike, you might be fooled into thinking they’d grown up playing bluegrass.
Actually, before stumbling on the music during a weekly jam session in 2001, the genre was a complete unknown to the Athens, Ga.-based quintet, said guitarist/vocalist Josh Erwin.
Although the band formed at the same time “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and its accompanying soundtrack were repopularizing bluegrass, Erwin insists that had nothing to do with their introduction to the genre.
Not that it hurt, he said. “That wasn’t why we picked up the instruments, (but) it was cool to do it when that was happening because everyone was like, ‘Oh yeah, bluegrass. That’s cool,’ “
Once they were aware of the music, however, the members of Packway Handle immersed themselves. At a weekly session at the now-defunct Athens venue Tasty Planet, they shared the stage with a handful of other newly fledged local bluegrass groups.
Eventually, the band members tired of playing bluegrass standards, and they started exploring their own take on the music. Given their different influences coming into the genre, their original music moved further and further from the bluegrass mainstream, Erwin said.
“That was where that whole ‘alt-bluegrass’ thing started, when we realized that we weren’t in this straight bluegrass world,” he said. “We tried to service both worlds. We don’t want to exclude anyone who wants to come see us.”
Whether they’re singing a twangy cover of The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind,” a gospel standard like “Talk It All Over With Him” or one of their originals, their set list is rife with curveballs, just the way they like it, Erwin said.
Tonight, the audience will decide which world Packway Handle belongs at Rhythm & Brews on a double bill with Nashville-based country/rock/punk singer/songwriter Porter Hall Tennessee.
DISCOGRAPHY
2003: “Chaff Harvest”
2005: “(Sinner) You Better Get Ready”
2007: “Live in 2006 EP Extreme”
2008: “Packway Handle Band”
2010: “What Are We Gonna Do Now?”
WHAT’S NEXT
Guitarist/vocalist Josh Erwin said the band will begin working on a project featuring covers of songs by the band Devo. The album probably will be an EP and should be out by early next year, Erwin said.
IF YOU GO
* What: The Packway Handle Band with Porter Hall Tennessee.
* When: 8:30 p.m. today.
* Where: Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St.
* Admission: $7.
* Phone: 267-4644.
* Venue website: www.rhythm-brews.com.
* Related links at fyi.timesfreepress.com.
RELATED LINKS FOR WEB: http://www.packwayhandleband.com