Local Ear

On the Scene

“Eight things music fans want to know”

By: “Dangerous” Doug Harper                         

A few days ago at lunchtime, it was brought to my attention that one of the ongoing events that I have been involved with for the past year and a half was going un-noticed. Not completely un-noticed mind you, but the important little details tend to be hidden from the public-at-large. Often times one has to be in the know, so to speak, to find out about these events and musical spectacles. A man from Joplin had heard about the jam session that is held on Tuesday each week and then called me for information on it, guessing that I would know about it. He was right, and since it was Nevada related, I passed on the details. He also went on to tell me that he could not find any details on it anywhere. The information on these types of events is out there, but I can now see just how the fine-tuned details seemingly slip through the cracks. How would one go about fixing a problem such as this? The answer quite possibly could be this blog and you. The blog will get the ball rolling and you to give feedback, and your thoughts on the scene. Hopefully we will, together, get the job done, and build and entertain a better community every week.

First things first, I don’t want to get my cart before my horse, so here are eight things that most people want to know before going to a musical event in our area, and just how I plan to tell you about them. Number one: how good the band? This of course is a subjective question, but in general I plan to just talk about if can they play the style of music they perform well, not about If I like their style of music. Number two: how long has the band been performing? This pretty much does not matter in regards to how well a band can be, some groups just have a natural talent for it, and some don’t, so I will just visit about past performances more than number of years. I will try and touch on each of the musicians in the band, and their experience more than the band as a whole, but I will also try to get that information as well. Number three: how long they will perform at the event? This is often a hard question to answer, but I will attempt to field it when I am talking about a specific event. Some times bands will do encore sets pending on the crowd size and situation, so often times one wont know the answer to that question until the event is over. Number four: If they have a good singer? This is probably one of the most important to the music fan, or event attendee. The singer is often times the focal point for the listener and are usually the one that makes or beaks a band around here, so I will pay special attention to this detail for you. Number five: What type of music do they mostly play? Of course it is very important to know what style of music the band will play so a country fan does not show up to see a metal band. Number six: do they take requests? I hate this question and will not address it again. All bands take requests to some regard. The real answer to this question is, whether or not the band is a cover band. A cover band is a group that will perform songs you hear on the radio. True to the word cover bands usually know most of the new songs from their style, but often times the band is just an artist that will play and or record previously performed or recorded songs but putting their own spin on them. So I will refer to a band as one of these categories: cover band, artist or original band, and finally a shift band. Before each type of band I will mention their main style or styles of music, such as the band Crazy Julie and CRS, they are a classic rock and country cover band. Simply meaning that they first and foremost are a variety of music leaning to rock but they also play many country songs as well, and they are all cover songs, meaning that they will be songs that you have most likely heard before on the radio at one time or another. Number seven: what line up, and type of instruments? This means simply what they have in the band. Two guitarists, a bass guitarist, a drummer and a singer, and the guitarists and bassist are back up singers as well. Number eight: how many people are in the band? In the last case five. You get the idea to this one it was pretty strait forward.

Finally I want to close with an introduction to one of the bands in our area and since we have already been talking about Crazy Julie and CRS, I will continue about them. Crazy Julie is the singer and wife of the founding guitarist Darrell “Oscar” Nikodim. The two of them have been performing off and on in a variety of bands for around twenty-seven years in the Vernon County area with long time Bassist Rich Murray known on stage as L.S. Snagnasty. Rich has a baritone voice that complements Julie and her smoking lead vocals and “Oscar” on his more tenor like harmonies. “Oscar” and Rich both get their turn on lead vocals as well before the night is over giving Julie a chance to dance and mingle with the crowd, and always leaving behind some fun hand outs such as signature back scratches, or blow up guitars. The band has recently switched drummers and added another guitar player to the mix filling out their sound as a five piece for the upcoming, and ever popular Halloween party at Shooters in Nevada towards the end of October. To find out more about music in our area watch the weekly Nevada News paper for various advertisements on live music events in our area each week, and of course check in with me right here each week to be introduced to the music as we go on the scene.