by Jay Moye

"What an appropriate way to close the door on a great year," exclaims Drew Cannon, Emma Gibbs Band lead guitarist, following the group's December 27 show before a crowd of 700 at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem, N.C. The hometown gig was a telling snapshot in the band's 2000 scrapbook, which earned them scores of new fans along the East Coast through a rigorous touring itinerary, widespread critical acclaim and overall buzz trickling through the jambands community and beyond.

The Emma Gibbs Band's music can be likened to an eclectic tapestry of genres that fuses the faded hues of traditional bluegrass with the bold colors of southern folk and frayed textures of alternative country - all woven together by the consistent threads of Americana-flavored songwriting and deft musicianship. With a vibe that falls comfortably between Strangefolk and Son Volt, the tunes are reminiscent of sounds past and present, yet virtually impossible to categorize. Improvisation works its way into the song structure without overpowering it - EGB's sound is instead dictated by vivid vocal harmonies and an underlying melodic sensibility that simultaneously laments and uplifts. The end-result is a familiar, but not tired, musical palette that paints a universally appealing portrait for a wide range of audiences.

Onstage, EGB puts its own spin on a tasteful selection of live covers, including a grassy version of the traditional "I Know You Rider" and folkier takes on Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues," the Band's "Ophelia" (on which Straughan picks up a trumpet), and the Beatles' "Rain." Selections from acts like Greg Brown and Lucinda Williams also make occasional appearances in the group's setlist - echoing the earnest musings of the band's burgeoning song catalogue.

Will Straughan (mandolin, lap steel, trumpet) and Richard Upchurch (rhythm guitars) share lead vocal and lyrical duties, providing complementary tones on virtually every Emma Gibbs offering. The lineup also features Cannon on lead guitar, Jeff Remsburg on bass, George Wallis on drums (replacing founding member Andrew LeVasseur in August 2000) and Brent Buckner on harmonica. With all members in their mid-20s, EGB is among the scene's youngest groups - but not necessarily the newest.

Carrying the namesake of Remsburg's grandmother - whose Chapel Hill, N.C. home doubled as rehearsal space during the band's infancy - the Emma Gibbs Band was formed in 1996 by then-UNC freshmen Cannon, Remsburg and LeVasseur, Wake Forest University student Upchurch and Buckner, former road manager for the Gibb Droll Band. The group built a loyal following around N.C. campuses and recorded its self-titled debut CD with producers John Alagia and Doug Derryberry (Dave Matthews Band, Agents of Good Roots). Straughan came onboard a year later, adding multi-instrumental fluency, a keen sense of songcraft and a rich vocal presence which gave the band's sound a more rustic edge. Their repertoire grew along with their crowds - eventually scoring them a spot on the 1998 H.O.R.D.E. sidestage alongside acts like Ben Harper and Gov't Mule.

Armed with a collection of stage-tested originals, the band headed into John Keane Studios (Widespread Panic, R.E.M.) in the summer of 1999 to record SevenEven - an album they've been touring to support ever since. It was during the SevenEven sessions when EGB was first introduced to David Blackmon, the renowned Athens-based fiddler, Blueground Undergrass co-founder and frequent Widespread Panic collaborator. When the band was looking to add fiddle to a few tracks, Blackmon's name immediately came up. He ended up recording a pair of tunes for the album and remained in touch with the band for the months that followed. In May 2000 Blackmon took the stage at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta - marking his return to the live setting following a near-paralyzing accident eight months earlier. Since then, he has gradually joined the band more and more on the road - particularly on swings through Georgia and western North Carolina - and currently makes appearances at roughly 75 percent of the band's shows. Having Blackmon's name on the bill has exposed the band to expanded bluegrass audiences, including fans who have followed his fiddling for years.

I recently sat down with Cannon and Upchurch an hour or so before a sold-out show at Atlanta's Smith's Olde Bar to discuss the past, present and future of the Emma Gibbs Band:

What were some of major accomplishments in 2000, if you had to mention a few milestones...

DC: The New Year's (Dec. 31, 1999) show opening for James Taylor in Raleigh's brand new coliseum was a great way to enter the new millenium. Even though the music's different - we played more of a laid-back set to fit the vibe of the night - it was great to share our music with around 10,000 people. We toured very hard all year, logging close to 160 dates. Though the gig total was roughly the same as 1999, our crowds grew significantly, and we were more strategic about the markets we hit. Two sell-out shows at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta and consistent draws of 500-700 at Ziggy's in Winston were all great moments for us. Expanding crowds in Charlotte, two headlining gigs at the Wetlands in New York and an appearance on the Dunham's radio show (Z93) in Atlanta were also milestones for the band. And of course the Jomeokee festival with Widespread, String Cheese Incident, Donna the Buffalo, Parliament and others.

RU: We played some great shows in 2000. Playing with bands like Widespread, String Cheese, Derek Trucks, and the great James Taylor made the year our best so far. The clubs we have played have been great to us, and we appreciate those club owners who love and support live music. I also think we're all better musicians than we were when we cut SevenEven. When we head back into the studio later this year, it will be our second time working with Keane, so I hope we will have a bit more time to experiment. We hope this album will come out more as a complete project rather than a compilation of songs. We've got a great new batch of tunes, and I can't wait to see how they evolve live and in the studio.

What have you all learned most about the business side of music over past few years?

DC: We became an LLC and we have two managers and a booking agent, Chris Cate from Treeline Artists. He's going to take our schedule and make it a cohesive itinerary that makes sense travel-wise and hopefully open new doors to get us in front of the right crowds. We're very excited about working with Chris, who also works with great bands like Sound Tribe Sector Nine, The Recipe, Smokin' Grass and Hannaward Pass.

RU: Committing ourselves solely to music and quitting our day jobs has allowed the music and our audiences to expand. Once you allow yourself to become focused on what you love, the possibilities are infinite. We're growing every day. It's exciting for us to be creating music and a true blessing to know what you want and to be able to pursue that dream. We would be nowhere without good people offering their support and floors to sleep on. We truly thank everyone who has supported us, and recognize that the world doesn't turn without friends.

What have you focused on most from a technical standpoint over the past year or so, and what affect has it had on your music?

DC: One thing we've paid a lot of attention to is time. Our new drummer George plays live to a metronome with headphones for a lot of songs. We never want to have a song sound mechanical, but the metronome helps to lay down a solid groove. If you lay down a steady beat, the band can really groove to it. Some people use it live, some don't. When people use samples and loops, they're almost always playing with a metronome. That's something we've worked hard on. Musically, we feel like the songs now are better than the ones we wrote two to three years ago. We're all working at playing our instruments and writing good songs.

Having three to four songwriters in a group - all with varied influences - certainly sets you apart from most other bands. How does this strengthen your songs, both musically and lyrically?

DC: Everyone has different influences, and you see it come out in the songwriting. We try to turn this diversity of individual perspectives into a collective attribute. We hope people can expect some different kinds of songs throughout the night that aren't all necessarily from one genre.

How do your songs evolve - from the time a tune is presented in practice until the moment it reaches your live audience?

RU: Evolution of the music for us has always relied on the live performance. A song really doesn't take shape until we've performed it live for several weeks. The process in short is that the songwriter brings in the song, directs the band in a general way for what emotion and feel the song is to portray, and then we piece it together in the rehearsal space. Once each member has a grasp of what he is to contribute to the song, we begin to play it live. Live is where the music truly begins to unfold. I think the live process is very organic. You have to take the seed outside in the elements for it to grow. We allow the song to form and grow, and then we prune it to keep it healthy. We are not a band of long-winded jams. We write songs, not jams. We don't take a song out live and turn it into a jam - rather we take a song and let it develop into a more complex song. We may write songs that jam, but they are not based on a jam element, if you know what I mean. In the studio, we take songs we've sculpted for months and throw a little twist to them. Recording an album is a crazy process that is incredibly hard to describe. Things just seem to happen. No one has total control when cutting an album. In the studio you really get to listen to how great each player is. For example, it's great to isolate the bass line and hear how wonderfully executed it is. The studio brings everyone together, and we leave stronger as a band and as musicians.

To date, your fanbase and tour itinerary have predominantly been focused on the Southeast. How will you look to spread your music beyond the region?

RU: There are pockets in the country where people really come out in numbers to support live music. We have been fortunate that our music has caught on in several of these areas, and we hope that this next year will allow us to expand even further. We hope the music continues to generate the positive response we've had so far. We plan to make it out west in the next few months, with hopes of continuing play out there. Also, Chris Cate plans to push us in cities throughout the Southeast where we haven't really tapped into yet. We have been pleasantly surprised at the gracious reception we've received outside the region, and it's always exciting to play in places where you know your music hasn't been before. New audiences in New York, Boulder, and St. Louis stand out in my mind as especially rewarding.

Your songwriting hints at bluegrass, folk, "alternative" county and even touches of the blues -a combination of influences that enables you appeal to a wide range of fans. To me, alt.country flavorings show up in your songwriting, and the bluegrass/jam element shines through in the playing, especially in the live setting. And yet, when you look at the instrumentation - the harmonica, lap steel, mandolin and now the fiddle, these are really steering you more towards the Americana side of things. Does this help or hinder your ability to "market" your music?

DC: We definitely feel like our diversity is an attribute. We believe we could tour with Leftover Salmon or Widespread Panic and do really well. And on the other hand, we also feel like we could share bills with Whiskeytown or Robert Earl Keen and appeal to their crowds. It may have hurt us a little in the short run, because people haven't been able to put a tag on our music. It's definitely something that's hard to describe, but we hope it's a good thing for us in the long run.

RU: If you look back to what the Dead were doing with traditional songs or what Dylan was doing with Woody Guthrie songs, I don't think they were trying to reach a certain audience. Instead, they were just recreating music that had already been written and recorded. We've taken our varied influences and allowed our music to evolve without pigeonholing ourselves. In turn, people are getting a fresh new sound. We're not trying to be anything other than great musicians and even better songwriters. I think our live show is an experience - not one long sound. People enjoy listening to an Irish jam that flows into a bluegrass-style tune. We might introduce a singer-songwriter style offering, and then turn right around and play a song with extended guitar and trumpet solos. In other words, we're not catering to one particular audience. As a result, our crowds are usually a mix of all ages and lovers of all different types of music.

Will seems to pick up the mandolin on about 80 percent of the songs and the lap steel around 20 percent of the time. The songs he does play lap steel on - "Unstuck" and "Down By Law" immediately come to mind - are perfect canvases for the instrument. Without it, the songs would assume a totally different texture. Is the lap steel fading away, or will it continue to find its way into the songwriting process and live presentation?

DC: It's still there. We haven't written a lot of new tunes with the lap steel, but I'm sure he'll pick up the lap steel and Dobro in the studio, as he did with SevenEven. Will writes on an acoustic guitar, but mandolin is his primary instrument.

Recap how you all hooked up with David Blackmon...

DC: Before we went down to Athens to record, we were looking for a fiddle player to play on "Travelin' Tune." While we were down there, Blackmon's name came up. Our friend Blake Budney, who manages the Derek Trucks Band, knew him and gave him a call for us. He's worked with Keane several times, played on Widespread's Space Wrangler album and was a founding member of Blueground Undergrass. He came in and did "Travelin' Tune" and it sounded great, so we had him record "As I Walk On," too. Things really clicked musically. He was going to play some shows with us in August 1999, but he got hurt and was unable to play music for about eight months. In May 2000 he played his first show back with us at Smith's in Atlanta. Since then, he's toured off-and-on with us and started to play more and more frequently. We love playing with him, and he's planing to go out west with us later this year. It's a cool thing, because the last time he was in Colorado was on Widespread's "Sit and Ski" tour in '96.

What does he add to the band's sound?

DC: David adds a great folk/bluegrass feel to the songs. Basically, he's a great musician with a lot of experience who can give us great advice on things - both musically and other aspects of what we're trying to do as a band. It's been a good relationship that continues to grow, and the music is coming together more and more. He's definitely helped our crowds, because he has a lot of loyal fans from playing with Widespread and Blueground Undergrass - especially throughout Georgia. These people are bottom-line great music fans to play for who we've been able to turn on to our music in the last eight months. David also did a great post-Panic show with us in Charleston (S.C.) a few hours after he'd been onstage during the first set of Panic's show down the road. For me, the crowds are a nice byproduct to having such a great fiddle player with us onstage.

RU: Blackmon is an amazing musician. Our music really has a great space for the fiddle. David has been able to come in and add his sound appropriately. With seven of us on stage, there should be as much listening as there is playing. He has really listened to what we are trying to achieve in each song and has filled the void. The stage feels great with him there.

A lot of people wouldn't think to have a harmonica and fiddle in the same band. How do the two complement each other?

DC: Brent and Blackmon both do their own thing. We have a large band already, and when David sits in with us, we're even bigger. The main thing is that everyone in the band lays back and lets each other solo. We all bring different tones to the mix - Brent uses a lot of distortion on the harmonica to create a pretty heavy blues feel. And the fiddle adds a more bluegrass influence. The best way for us to survive as such a large group is to be able to listen to each other. Sometimes we don't necessarily consider having a fiddle, but it has blended so well with our songs - both new and old. There are definitely songs that only the fiddle can provide the backbone we're looking for. We look forward to having him onstage with us, as well as in the studio later this year.

What are your overall goals for this year?

DC: We want to continue being able to make live music for a living - that's the main thing. We're also excited to record our next album. On the other hand, we want to play for as many people as we can and continue to improve in our songwriting and instrumentation. There are still a lot of people out there who have yet to hear SevenEven - a record we're very proud of. It's a constant process to try and get better through touring. We hope it will continue to pay off. We're also hoping to play more with other bands both within the jambands scene and beyond. A record deal would be great, but I can't say it's in our goals for next year. We think it's something that will happen when the time is right. We don't really have any specific goals like radio airplay or record deals. If these things happen, great, but we're not out to write music that will get us on the radio.

RU: I think a major goal of ours is to make the most of our rehearsal times together. With added touring, our practice time diminishes. Another is for each of us to continue to hone our craft by concentrating on our instruments and our songwriting. I'm also really looking forward to playing in new places across the country this year.

What do you hope your live audience takes away from one of your shows?

RU: I hope that everyone is able to listen to what is happening before them. At some points there are notes that each person should hang on, and a minute later there are words that paint a picture right before their eyes. I hope people leave with an experience - not just a concert.

For more info on the band, check out www.emmagibbs.com.