by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
WHAT: Blackwater Sol Revue
WHERE: St. Augustine Ampitheatre
WHEN: Sunday, September 2nd
The Legendary JC’s are an original rock band that writes songs in the Motown tradition of James Brown, Al Green and Sam Rivers. Since their formation 7 years ago, the 7-piece band has wowed fans in the Central Florida region and expanded its horizons to many musical festivals and clubs nationwide, including Vegas at the Monte Carlo Casino. The band has been in demand for corporate functions and for VIP events such as, the G8 Summit, Full Sail, Harley-Davidson, and Southern Comfort.
The band’s main songwriter and vocalist is Eugene Snowmen, with Brian Chodorcoff on guitar, Brian Mackie on saxophone, Clay Watson on trombone, Jack Stirling on organ/keys, Ralph Ameduri on bass and Anthony Cole, Jr. on drums. In addition to achieving major billing status, the band has played on the same stage as their idols James Brown and B.B.King, as well as Cowboy Minds, JJ Grey & Mofro, Galactic, Blues Traveler and even Bad Company.
Currently, the band is recording their first studio album after three live releases. To find out more about this rock band, EU talked to Brian Chodorcoff in Orlando.
EU: Your band has been together seven years. What was its evolution and is the original lineup intact?
Brian Chodorcoff: Well, songwriter/ vocalist, Eugene Snowmen and I were friends and musical partners. Our record collections were almost identical. So, we searched for musicians with like minds and similar record collections, and before long we had the original lineup. Both Eugene and I had played in many other bands, and we [had] conflicted with the other members [of those bands] about the music. So it was important to us to find musicians who were compatible to us. As for your second question, this particular lineup is four years old. We started without horns but quickly decided to add a sax and trombone. We debuted in the Orlando club scene and we quickly graduated to playing festivals and touring nationwide.
EU: Do you play all originals? And, do you improvise on your songs.
BC: Yes, we consider ourselves an original rock band, but we pay homage to our idols by playing some cover tunes as tribute. We are a rock band in the Motown tradition. We like to rock-out and get funky. When our gigs have no particular time frame, we improvise on our material and some songs can last five minutes or more. We love to jam-out when we have a partisan audience.
EU: Yes, you sound like Bonerama in that you seem to put a high priority on having fun. Thus you transfer that joy to your audience by osmosis. Is that a fair assessment?
BC: Absolutely, in the past we played gigs with Bonerama and I know exactly what you are talking about. If the band has fun and gets into the performance, then everyone goes home happy, which is our ultimate goal.
EU: I see you have been playing some gigs with JJ Grey & Mofro, do you tour with them on regular basis?
BC: Lately, we have been playing many dates and festivals with JJ Grey & Mofro. We consider them friends and we have a lot in common, although our sounds are completely different. They once opened for us, but that won’t happen again because of their present top billing status. We recently worked with Cowboy Mouth and Blues Traveler on festival gigs.
Brian sounded very enthusiastic about the St. Augustine Amphitheatre gig with its stellar lineup for the grand opening on September 2nd with Los Lobos, Tony Joe White, the Lee Boys, and JJ Grey & Mofro at the Blackwater Sol Revue.
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