The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/19934
Play on, Players Local bluegrass group Horseshoe Lounge Playboys is set to play its 200th show, which will be the day after Thanksgiving at The Autumn Cafe in Oneonta. Writer Karen Miritello (and wife of HLP Randy) talked with the two-year-old band about its upcoming milestone, among other topics. Horseshoe Lounge Playboys are: Randy Miritello (guitar), Will Lunn (mandolin), Darin Trass (fiddle), Sam Doyle (percussion) with Tom Wetmore and Chris Watrous sharing standup bass duty. Everyone contributes vocally. Long-time area mu- sicians, HLP members boast an impressive and eclectic list of former popular bands including: The Attic String Boys (Miritello), The High Street Boys (Lunn), Fetish Lane (Trass), Slicky Trip (Doyle), The Sultans of Swing (Wetmore/ Lunn) and Hee Haw Nightmare of Ithaca (Watrous). 20 O-Town Scene Nov. 18, 2010 A warning to readers: This article about musicians was written by a completely nonmusical writer who just happens to be married to one of the band’s founding members. Thus demonstrating that sometimes who you know is every bit as important as what you know — and hoping in the process to offer an inside glimpse to one of O-town’s best and busiest original acts. A Bluegrass mandolin player walks into a bar where he meets up with an old-time string band guitarist. Along comes in an old- time fiddler who joins in with the Dead-band percussionist and they add in (for good measure) an alt- country upright bass player, along with his substitute — a jack-of- all-trades studio musician. No, what you get is not a punch line, just a bunch of guys who are forging new music, but in a traditional way. Add in some foot stomping, cat yowling mountain music with an occa- sional tear in your beer (at no extra charge) and what you get is the Horseshoe Lounge Play- boys, composed of Sam Doyle (drums), Will Lunn (mandolin), Randy Miritello (guitar), Darin Trass (fiddle), Tommy Whetmore and Chris Watrus (bass player). The Oneonta-based Horseshoe Lounge Playboys (the name which, for the record, has noth- ing to do with the Hugh Hefner empire. Think of it more in terms of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, as in player musicians) is about to turn the page mark- ing 200 gigs after forming up in 2008. They all like to sing. Not just a little bit — but balls out, often harmonized, though sometimes stripped down and raw, often following those tried and true themes of hardship, moonshine, murder and faith. Not to brag, but … “People can understand the style of what we play pretty much by just looking at the instrumentation,” drummer Sam Doyle said on a recent afternoon in the park. “But they might be surprised to know there is lo- cal music happening that is not middle of the road [cover type] stuff. That we’re playing mostly original stuff and manage to stay pretty busy doing it.” Not to knock covers — they do a few of those, too. But creatively these guys just find it more interesting to write. A typical show includes four of the five performers taking turns at lead vocals, each with a bit of his own stylistic bent. Accompanied by some tear- down fiddling and mandolin playing, HLP recently wowed a few thousand beer-swilling rev- elers at The New York State Brew Festival on Governors Island. So just how does a bunch of local Pulling it off musicians manage to juggle their everyday lives with their musi- cal aspirations? There are day jobs (for some), families (for others), wives, girlfriends (and in some cases both), along with the usual chaos of juggling the schedules of all these competing factors. The support comes from all those places, along with the overlap of friends and fans who turn out for all the local gigs and occa- sionally show up for more. “Guess who showed up in Vermont?,” my husband, Randy (singer and gui- tarist), will roll in at 6 a.m. and report. More often than not he is amazed by the fa- miliar faces that appear far from home to come see the band. So without using the space here for individual shout outs — read- ers in the know can feel the love right here. And though I must admit there was a part of me that balked, amusement overcame that feel- ing about a year and a half ago when a prison-style Bluebird bus was purchased off E-bay. Destined to be converted to the band bus/family R.V., the Bluebird has shuttled the boys across the state, across the coun- try and around town providing that infrastructure needed for a working band.