Coming to you on Saturday, May 13 for an evening show at the John Barleycorn is a newly formed 6-piece band whose name, Front & Main, pays tribute to none other than Front and Main Street in Owego. The show opens at 8:30 p.m., with Tom Jolu warming things up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe band\u2019s name pays homage to the two bustling streets in Owego, but it is also vague enough to feel familiar to people all over,\u201d said Paul Shotwell, one of the founder\u2019s of the band, adding, \u201cIt’s also a little cheeky since there is no \u2018Front & Main\u2019 street corner in Owego.\u201d <\/p>\n
Other contenders included The Great Fire and River People.<\/p>\n
Self-described as original soul rock, members include songwriting duo Michael Wu and Paul Shotwell, as well as a roster of musicians from around the region. Rounding out \u201cFront & Main\u201d are locals Jacob Kurtz on bass and Mary Tewksbury on guitar, as well as Ithaca-based Samuel B. Lupowitz on keys and Ashley Ickes on drums. The band has also been working with a second drummer out of Syracuse, Jeff Tripoli.<\/p>\n
And if some of these names sound familiar, that\u2019s because they have been on the music scene both locally and regionally.<\/p>\n
Samuel and Michael probably have the longest rap sheet of collaborating together, as they’ve done a lot of work with Maddy Walsh and the Blind Spots, as well as some fun projects like an anniversary live stream of Elton John’s 17-11-70. Sam is also a founding member of Ithaca-based Noon Fifteen, and has played with Thru Spectrums, Alex Cano, Julia Felice, Kitestring, and Pocket Bandits. He also just recently released a solo album called No Man Is an Island that you can find wherever you get your music.<\/p>\n
Michael and Paul got to play more with Samuel and Mary when they played a series of tribute shows under the name “The Celebration Ensemble”.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think playing those classic tunes that everyone has heard a million times really lends itself to fun and light-hearted rehearsals where you get to know your bandmates better,\u201d said Michael of the band\u2019s synergy.<\/p>\n
Mary is probably best known for her guitar playing and singing in Next to Kin, but she has also taken the stage with String of Pearls, Innermission, Adam Ate the Apple, and The Apalachin Annies.<\/p>\n
Michael knew Jacob through a local bass collective and had heard him play with Glenmary’s Ghost, and thought his style of playing would really serve the music well. The same goes for Ashley Ickes, the drummer for Ithaca’s The Comb Down. Similarly with Jeff, Michael reached out and contacted him to gauge interest in doing some studio session work and to be on the roster for the live show. After exchanging messages and sharing some early demos he recorded some tracks for them remotely, and according to Michael “his style matched very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the band\u2019s genre, Michael described their influence being pulled from the tried and true greats like Tom Petty, Neil Young, and the Rolling Stones, \u201cartists who really understood that you didn’t need a ton of chords and complicated progressions to make a good, solid song.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cThe ‘soul’ in soul rock is injected mostly in the vocals and the melody lines that have more blues and R&B inspiration, paired with Paul’s impressive range.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can check out their performance on May 13 at the John Barleycorn, located at 216 Front St. in Owego. Members are excited to debut in their hometown, and will be hosting a CD Release show later this year.<\/p>\n
The band also has a lineup of shows already to include their album release show with a date to be determined, the Ithaca Festival, and the Harper N. Stantz Rec Park Music Fest in July.<\/p>\n
You can learn more about the band on a variety of music platforms to include www.frontandmainband.com<\/a>, www.facebook.com\/FrontandMainBand<\/a>, www.instagram.com\/frontandmainband<\/a>, on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, and Bandcamp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Coming to you on Saturday, May 13 for an evening show at the John Barleycorn is a newly formed 6-piece band whose name, Front &…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":95688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-living"],"yoast_head":"\n