Page 30 - The Noise August 2017

THE REGETTABLES: Drunk-Grass Masterclass!
The Regrettables, from Flagstaff, are a lively bunch. Stoically shunning the internet with barely any online presence, it took a bit of detective work to track them down. They re- fer to themselves as “drunkgrass” or “rowdy party-grass,” and trade in upbeat acousto-jams played on mostly traditional instruments, with amusing lyrical asides. At the end of the month, they will be recording a live LP at Firecreek Coffee. So grab your partner, your danc- ing shoes, a cold beverage, and see you down the front!
It seems you all have quite diverse working backgrounds. How did you come together and arrive at your sound and direction?
BOB: There had been a few different permutations of the Regrettables before I joined. My band, The Crocodile Brothers had broken up and Eric pretty much forced me to join the band. I’m lucky to have parents that exposed me to everything from classic country, Americana, to folk and classic rock. As the bass player for the Regrettables, I try to play as few notes as possible and just let the songwriting be at the forefront. Franklin is a great storyteller and guitarist. Eric is our fearless, often intoxicated, front man, who can also play the mandolin. Zach and I keep the rhythm section tight. And Hannah contributes melody with her top notch fiddle playing. That’s our sound. Not much to it.
ERIC: I was hosting an open mic at Hops on Birch when I met Franklin and Jeff Peterson. At that time they were performing as a duo called Damn Close, a moniker I agreed with. I approached them after the show and basically said, “Hey, need a mandolin and a vocal third?” Despite the fact that I was good at neither at the time nor claim to be so now, but they said, “Sure.” We rehearsed a couple times before playing our first show at Hops as a trio without a band name. I introduced us as a different band name for each song. I believe at various points in the show our name ranged from The Bible C***s to Chris Christie’s Water Wings. We really didn’t have a plan. Our sound evolved from laying the mandolin over like a parfait, to trying to incorporate it more organically into the sound as a whole. We went back and forth on names and got to Deaf Jeff and the Regrettables, which was
subsequently shortened to its current iteration The Regrettables.
Jeff’s wife took a job in Montana, so off he went with his family. I can’t blame the guy.
From there we went looking for a new bass player. At the time I was running the entertain- ment at Hops on Birch booking, sound, and hosting events. Bob was playing in an excel- lent rock trio called The Crocodile Brothers. Their farewell show was a legit s***show, in the best way possible. Crowd surfing in a venue like Hops is a bit unheard of. After Croc Bros was done, Bob was a Regrettable.
From there Franklin and I turned to Zach. I lived with him for 6 years and we had always played together, but we never really formed anything significant. He knew our sound and I knew his. He was a no brainer on drums.
Finding our final melodic lead was fairly easy as well. We had heard Hannah with The Knockabouts and knew we wanted fiddle. It was just a matter of, “Hey, you want to jam with a bunch of dirtbags?” “Sure.” There you have it.
I’m a videographer, Franklin is a lawyer, Zach is a river guide, Hannah teaches music, Bob is a luthier and sound guy. All of which has nothing to do with the way we play together aside from scheduling conflicts. Franklin’s legal background definitely has a presence in his songwriting, but only protracted sense. You hear the tunes and say, “That’s an interesting take on this.” Then you are informed he’s a lawyer and you say, “Oh, that makes sense.” So there isn’t a direct or immediate relationship to our work and our sound, but there might be some retrospective correlation in a listener’s mind.
Your approach is upbeat and bright, based around traditional bluegrass accompaniment. There are great arrangements between the mandolin, banjo, and violin. It seems like a fun band to be in. Lyrically there are some twists and turns. There is so much going on in your songs. How do you approach songwriting?
BOB: Franklin writes most of our music though I know he and Eric collaborated on a few tunes. Franklin is a fantastic storyteller who has lived in Flagstaff long enough to know how much it has changed. Once Franklin writes the song he brings it to band practice. God for- bid if there are more than three chords. We have our chance to learn the song and that is it. Franklin brings us a well-written song and we just make it a bit louder.
ERIC: For the most part, Franklin writes the lyrics and his guitar part. I come in with the
3
30
0•
•
A
AU
UG
GU
U
S
ST
T
2
2
0
01
1
7
7
|
|t
eN
N
O
OI
IS
SE
Ea
s|
|
w.
.
th
t
he
e
no
n
oi
is
s
e
t
.
h
h
e
ar
r
t
ts
s&
&
n
n
e
e
ws
w
w
w
w
w
w
u
e.
us
s