Someone once said, “All pop songs are short stories, set to music.” While that is true in a figurative sense, some popular songs really are constructed just like a literary short story, with a narrative that transports the listener to another time and place. It’s these well-crafted pop masterpieces that will be featured in “Story Songs,” at The Underground, on Friday, May 11th. Bassist Mike Leslie and his friend, drummer Dan Hickey, headline a band which includes South Jersey guitarist and singer Jay Dugan, as well as local residents and long-time friends Doug Slemmer (sax & vocal) and Bill Gottshall (keyboard & vocal).
Mike Leslie has performed with dozens of rock artists, including legendary stars Eddie Van Halen, Rick Derringer, Johnny & Edgar Winter, and Mick Jones, as well as pop music legends Carole King, Stephen Stills, and Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary). Drummer Dan Hickey’s resumé also reads like a Who’s Who of Rock. He has toured with Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson, the B-52s, and the late Joe Cocker. For seven years, Dan played as a member of They Might Be Giants, a band renowned by critics for decades, whose “Boss of Me” was the theme song for Fox TV network’s “Malcolm in the Middle.”
The “story songs” the band will be performing cover a broad range of styles, from the jazz-blues-rock fusion of Steely Dan’s “Reeling in the Years” to Otis Redding’s soulful “Dock of the Bay” to the folk-country classic “City of New Orleans,” recorded by artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Arlo Guthrie, and the punk band Me First & the Gimme Gimmes. Keyboardist Bill Gottshall observes that “when bands prepare their set lists, they often ignore story songs because those tend to be slow tempo tunes that people can find depressing. When you’re playing in a bar, a band is expected to pump things up, to make people want to get on their feet and dance. But emotionally powerful and evocative music so often demands that you sit still and really listen, that you pay attention to the lyrics. The songs that make me think, the ones that draw me into someone’s life journey, those are the songs I love the most.” It’s these type of songs you’ll have the chance to savor on May 11th, when “Story Songs” makes its debut at The Underground.
The band will perform two 90-minute shows, starting at 7:00 and 9:00 pm. There will be different music at both shows, so come to both performances and make a night of it!