Amoricans, a Black Crowes tribute band on the rise

Born in the Merrimack Valley of southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts, Amoricans are a tribute band on the rise. The eight musicians in this band not only master the material of The Black Crowes, they bring a vibe, a feeling, and a groove to every song they play in their ever changing and evolving set list. After a few years on the scene, Amoricans are now finding gigs in Boston, south shore, and New York state. Lead vocalist Seth Miller, bass player Steven Gleason, guitarist Kevin Meaney, guitarist Roland Desjean, drummer Malcolm Collins, keyboardist Brian Therriault, and backing vocalists Hermine Schima Basso and Shari Richardson each contributed their thoughts as to why The Black Crowes are such an incredible source of inspiration to them and how they have expanded their audience in such a short time.

Founding member and bass player Steven Gleason said the creation of Amoricans was inspired when some early members of the band went to see The Black Crowes’ off shoot band Magpie Salute which Crowes alum Mark Ford and Rich Robinson were part of.

After an initial start with another singer, Gleason found the right people to flesh out his vision for Amoricans after he wrote an online eulogy to Black Crowes keyboardist Eddie Harsh. Other musicians commented on the eulogy and that gave Gleason a pool of names to consider.

.“A bunch of things coalesced at the same time that brought us all together,” Gleason said.

Amoricans other co-founder and Guitarist Kevin Meaney didn’t think Amoricans would ever become a wildly popular tribute band because the Black Crowes had a smaller following than other classic rock bands.

“They had kind of a narrower audience and we’d have to eek that out and try to get those people to come out and see us,” Meaney said.

New member, guitarist Roland Desjean, joined Amoricans recently after he got a call from out of blue from Kevin Meaney who informed him there was a new opening for a guitar player. “It’s an amazing stroke of luck for me,” Desjean said.

Lead singer Seth Miller joined the band sometime after its inception. Miller has been a Black Crowes fan since 1990, getting hooked on their sound after he saw them at a defunct soccer arena. Miller has seen them live 60 times in their 25 year existence. Miller tried to start a tribute band years ago but he could not, at that time, find musicians who could commit and learn the material.

Magpies Salute had also drawn Miller’s attention toward the current revival of the Black Crowes music. After finding a Black Crowes tribute group page on Facebook, Miller discovered that the tribute band videos he liked best was the Amoricans based out of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, a short drive from his native Boston.

“I friended Kevin on Facebook and I said if you ever need a sub, I’d love to do that,” Miller exclaimed. Shortly after that, Amoricans needed a new singer. Miller was further excited when he found out which Crowes song would be on their set list.

“I never though I would get to sing the deep cuts and the album tracks and the unreleased stuff,” Miller said. “I never thought I would get to sing those songs in front of people with a real band that could really play them.”

Backing vocalist Shari Richardson got the call through a personal connection: “I joined as one of the backing singers. I knew Kevin and Malcolm before. It was a friendly thing” Richardson said. “At that point I was just saying yes to anything I could get.”

Amoricans’ other backing singer, Hermine Schima Basso, joined in an offhanded manner after making a light hearted post on the band‘s page.

“It started off as a joke,” Basso said. “Malcolm Collins and I have been good friends for many years. I’d grown up in a musical family. He had put up a post up saying he was getting a Black Crowes tribute together. I jokingly said ‘Can I be a backup singer?’ He said ‘yes’ and Kevin Meany clicked like and I didn’t think anything of it because I was joking. A couple months later I got the phone call saying ‘We’re ready for you.’ I was like ‘What?’ Wait a minute. I was joking.’ But he’s like ‘No, we weren’t joking. Show up at the jam room.’”

Keyboardist Brian Therriault got the arm put on him by his old buddy Steve Gleason. “I was high school friends with Steve Gleason who’s the bass player. He asked me if I was interested in joining a Black Crowes tribute band,” Therriault said. “I wasn’t a huge Black Crowes fan. I only knew their hits when I first started. “

Each member of Amoricans have a different take on what they like most about the musicianship, vocal work, and gritty lyrical stories of The Black Crowes.

“The fact that it has soul. The songs live and breathe,” Gleason said. “That they’re not a band that is only their five best songs. I love the fact that they covered a million artists and did their own interpretation of the songs. I love that when you went to see them live, they were just magic, as intense a band as I’ve ever seen on stage. The musicianship is off the charts. Those songs are not easy to play. We’re trying our best to get all that right. They’ve inspired me in a million different ways since I was a kid.”

Meany admires the Black Crowes old fashioned rock and roll sound. “They’re such a throwback type of band,” Meaney said. “It’s music like we used to enjoy it, bands like Faces and The Rolling Stones, Humble Pie. It’s very bluesy and kind of gospel based at the same time. A lot of it is just feel good music. Being a guitarist, the guitar playing is just in a league by itself.”

Amoricans second guitarist Roland Desjean appreciates the way The Black Crowes could weave a great story with their music. “For me, it’s the songwriting,” Desjean said. “The music that Rich Robinson writes is just amazing. There’s really noting like it. You can say it’s Stonesy ,or it’s bluesy. But, there really aren’t any bands playing music like The Black Crowes. The songs themselves are what really drew me to it. Rich has got such a fantastic guitar tone and Mark Ford, same thing there. When those guys were together, the three albums they did together were just amazing.”

Miller, the lead vocalist, said his favorite thing about Black Crowes was drummer Steve Gorman. Miller feels Gorman is the most underrated, underappreciated rock drummer ever.

“His swing is really unique. I hear only eight bars and I know it’s him playing,” Miller said. “It’s fantastic music. It’s riff driven, fantastic lyrics. It’s a visceral thing. It’s hard for me to articulate in words what exactly draws me to that band. The dynamic range of it. They rock out. They have beautiful ballads. They have these strange, moody explorations. The band really changed directions three or four records in and they created a divided fan base. Some people liked the rocker Crowes. Some people liked the jammie Crowes. I happened to like all of it.”

Miller also pointed out that he and his Amoricans band mates as well as their fan base discovered The Black Crowes when the Crowes emerged during their youth. That made them more engaging than Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rush, and Cream who were already classic rock gods by then, many of whom were no longer playing out by then.

“We’re around the same age as those guys,” Miller said. “I think Chris is 53. I’m going to be 49 next week. We’ve all grown up in that generation.”

Amoricans backing vocalist Shari Richardson can sink her teeth into every aspect of the Black Crowes music.

“Everything,” Richardson exclaimed. “I don’t know if it’s southern rock. I don’t know what it is. But, I like the groove that all the songs have. They’re funky. They’re different. The vocals. Everything I about it, I love. Every new song I learn I love better than the last one.”

“I didn’t know anything but the hits I had heard on the radio,” backing vocalist Basso said. “Malcolm sent me a list of songs I had to learn. I was panic stricken because I didn’t know any of them and had to learn more than half the material from the ground up. The first song that I listened to was ‘Sting Me.’ I had not ever heard it before and I absolutely loved it. The more songs I listened to, every single one of them I just loved and felt ‘eureka!’ It was the discovery of this fantastic music that I had never, ever known existed and still wouldn’t have known about if I wasn’t given this opportunity.”

“I like the energy,” Therriault said. “I think they’re a real dynamic band. They have some harder hitting songs, some real pretty, beautiful songs. What I’ve really come to appreciate since I’ve been getting into the music is the musicianship, especially the keyboard player, Eddie Harsh. He’s just an incredible player, one of the best keyboardist around in the modern era.”

Putting together a group of eight musicians who had the chops to play this hard to handle music was a project in and of itself. Multiple guitar parts and multiple vocal parts put demands on singers and musicians.

“Yes,” Gleason stated flatly. “There’s a lot going on in these songs. There not simply songs. What you really have to be with a band like this is committed. People show up every week. We practice. We learn new songs constantly. Our set list changes every show that we play. We add covers that they played. We add jams that they did in the middle of songs. We are authentic. To be that it takes a lot of time, practice, and study to understand what they were doing.”

“It’s very important for us,” Gleason continues, “that the tone of the song, the guitar tone, the bass line, all those things are authentic. I bought the bass that was on two of their records and on all of Rob Robinson’s solo records and I play it with the band. I play it on stage because it sounds authentic to those songs. We are all concerned with authenticity. We’ve bought specific guitars and amps to try and get that sound.”

Meany said that the people in Amoricans have such a passion for the Black Crowes music that they learn their parts well individually before the group gets together so they can gel at rehearsals. “By the time we get together and try a song, everybody’s pretty comfortable playing it, quicker than I would have expected.”

As a new member, guitarist Desjean had two weeks to learn 25 Black Crowe songs before Amoricans played at Daryl’s House gig in New York state.

“It was intimidating,” Desjean said. “I actually knew a fair number of the songs already. I wasn’t playing them correctly. I was playing them in the wrong tunings and different keys. So I had to relearn those songs. It was a lot of work. It was challenging. Frankly, I was kind of scared, looking at all these songs and all these guitar parts and capos.”

Usually, though, Amoricans have a handle on their situation. “There were times where we’ve learned three or four songs in a month and really nailed them down,” Miller said. “Other times it’s been more difficult because of logistics. There are eight of us in the band, and that can be difficult to get everyone’s schedule to line up.”

Initially, Basso was intimidated by the material. “We’re in a good position where everybody was emotionally invested in the material and we chose songs and everybody goes off in their own direction and prepares” she said. “About 98 percent of the time we come into a rehearsal, everybody shows up having done their homework, and we end up knocking the song out of the part pretty quickly.”

Each Amoricans has a varying insight/opinion as to why their Amoricans outfit is starting to pick up more interest, more gigs in areas outside their Merrimack Valley base. Bassist Steven Gleason believes their tribute band has a built in advantage just being in New England.

“The northeast is (The Black Crowes’ biggest market and there are plenty of people that want to see Black Crowes music,” Gleason said. “The Crowes were big in lots of different places, one of them being New York. We quietly built up through people who come to show time and again to see what Amoricans do.”

Meany attributes the Amoricans’ growing popularity to hard core Black Crowes fans who miss the Crowes’ heyday, fans who have been deprived of that live concert feeling, fans that are hungry to hear that music played live again. “We just getting the word through the networking of the fan base, spreading to different internet groups,” Meany said.

Desjean perceives that Crowes’ drummer Steve Gorman’s book about The Black Crowes reignited interest in the music. Loyal fans of that band found all they wanted to know in that book. “I think that had a lot to do with it too,” Desjean said.

“We’ve hit a bit of a critical mass on social media,” Miller said. “We’ve made it a priority over 2019 to get a lot of video and audio out there so people can check us out. I definitely think it helps us that Chris and Rich buried the hatchet for the time being and go out on the road and to ‘reunite.’”

“The word is getting out,” Richardson said. “People are asking us to come out to different places, which is nice. And that’s our plan. We need to spread out more. The fans we have are really into the music as well. They have big smiles on their faces, and they’re dancing. It’s a lot of fun just to watch them.”

“I think that the online marketing definitely gotten the word out a lot more than just playing clubs night after night and just relying on word of mouth,” Basso said.

“The Black Crowes are reuniting now so there is more interest in the Black Crowes,” Therriault said. “There is a sub culture of people who have loved the Black Crowes and as we’ve played out there’s been more exposure.”

Amoricans have hit The Zorba Room in Lowell, Loretta’s Last Call and The Midway in Boston, the C-Note in Hull, Daryl Halls venue Daryl’s House in New York state, and A-Brews in Dracut. The Boathouse in Dracut and The Skybox in Tewksbury have been regular rotation rooms for Amoricans.

Amoricans, by and large, appeal more to the age group that grew up with Black Crowes in the late classic rock era and older music fans than they do today’s modern rock youth base.

“I think we appeal,” Gleason said, “more to older people because younger people have a hard time listening. Their attention spans are such that if we play a ten minute version of “My Morning Song,” they might have trouble with that. That’s just not the way music is constructed today.”

While Meany finds older music fans follow them the most, there are some younger people that are just getting into Black Crowes music. “We have a few second generation fans, people whose parents were around and they were exposed to it that way,” Mean said.

Aside from their own success with Amoricans, the band’s members observe that they are doing their thing during a good time for tribute bands. Many of New England’s tribute bands are commanding loyal followings and are making money for their bookers and venues.

“I think if you’re good, then it’s a known commodity,“ Gleason said. “Older people don’t go out that much. When they do, they want to be assured something’s good.” Gleason sited local drummer David Stefanelli’s Bob Segar tribute band, Beautiful Losers.

“Everybody in that is a monster player,” Gleason said. “If you go see them, it’s tremendous. I wouldn’t say it’s exactly like seeing Bob Segar. But it’s as close as you can get and knowing that going in for ten bucks, it’s pretty good. “

“I think it’s just the fact that people can hear that music played confidently and played faithfully without having to spend exorbitant amounts of money,” Meaney said. “You don’t have to buy 150 dollar tickets when you can go out to a local venue and pay anywhere from five to 30 dollars.”

Amoricans new guitarist believes it‘s a matter of timing, having played in three previous tribute bands. “It’s a genre that’s time has finally come,” Dejeans said. Ten, 15 years ago tribute bands were laughed at. It was a joke. It wasn’t taken serious. It was wannabes. Over the years there have been so many tribute bands that are really, really good. I think people have come around. It’s something new. People are used to going to see cover bands. But, the tribute band is part of the cycle of the music business.”

Each member of Amoricans shares an ambition to take their tribute band to as many venues in as many states possible. Gleason would like to see Amoricans travel to another city where they don’t usually go. “We’re working with a guy now,” he said.

Meany said he’d like to see Amoricans co-headline with other up and coming tribute bands such as Cars tribute Panorama. “We’ve talked about reaching out to Draw The Line, the Aerosmith tribute, opening shows for them somewhere. Try to get a little bit out of the bar scene and into the theater and concert venue type places,” Meany said.

Desjean said he too would like to see Amoricans play larger venues. “I’d like to see them play places like The Larcom Theatre in Beverly or the Iron Horse in Northampton. Just small halls. These guys are just incredible musicians. Daryl’s House was a really great experience. I think if they can continue on that trend and travel out a little further, that would be a great next step for them.”

Miller, meanwhile, says that although The Black Crowes are more of an acquired taste than what other tribute bands offer, he thinks he and his band mates are capable of finding a fan base. “We might be able to take a weekend a month and tour to different cities and come out OK financially,” the lead vocalist said.

“It would be cool if we could play maybe New England, spread out more,” Richardson said. “I don’t know if we could do the whole east coast but just playing around New England would be cool.”

‘Ideally,” Basso said, “I would love to see us playing a bunch of different states. I would like to be playing Rhode Island, Connecticut, up and down the east coast. It would be fantastic if we could build an audience like that.”

“I’d like them to go as far as they want,” Therriault said. “I don’t know what the limit is for a tribute band to the Black Crowes and I hope they find that limit and are as successful as they want to be.”

Amoricans play this Friday night, February 28 at The Boathouse in Dracut, Massachusetts.
Amoricans play March 28 at The Skybox in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

www.amoricans.com

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