| music | |
LtoR: john wilkins dan schulze tim bedlam
yours truly whitney keen mathew smith RECORDINGS
Blurry People—Live at Rockafellas' (mp3)
Raisin Toast—Live at Rockafellas' (mp3) Learning (mp3) About... Because They Can't (mp3) About... Back Into It (mp3) About... Always the Same (mp3) About... Time to Change (mp3) About... Ness, Don't Go Too Far (mp3) About... |
Eartha Baxter was a rockin' little band of dorks that mixed a number of styles, particularly Jamaican and Americanized ska with progressive
rock and jazz--into a compelling sound that, in the end, met the fate of many Columbia, SC bands trying to play outside of the mainstream. It was broken apart by
the pressures of life on its members and the seemingly dooming odds of artistry in general.
The band was born when Tim Bedlam and I met with drummer Whitney Keen to introduce him to the music that I had written up to that point in the vein of American "ska", though less pop-punk than that which was soon |
to become popular in the mainstream
and suffer a terrible fate in the eyes of most of the public. We solidified a few songs, invited John Wilkins to let loose on guitar and started looking for horn players.
Help came at that point in the form of Mat Smith, a talented trombone player who was into the sound that we were playing. He brought in a few friends on other horns and we had a band that could perform. There were a number of different players with the band for the first few months. When Dan Schulze came to play a show with us in Augusta on baritone and tenor sax, the real lineup of Eartha Baxter was solidified. As we made some cash, |
we were able to record an EP, and release it locally thanks to funding from Mat's father. Soon, Dan left the band and was replaced by alto sax player, Jerry Smith, who was with Eartha Baxter until its end.
Jerry was in the studio with us on a recording of "Because They Can't", for a compilation by Red Ray Gun Records.
A few months before we called it quits, Jason Bellack came in as an official Baxter adoptee on tenor sax and was the sole horn player on the last recording we made--a song called "Learning." |
