A friend’s girlfriend passed me a slip of paper with “Orange Blues” written on it, along with a few phone numbers, asking me to write an article about the group. I had seen the name around town, but I had never heard their set. A few days passed, and I had almost forgotten, when I had a dream in the middle of the night, right as my mind drifted into the REM phase, and I was visited by four hippies in orange and blue tie-dye. They, along with Jim Morrison and a weird naked Indian, led me through the desert and instructed me to write an article on a band from Murfeesboro called Orange Blues. Jim said I was to go to their house on the outskirts of town and meet with the guys and hear their music. I woke up in a cold sweat with sand between my toes to the sound my cellphone ringing. My editor, Bracken, wanted a story on Orange Blues. I did as I was told.
Orange Blues has been playing psychedelic rock ’n’ roll for the past year, and they’re on track to make a big impact on the Murfreesboro music scene. They have started playing regularly at Bluesboro after packing the place a few weeks ago, and they’re starting to play other places around town, even Lebanon’s infamous Lady Godiva Pub. Their live set consists of 28 originals and two covers, usually playing for two hours. They’re currently recording their debut album with Roy Gately at Fireside Studios.
The album will feature most of their live show in a two-CD set with one orange disc and one blue disc.
Orange Blues has grown from a very diverse batch of musical seeds. Some members are into old psychedelic rock and Southern blues rock like The Allman Brothers, Cream, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers and Jimi Hendrix, while others are into The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Frank Sinatra. Some are into rap and R&B, while others are into Skynrd, Led Zeppelin and The Grateful Dead. Their sound is most like those psychedelic Southern blues bands of the ’60s and ’70s, but there are elements of each and every style in their sound. In short, Orange Blues is a mixed bag of radically different styles converging onstage in a jam-band setting. Imagine if Stevie Ray Vaughn were to smoke lots of weed, watch Bio-Dome, and buy a 4-track recorder. The result would be something like Orange Blues.
An Orange Blues live show is an experience. The songs are often left open, allowing jams to break out within the framework of their original material. No two OB shows are the same.
The guys refuse to wear shoes onstage, so even if the music isn’t funky enough for you, there will be plenty of funk to be had. As diverse as black and white, Orange Blues blends complimentary colors, every shade in the musical spectrum, to create unique and soulful rock ’n’ roll.
It’s obvious these guys really enjoy playing live. They love their music and each other. They’re committed to their band, and as long as they stick together, they’ll develop their own original sound in time. As it stands, they are rough around the edges, mostly composed of the seeds and stems of classic rock ’n’ roll, but they haven’t developed into their own mature plants with personality and soul. Orange Blues is not what I’d consider schwag, but certainly not dank yet.
It seems almost as if they have developed outside the influence of modern music, returning to the blue rock that dominated the past few decades. In a music scene dominated by hardcore and indie rock, it’s odd to find a band like Orange Blues that continues to do its own thing, regardless of what’s popular.
For the bands full 10-song demo recording visit orangeblues.com. For more information, visit myspace.com/theorangebluesband.
