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Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005 | ||
What do you think of this story? Bad Links? | Rock onMaking it big in a little cityBy MICHAEL BOYLAN Lots of things are different these days for former Peachtree City residents Aaron Beavers and Damon Allen now that their band, Shurman, is getting some recognition from both music fans and critics. The biggest difference for Beavers is being able to focus solely on music and not have to worry about keeping a day job, which was a struggle or the 1990 McIntosh High School graduate, as the band would go away for weeks at a time on tour as the opening acts for a wide variety of bands. Beavers and Allen met in Peachtree City as teenagers and eventually learned how to play instruments and start making music together. Among the numerous names of the bands they played in in high school were Frayed Ends and Vacant Stares. It seemed like each name we went with got worse and worse over time, Beavers recalled chuckling. The bands played high school food drives and frat parties in Atlanta and even made it to the stage at the Cotton Club once. Beavers recalls thinking, We finally made it, only to realize that his journey to become a part of a successful band would last another 15 years. Beavers and Allen went their separate ways for awhile but reunited in Los Angeles and shurman, the band the two are in, along with Jason Moore and Keith Hanna, was born. Beavers is the lead vocalist and plays electric and acoustic guitar, as well as harmonica, while Allen is the bands drummer and also does vocals. The members of the band, which had toured extensively in 2003 and 2004, decided to put forth their own money to produce their first full-length album, Jubilee. The investment appears to have paid off. Within the space of a few months, the band was signed to Vanguard Records and found representation from the William Morris Agency. The band also shot their first video for the single, Drownin, which got a lot of airplay on Country Music Television and led to their album being the number one selling album on CMT.com the first week it made it on to the web site. The video is now in regular rotation on CMT, as well as VH1 Country and Fuse and the band has also been named an Emerging Artist at the House of Blues, meaning their video also gets played daily at House of Blues locations. While country music stations and fans have discovered their music, the band is also finding success among rock and roll stations and their fans as well. Though people are always trying to place shurman in one musical category or another, Beavers states that the band tries to avoid being grouped into one category. In fact, he adds, the fact that cant easily be defined in one genre or another, may be one of the bands best qualities. We do a lot of different things and play a lot of different style, said Beavers, who recalled growing up and listening to 96Rock where an AC-DC song could be followed up by a song by Little Feat. As far as Beavers and the members of shurman are concerned, you can call their music americana, country, rock, alt-country, and sometimes even cowpunk, as long as you enjoy it. So far, mission accomplished. The band has just finished a tour opening up for Ted Nugent but has also played shows with bands like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Drive-By Truckers, Los Lonely Boys, Hootie and the Blowfish, and Blues Traveler. It was at the annual Fourth of July Blues Traveler show at Red Rocks Amphitheater that Beavers had a very cool moment. During our set, I told the crowd that five years ago I was a fan in the seats and I prayed that I would get to play here some day, said Beavers, who called out his seat number from five years before and gave the person in that seat a copy of their CD. The surge of fame has been humbling for all of the members of shurman and one of the largest benefits recently has been a small vacation after the Nugent tour ended. There were very few breaks like that in the bands past as each show was necessary to pay their bills and keep them going. Now, they are preparing to get a fall tour together and will soon get back into the studio to record a follow-up to Jubilee. I never thought that this would happen, admitted Beavers. Aside from the attention of newspapers from his hometown, he is also getting calls from friends from junior high and high school. He also stated that though the fame is a bit strange at first, especially hearing the band on the radio or seeing themselves on television, but he is getting used to it. Its just weird to see people at some of our shows and realize that I just bought their album and that these people are now our peers or to be making a video with a crew of like 100 people, said Beavers, who was floored when Grammy winner Lucinda Williams talked to a magazine about their band. Less than two years ago this seemed like impossible. Less than two years ago, Beavers had his car repossessed and couldnt work a regular job because of such a busy touring schedule. he was crashing on couches and Allen was walking dogs in Los Angeles to try to make ends meet. Some nights the band would only be playing in front of 12 people but the band decided to play each show the same, whether it was for 12 people or 12,000. That philosophy built a solid fan base that just keeps expanding as more people are turned on to the music. For the local bands still jamming in someones basement in Fayette County, Beavers offers this advice, keep your day job, play with a lot of different musicians so that you learn to communicate musically and put everything you have into your music and the band. Beavers elaborated by saying that keeping a day job takes an enormous amount of pressure off the band, so that it isnt being relied upon as being the sole source of money. He also stated that people are likely to go through four or five bands or membership changes before they find the band they will stick with and that trying to make a career out of making music takes a lot of patience and an all consuming amount of hard work. There is no better feeling than to be able to look at it and say, this is I what I do for a living, Beavers admitted, as he traveled from Atlanta to Chattanooga before stopping in Nashville for the night. It is a busy time for him and the members of shurman but after playing 200 shows in one year, they are used to working hard.
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