Percy's faith

Percy Hill are in Bloom

by Don Fluckinger

It would be difficult to get Percy Hill to admit it, but a strong case can be made that the New Hampshire seacoast band jam to upscale, '70s-pop grooves, plugging right into the Aja vibe with a little funk, jazz, and old-style reggae sprinkled on top.

A survey of each member's influences bears this out: lead vocalist/guitarist Joe Farrell cites Duane Allman as a guitar favorite, and bits of Peter Gabriel and Donald Fagen can be heard in his singing; keyboard whiz Nate Wilson (who also plays flute on a few tunes) comes from a soul-jazz perspective, having been named a New Hampshire all-state jazz musician at 16 and holding up Stevie Wonder's Innervisions as an inspiration; drummer Aaron Katz cites Pat Metheny, Santana, and Joni Mitchell as "songwriting influences"; and bassist John Leccese idolizes Jaco Pastorious, Paul McCartney, and Geddy Lee.

"We're trying take that sort of sound and do something new with it. . . . I don't see us as a retro band, although we definitely have those kind of elements," Wilson says. "The instruments that we play, first off, are all instruments that you'd more or less find in the '70s. My whole keyboard rig is basically vintage, because that's what I grew up on and that's really what I hear."

They've done well so far, cranking out four CDs in their five-plus years together. Percy Hill's current CD, Color in Bloom, finds the band, who appear this Friday at the Tammany Club, very focused. The CD features beautiful packaging and some poppy, open-and-shut tunes for the uninitiated fans mixed with long jam-based tunes for the concert faithful that wants to hear the solo development of a Percy Hill live show. Mixing it up can be risky, but they've managed to avoid making a spotty CD -- Color in Bloom is pretty smooth from beginning to end.

And that's due to the band's current line-up, which Wilson hopes remains a permanent touring ensemble. Cofounders Farrell and Wilson hired Leccese and Katz to form a new rhythm section in 1997 after two members left.

It's taken older fans awhile to get used to this edition of the group -- a more polished groove band with more structured songs -- but overall it's a huge improvement.

"If you listened to our first CD and then compared it to our latest one, you probably would not even recognize us," Wilson says. "With a lot of our earlier stuff, the song is there to give a catalyst to the jam. . . . Our material has moved more in a song-oriented direction, where songs can stand on their own as a three-minute song. Anything else we add to it is icing on the cake. That's not to say that we're a pop band now. I just think there's a lot more strength in the songs themselves."

They've toured the nation several times, building a fan base by encouraging taping of shows thus attracting the neo-hippie crowd to gigs. Count Blues Traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan as a Percy Hill fan -- he jammed with the group once.

From that jam with Sheehan, an intriguing question arises: did Blues Traveler rip off an album title from Percy Hill? Here are the facts. Percy Hill came out with a CD titled Straight On 'Til Morning in 1995, which they gave to Sheehan after their Portland, Maine, gig together. Just months later, Blues Traveler came out with a new CD titled Straight On 'Till Morning.

"There's definitely a strong possibility that maybe Bobby lost the CD and never even knew the name of the album," Wilson admits. But there's also a good chance that maybe they borrowed it from us. We don't care -- you can't copyright the name of an album."

He's got a point. After all, Percy Hill stole their band name from ex-bassist Jeremy Hill's father, Percy. The phrase "straight on till morning" was itself borrowed from the story of Peter Pan, being the last leg of the trip to the Neverland. Come to think of it, all bands in this genre rip off song structure from the Allmans, the Dead, and any number of old rock groups. Still, even impartial observers must admit it's a curiosity of pop-music lore that may never be answered.

Percy Hill play at 10 p.m. on February 12 at the Tammany Club with Electric Blue and the Kozmik Truth. Tickets are $5. Call 791-6550.