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November 13, 2006

Serious and silly

Bluegrass band has fun with music

Misty Watson

The reason Dave Crawford says he performs in the bluegrass band Spatial Effects is because he is the only one “without enough pride to sing silly songs.”

But fellow band member Tom Brown proved him wrong when he sang “his chest fell way down to his drawers, and he can’t even see his knees... a middle-aged fatty in a little Speedo.”

Brown told the audience at the Dalton Little Theatre on Sunday afternoon that he was looking for “three or four flabby, middle-aged guys” to appear in a video for that song.

Brown, Crawford and Earl Brackin, of Whitfield and Gordon counties, and Betsy Blankenship, of Apison, Tenn., performed as Spatial Effects Sunday.

The band’s Web site (www.geocities.com/countrarywise/spatialeffects.html) claims Spatial Effects “has carved out a name for itself in the realm of demented bluegrass. A future award-winning band, Spatial Effects is known for the bent bluegrass tunes...”

But Spatial Effects has a serious side, too. Crawford called Sunday’s performance “a roller coaster of serious and funny.”

Crawford wrote a song inspired by a visit to the overlook at Fort Mountain State Park on a fall afternoon two years ago.

“The colors of Fort Mountain will make you sigh,” he sang. “Georgia, sweet Georgia, home here on earth for a while. Ain’t nothing quite like living Georgia style.”

Brown, Crawford and Brackin write songs.

“Most of the stuff we do is original,” Brown said. “We write our own stuff and then present it to the group (and they) work with it and embellish it.”

Brown and Crawford have played music together for about 12 years, and Brackin joined them 10 years ago. Blankenship plays with the band on an occasional basis.

All came from families where music played a large role in their lives.

Brown, a banjo and harmonica player, grew up in Dalton performing in “The Sound of Music,” “Oklahoma,” and other musicals. But he always liked bluegrass. Brown often watched Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt play bluegrass on television.

Crawford, a guitar player, didn’t “really start playing guitar until Tom and I got together” to perform bluegrass. Crawford studied music at Jacksonville State University in Alabama and became a band director at Westside Middle School. He was a French horn player.

Brackin, a mandolin and guitar player, grew up playing music in a “James Taylor style,” he said. “It wasn’t until the late 80s that I did bluegrass.”

Blankenship’s father was in a bluegrass band while she was growing up in North Carolina.

“I came home one day and said I wanted a piano,” she said. She was told by her family they couldn’t afford one, and even if they could, they didn’t have room in their house for one. So she learned the guitar. She played an upright bass at Sunday’s performance.

Band members say they perform together “four or five times a year” because they don’t have time to do it more.

“We have families with young children,” Crawford said. “We cram to get ready for a show.”

The band does not have any upcoming gigs booked, but Brown says there may be a performance in January. Check the band’s Web site for more information.

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