Saturday, the band Stagolee will be returning to perform at Dave’s Dark House Tavern as part of MSU’s homecoming weekend. This will be the personal homecoming for band member and MSU alumna Katie Robertson as well as former Starkville resident Jimmy Kent.
“Katie was a bartender and a waitress [at the tavern.] Jimmy K. worked there as well. They started to play together and were so good. They moved on nationally from there,” Owner of Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern, Dave Hood said.
“We both were doing our own separate acts until Jimmy asked if I wanted to perform together. So I said yes,” Robertson said.
They will be the only band playing at the Tavern tomorrow because the football game was moved to 6 p.m.
“It was good to get them perform homecoming weekend because they were a Starkville-based band. They’ll be performing shortly after the game,” Hood said.
The band consists of four members. Kent, originally from Winona, and Robertson of Vicksburg are both writers and sing the lead and background vocals. In charge of drums and percussion is Matthew Watson of Meridian and bass guitarist Breck Cooper of Nashville, Tenn.
“I also play rhythm guitar, the keyboard and some percussion. Jimmy plays lead and rhythm guitar and harmonica,” Robertson said.
Kent and Robertson have been playing together for six years. Jimmy K. decided to make a complete band when he and Katie moved to Nashville three years ago. It was in Nashville where they met Watson and Cooper.
“The crowd really loves the band. Katie is awesome and super nice,” Hood said.
Kent and Robertson are the foundation of the band, while Watson and Cooper are the rhythm.
“Our songs are original. We do play songs from other artists, but we are mostly traditional blues, rock and a little folk country. With the band we play more rock,” Robertson said.
The name Stagolee came from an old blues folk song entitled “Stagger Lee”, which is about Lee Shelton, an African-American taxi cab driver and pimp who killed his best friend William “Billy” Lyons on Christmas Eve in 1895 in St. Louis in a political dispute turned fatal. Since then, there have been a number of songs recorded by other artists about this incident.
The band gets its inspiration from all genres of music from folk country to rap.
“Jimmy writes all the songs. He has about 500 songs right now. I mainly write most of the blues songs,” Robertson said.
The band has performed in many places in the state, as well as in Alabama and once a week in Tennessee.
Kent’s background is rooted in music and where his passion for songwriting was born.
Robertson has been around music her whole life. Her family is very musical and she began to perform when she was young. She is a pianist and this talent led to her interest in playing guitar. She played guitar for the first time in 2002, which is when she first met Kent.
According to the band’s Web site, Cooper is attending Belmont University in Nashville for audio engineering.
Watson has played with some of the greatest in Nashville and is now playing “just good music,” the site said.
Stagolee albums, T-shirts, posters, stickers and individual tracks can be found online at stagoleemusic.com.