Starkville band Big Blue Truck will host a multi-art event at Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern Nov. 11, incorporating music, poetry and painting into one show.
The event, which is titled “Our Cosmic Corner Arts and Music Showcase,” was initiated by the members of Big Blue Truck after a discussion about the lack of artistic interest displayed in Starkville and on the Mississippi State campus, Blake Weems, rhythm guitarist and vocalist for the band, said. In its attempt to encourage the arts in Starkville, the event will mostly feature MSU student artists presenting their original works.
“We support the arts,” Weems said. “It’s a part of life that people are overlooking. Our aim with this show is to push the arts, not just our music.”
To ensure that the arts are properly supported, the proceeds from the event will go to the Starkville Arts Council.
The showcase, beginning at 9 p.m., will feature several painters from MSU.
“We’re going to have [MSU students] Darcy Fletcher and James Jones and three or four other painters [at the event],” Jimmy Redd, Big Blue Truck bassist, said. “We’re also going to have some poets and three bands.”
Currently scheduled poets include graduate student Kelly Daniels and Big Blue Truck vocalist Cassey Roberts, but the band is expecting more to attend.
“We’ve got about four other poets we’re talking to about coming,” Weems said. “We’ll have several lined up by the time the show comes around.”
Beyond these art forms, the show will also feature performances by some local musicians, the first of which is Maximilian Miles, a solo acoustic project by Big Blue Truck drummer Broc Hannon.
From there the music will move to the improvisational stylings of Hot Sauce Machine. The band, though described as rock, also uses the techniques of a jam band to provide a different sound than either one, Redd said.
The headlining act of the night will be Big Blue Truck, a diverse band that cannot place itself in a genre, lead guitarist Justin Lambert said. The band mixes in a little rock, punk, country, psychadelic, industrial and the occasional metal song.
“On our Web site we’re described as high-octane Southern psychadelic,” Lambert said. “So I guess if we’re going to be called anything, that’ll be it.”
The group has existed since February of this year and has already played at MSU concerts including Music Makers’ back to school concert and the recent Homecoming concert at the Junction. The band has also performed around Starkville at Dave’s, Bin612 and its venue tonight, the Boar’s Head.
Big Blue Truck is the combined efforts of four high school friends, Lambert, Redd, Hannon and Weems, and local addition Roberts.
“Me, [Lambert] and Redd were doing a trio thing,” Weems said. “We were all kind of singer/songwriters. Then we got [Hannon] to start drumming for us, and it went from there.”
Each member of the band has been a member of other musical groups and claims many different influences including The Band, Drive-By Truckers, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, Fiona Apple and psychadelic band Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Albums often come later in groups’ careers, but for Big Blue Truck, an album was foremost on the members’ minds upon creation of the band. Old Time Debauchery was released in August and has sold about 200 copies, Weems said.
This came about thanks to each member’s past music experience. Each of them had been involved in bands previous to Big Blue Truck, and between them they share 50 years of musical experience and seven album productions. They pooled their experience to put out Old Time Debauchery, which is self-produced and independently sold.
Weems said Big Blue Truck was always intended to be a band that played its own music. The musicians began writing together immediately after forming the band, tackling originals before they began working on the occasional cover.
The band will display its eclectic blend of musical styles tonight at 10 p.m. at the Boar’s Head and again at 9 p.m. Nov. 11. For more about the band, visit its Web site at www.bigbluetruckmusic.com or listen to sample tracks at www.myspace.com/bigbluetruckmusic.