Eight years after rising from the ashes of leader Reggie Ware’s solo project, Loose Chain still garners praise from wherever they play. And with a list of influences ranging from The Commodores to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Puff Daddy, they have something for everyone.
Ware, who was born and raised in Atlanta, has grown up with music his entire life.
“I was always in the choir or high school band,” he said. “But I’m not your typical musician. I have a master in business and have two jobs other than Loose Chain.”
“It’s real hard doing everything. I have people running my mortgage company for me most of the time, but when you’re playing three or four nights a week it gets hard.”
Before his band project Ware was doing his own solo project, Jus’ Reggie, around Atlanta. The more he played the more he networked and eventually formed Loose Chain.
“I was doing my own thing but also meeting up to play with these other guys from other labels, and we eventually formed our own group.”
Loose Chain consists of Al Harrison on keyboards, Bobby Foster on vocals, Rudy Collins on bass, Brett Barner on drums and Rocky Lynch handling all the rap aspects of the group.
Ware explained how the crowd usually dictates how the repertoire is broken down into a single nights set-list.
“We like to mix it up wherever we play,” Reggie explained. “We’ll go to a fraternity party and play hip-hop then go to an all black club and play some Lynyrd Skynyrd. We like to break the norm.”
This ideology of breaking the norm is also how Ware boasts they got their name.
“We play pretty much anything, so we wanted to get the idea out that we were loose to anything, but something like Loose Cannon didn’t sound too good,” he said.
Having something for everyone was the deciding factor in Lauren Burns’, co-director of external events, choice for asking Loose Chain to play Bulldog Bash.
“Loose Chain covers so many genres that someone walking by is bound to here at least one song they like, so it was a win-win situation for us,” Burns said.
“I have a more pop sound to my writing, like Sheryl Crow,” Ware said of his originals. “I mainly write about what I feel or see and not necessarily life experiences in the past.”
They plan on releasing a Christmas song around Thanksgiving with a full band album of originals due out in January or February of 2006.