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STREET BEAT: Regional Artist Spotlight…
VARIETY ROCK IN ACOUSTIC/ELECTRIC STYLES
A-TRAIN
by Ernie Thomas
Fresh from years of bending strings with the popular cover band, Dema’gin, lead guitarist Aaron Harris is happier than ever with the band now occupying his time –– A-Train.
The Kentucky-bred guitarist explained that Dema’gin officially disbanded last New Year’s Eve, but that there was no lag time for he and Dema’gin bassist Phil Reiner (who also plays in the Pearl Jam tribute act, Evenflow)
A-Train had been an acoustic side project for Harris, Reiner and former Dema’gin drummer Mike Green since 2003. With their cash cow cover band gone, the friends immediately started A-Train chugging at full steam.
Harris traded his acoustic for an electric guitar and Green swapped out his drum kit for an acoustic six-string, making room for former Grape Soda/Emitter drummer, Greg Piaseczany to the line-up.
Over the last four months, A-Train has become quite a popular attraction in region clubs, and rightly so, given the high quality of their original music and their human jukebox-like ability to cover songs from several genres – new and old.
“Phil and I know an awful lot of songs,” said Harris, citing about 200 covers in the basic A-Train repertoire.
There is no such thing as “a typical cover” at A-Train shows, because depending on the audience, the guys will tap into the songbooks of such disparate artists as –– Dave Matthews, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Incubus, Maroon 5, Dion & The Belmonts, The Beatles, B.B. King, AC/DC, Linkin Park, and the Rolling Stones. While their selection of covers can appease college rock indie kids, to crusty classic rock die-hards, playing original music has become the band’s primary focus.
“It’s a pretty eclectic mix,” described Harris of the A-Train sound. “Except for Greg, we all trade off on lead vocals. Mike and I trade off pretty equally and Phil jumps in every fifth or sixth song to sing or sometimes rap.”
For the last few months, A-Train has been giving away a six-song acoustic CD free to anyone who cares to open their ears to such original compositions as –– “I Don’t Wanna Go Home,” “Man Whore,” and “That’s The Way It Goes.”
“We’ve got about sixteen original songs [complete] and a lot of others we’re working on,” noted Harris, who shares writing duties with Green and Reiner.
Because the songs on the CD are so well-written and rock solid, even in such a stripped down acoustic setting, they are finding favor with local fans who are open to hearing fresh music.
“We’re starting to get as many requests at our shows for [our] original songs now as we are for covers,” happily noted Harris. “People really seem to enjoy our songs.”
Inspired by the strong response local club patrons have shown to their self-penned tunes, A-Train plan to record a full length, full electric band CD in the near future and get it out on the market. | ||
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