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STREET BEAT |
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LOCAL FEATURE by Ernie Thomas click on link to view
Nick Danger Band long ago built
themselves a solid reputation as a blues/rock combo with a knack for
recycling songs by the likes of Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and
Jonny Lang. But in recent
months, that’s all changed.
Nick Danger’s once
predictable playlist is more steeped in funky rock and sassy R&B
than anything else these days. The
change came when Nicole Jamrose,
a great looking and remarkably talented young lady, stepped up to the
microphone in the early weeks of 2002.
“Nicole came to see
us play one night and we got her up on stage to do a couple songs.
She just blew everyone away,” said group founder/bassist Jerry
Clemons II, who immediately recruited the available singer.
Jamrose, a native of
Schererville, only recently returned to the Midwest after having
travelled the U.S. playing and singing for the last few years. She spent two long periods in California and Colorado,
respectively. California by
design while chasing her musical dream and Colorado by accident, when a
van she was driving broke down there.
While living in
Colorado, Jamrose recorded one of her original songs on a compilation
CD, “Women
Are From Venus,” featuring promising young female
singer/songwriters. Sally
Taylor, the celebrated daughter of Carly Simon and James Taylor, was one
of the artists who appeared on that CD along with Jamrose.
Since becoming Nick
Danger’ primary vocalist (and acoustic guitarist), Jamrose has had a
major impact on their repertoire.
“We’re doing songs
by Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin,” said Clemons. “We still do a
lot of great blues stuff too. In
fact, Nicole does on remarkable job on ‘Stormy
Monday Blues.’ But
we’re also doing a lot more contemporary stuff like that new song from
Pink called ‘Misery,’ and
stuff by No Doubt and other new groups.”
“Nicole’s got a
lot of soul,” said Clemons. “She’s
got a very powerful and commanding voice and stage presence.”
Her “white soul” style has brought a whole new dimension to
the venerable group, which also includes long time guitarist Zeke
Rongers, renown Midwest jazz/funk drummer Lannie
Turner, and new keyboardist Chris
Wander.
Wander joined the band around the same time as Jamrose.
For the last several years, Wander had been a side man with
international touring/recording artist, Ronnie Baker Brooks (son of
Lonnie Brooks). “Chris is
a crazy man,” mused Clemons. “He’s a really big ham.
He runs into the audience and all over the club.
He just gets nuts on stage.”
There is a wealth of
talent in Nick Danger. Both Wander and Turner frequently do session work
and have been featured on dozens of regionally-produced albums over the
last few years. Rongers
also doubles in the Angus Young role with popular AC/DC tribute band,
Bon Fire. Clemons is a
popular figure at area jam nights, along with running his family’s
N.W. Indiana retail music business, Dynamite Music.
Along with bringing a
fresh female edge to the band, Jamrose has brought with her a formidable
songbook and writing skills, which Nick Danger is only now starting to
tap. “We’re doing
a couple of Nicole’s original songs in the set and I’m hoping that
the band will start writing more new original material now that we’ve
got her with us.”
Last summer Nick
Danger released a 5-song original EP called, “Enter The Danger Zone,”
that featured songs written with their old keyboardist.
Clemons is proud of that CD, but thinks the band is capable of
doing much better with the influx of fresh blood. “Because
of how pumped up everyone is about the new face of the band, I would say
people can look for a new Nick Danger CD sometime in summer,”
teased Clemons.
www.dynamitemusic.com (click on the “Danger
Zone” link) by Ernie Thomas
Having spent a number
of years recording original rock ‘n’ roll songs and playing the
music biz game to the point of shopping demos, attending national music
conferences and enduring the stress of always having to be market savvy,
Heather Peters, decided she was ready to chuck it all and just go
back to the reason she wanted to sing in the first place.
“It is ten years
this year that I joined my first band (Smart Remarks) as a back-up
singer and tambourine shaker,” she laughed when Midwest
BEAT caught up to her. “The
whole reason I wanted to be in a band is because I love to sing and I
thought it would be fun. When
you get all involved in the business end of the music industry it stops
being fun.”
After Smart Remarks
broke up a year later, Peters was quickly recruited by local guitarist Jim
Shepard to sing for a new band he was forming called, TAXI.
The group went from being a cover band to writing and recording
original songs. They
released a full length CD –– “Going
Back To Nowhere” –– in 1995.
Peters left Taxi just
after that CD was released to hook up with the all original project,
VIVID. With them, she
showcased for several major record labels, but the pressure began to
mount as they pushed hard for stardom. After three years, that once
promising group began to splinter.
“I don’t want to
come off negative about the experience because I learned a lot,” she
reflected, “but I was always stressed out (trying to write songs and
showcasing for record folks). Some musicians are all about the whole
original thing, but it’s just not where I wanted to be.
It’s never been about that for me.
For me music was just a way of letting go and having fun.”
So after taking some
time off from the music scene, Peters hooked back up with Shepard and
rejoined TAXI during that band’s last year together.
“Singing with TAXI again made me realize that I could still
have fun singing,” she said.
By the end of 2001,
Taxi had called it a day. Peters
next hooked up with multi-instrumentalist Vern
Cranor, who had spent a short time as lead singer for local club
band, Jump In The Dumpster.
“Vern and I were
originally planning to just do an acoustic duo thing,” she said,
“two voices and two guitars.” Before
that began, others began to figure into the equation and Cranor gladly
swapped his acoustic guitar for a seat behind the drums when Sadie’s
Cage was formed.
Peters rang up former
Vivid bassist Brett Ross who
was fast to come on board. Joey
Miroballi (ex-Monkey Cocktail) filled in on lead guitar for the first few
weeks, until Peters persuaded her mentor and former bandmate Jim Shepard
to plug in and become a member of her band this time.
“It’s great
playing with Jim again,” she said.
“We have played together so much in the past that we have this
kind of bond. We’re
friends and we work very good together.
He knows me and my voice, he’s reliable and just it’s working
out really well.”
All three guys sing,
but Peters is large and in charge on the microphone. To understand why
she was voted the region’s “top female vocalist” in our last
Midwest Beat Reader’s Poll just catch her behind the mic some night.
The Sadie’s Cage
repertoire is all over the board.
“We try to do songs that people can dance to, but that also are
fun to just sit and listen to,” she said.
Among the wide array of artists they currently cover in their
show are –– Blondie, The Guess Who, Pink, Natalie Imbruglia, Janis
Joplin and Smashmouth. And on some nights, if the crowd demands it,
Peters will belt out a version of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock
And Roll” that will leave mouths in the audience agape.
“We really just want
people to have a good time when they come to see us perform,” said
Peters. “We want to play
the songs that people want to hear.
We want Sadie’s Cage to be thought of as a ‘fun band’ that
people go to see when they want to dance and forget about things.”
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