Searcy band gets big break

Joe Burton of The Fable & The Fury plays with the band at the Benson Auditorium at Harding University. The band from Searcy played an acoustic set to open for American Idol winner Phillip Phillips at a show at Harding.
Joe Burton of The Fable & The Fury plays with the band at the Benson Auditorium at Harding University. The band from Searcy played an acoustic set to open for American Idol winner Phillip Phillips at a show at Harding.

The Fable & The Fury, an indie/rock band from Searcy, is looking to embark on a whole new journey in 2013, which will be “music to Arkansas’ ears.”

The Fable & The Fury is made up of Joe Burton, Michael Forcier, Nick Hubach, Parker Leasure and Jake Reeves. In 2013, the band will be without guitarist Hubach as he moves on to pursue other projects.

The band gets its name from the style of music it plays, which the members call “folk ’n’ roll.”

“We have strong roots in both folk and rock,” Burton said. “The ‘fable’ would be the storytelling folk side, and the ‘fury’ being the rock feel, and we like to smash the two up.”

Reeves said he and Hubach have been friends since they were young and later met Burton, and the three started playing music together in September 2011. Leasure later joined the band, along with Forcier, at the end of 2011.

The musicians, who have been performing together for just more than a year, recorded an EP around the time of the band’s year anniversary, which was in early November 2012.

The Fable & The Fury recorded its eight-song EP at Blue Chair Recording Studio in Austin, Ark.

Proceeds from the sales of the EP at certain shows the band has played will go toward recording a full-length album.

Aside from playing shows at Juanita’s Cantina Ballroom and Stickyz in Little Rock, the band’s most recent big break was opening for American Idol Phillip Phillips at Harding University on Feb. 4. Burton, Hubach and Reeves performed an acoustic set before Phillips’ show.

“It was a blessing,” Burton said.

After opening for Phillips, as well as performing at Juanita’s and Stickyz, the band has sold all of the EPs that were made, making dreams of recording a full-length album closer to reality.

The Harding show was a “drastic” switch from the smaller venues the band members are used to playing, they said, but the response to the show has been “overwhelming.”

“It’s been neat to hear the response,” Burton said. “It’s encouragement to keep going.”

The members of the band said they are thankful to Harding University for giving them the chance to open for Phillips.

“We’re really thankful for the guys that own Stickyz and Juanita’s,” Reeves said. “We were unknowns, and they’ve given us the chance to play at two of the top venues in Little Rock and have asked us to come back.”

Because members of The Fable & The Fury are from Arkansas, they grew up going to shows at both Stickyz and Juanita’s.

“I went to Juanita’s as a kid,” Reeves said. “I [never thought] I would get to be on stage there. It’s been a huge honor.”

Although the band has shows in the works at the moment, Burton said that to reach a broader audience, the band would like to play at Riverfest.

“Seeing people enjoy what we do — that’s what drives us,” Forcier said.

Leasure said he enjoys getting to send out a message through music to the band’s listeners.

“When I listen to any band that I like, I get something out of it,” Leasure said. “I want to do that for someone else.”

More information on The Fable & The Fury can be found on the band’s ReverbNation page at: www.reverbnation.com/TheFableAndTheFury, the band’s Facebook page or on Twitter:@TheFableTheFury.

Staff writer Lisa Burnett can be reached at (501)244-4307 or lburnett@arkansasonline.com.

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