Blackfoot Gypsies quartet brings blues-rock to Spa City

The Blackfoot Gypsies have been cranking out their rock 'n' blues shuffle since forming as a duo in 2010. Now a full-tilt quartet, the band brings its vintage boogie to Maxine's in Hot Springs tonight. It will be their first time performing in the Spa City.

"We've played Little Rock a couple of times," says Gypsies drummer Zack Murphy from his hometown of Nashville, Tenn. "I get my towns confused, but I want to say we've hung out in Hot Springs, though, maybe even at Maxine's."

Murphy co-founded the band with singer-guitarist Matthew Paige, digging for a few years in the same vein as duos such as The Black Keys and the White Stripes.

"There wasn't a lot of thinking behind" being a two-piece, Murphy says. "We had every intention of having a band, but it sounded good with the two of us. We weren't actively searching, but we were open to having other members."

Enter bassist Dylan Whitlow and harmonica player Oliver "Ollie Dogg" Horton around 2013, doubling the band's membership.

"They've changed the band for the better," Murphy says.

Not surprisingly, Murphy, points to British Invasion bands, rock's early giants and blues titans as primary Gypsies influences.

"I like early blues like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. I love old rock 'n' roll like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Stones and The Beatles and The Who," Murphy says. "It's really hard to go wrong with those."

He grew up in Nashville taking violin lessons at the urging of his parents before breaking free and switching to guitar and drums by the time he was 12.

"It was more fun learning drums and guitar than violin for me," he says, laughing.

Handle It, the most recent Gypsies album, was released in 2015 on Plowboy Records and is a beer-soaked, blues-rock collection, with hints of outlaw-flavored country and early Black Crowes swagger. Paige's slide guitar and distorted, fuzzy vocals give some of the songs an appropriately aged, rootsy patina.

The band has finished work on a new record, To the Top, with a spring release looming. The first single, the upbeat and slightly psychedelic "I Had A Vision," was released last month and can be heard at the Blackfoot Gypsies page at plowboyrecords.com.

In press materials for the new album, Paige said the song describes "... the vision of an equal land where real justice would be honored -- and it's a kick in the teeth."

"It was great," Murphy says of the recording sessions that took place last year at Electric Kite Studios in Madison, Tenn. "It took us about a week of solid work to track it. The thing that takes so long is not the actual work, it's getting the time and getting set up."

As for their songwriting, Paige will usually bring lyrics and a melody and the group will then work up the arrangement, Murphy says. On the new album, Whitlow contributes two songs.

"We all sit there and hash it out together," Murphy says. "We have a collaborative process when the music comes. There's no one person telling everyone what to do."

Weekend on 01/19/2017