Music that feeds the soul:
Local Chef Eric Band jams at Hilltop House and competes for Best New Blues Band title.
HARPERS FERRY — Five of the six members of The Chef Eric Band, along with their manager, gather around a table on Nov. 11 in a sunlit corner of Hilltop House’s dining area.
Every Sunday from 3 p.m. until around 7 the band holds these jam sessions at the Hilltop House, providing live music for the bar and dining area with the scenic view of Harpers Ferry behind them. They invite other musicians to join them in playing, meet other talent and form bands.
The band is made up of lead vocalist Scot Barharm, guitarist/vocalist Eric Fredenburgh, guitarist Jeff Jolbitado, washboard player Hannah Geffert, drummer Ed Gulli and bassist Mark Laue. Demmos Wright is their manager.
The Eastern Panhandle-based band has made its mark half way around the world. Their album, “Today’s Special,” which includes the band’s signature rockin’ blues and soul music has been played in France, Netherlands and most recently on Rude Dog’s Rhythm Hour blues show on WLOY AM radio in Baltimore.
Gaining recognition from the Baltimore Blues Society, The Chef Eric Band is one of three finalists chosen by the BBS to compete regionally at the Baltimore Blues Challenge Saturday.
If they win, the band will move on to represent West Virginia at The International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn., for the title of Best New Blues Band.
Fredenburgh, 45, of Martinsburg is the “Chef Eric” of the band, having worked as assistant chef, kitchen manager, assistant to the executive chef and, while working previously on the kitchen staff at the Hilltop House, the sous chef. He says he also worked as a chef when combining the talent in the band, each member a vital ingredient to the recipe.
Fredenburgh says his first guitar lesson was on the Ides of March in 1978. Since then, he has been a two-time runner-up for best guitarist in Boston and the American blues guitarist-in-residence at Feller Gutarrenschule in Stuttgart, Germany.
He says he found each member of the band by going to see them play live at shows, their stage presence and skills making them stand out and prompting him to recruit them for the band.
“We’re a family now,” he says, and the rest of the members voice their agreement.
Jolbitado, 44, of Taneytown, Md., says he is “just a guitar player.”
Fredenburgh stops him for a moment to add an observation. “His playing is the complete opposite of his personality,” he says. “If you were to see him on stage, you would never guess that he was so quiet — no egotism whatsoever.”
A self-taught musician, Jolbitado says he listens to Fredenburgh’s classically trained pieces and throws in his own spin intuitively.
“Even though we both have different approaches, we somehow always wind up in the same spot,” Jolbitado says of his and Fredenburgh’s complementing styles.
Geffert of Martinsburg, whom the guys agree can’t be more than 35, says she was inspired to take up the washboard by her guardian and friend, Percy Lee Reid Sr.
After he passed away, she kept his washboard and began playing it. She says that growing up listening to Reid play with other local bands gave her an ear for the instrument.
“I saw her playing at the Meck(lenburg Inn),” Fredenburgh says , “and I thought, ‘I have to have her in the band.’”
Gulli, 46, of Hedgesville says that, while he has played with many bands, including Washington, D.C.-area cult metal band The Obsessed along with Laue, The Chef Eric Band is where he feels at home.
“This is my band,” he says. “This is where I’m suited best.”
Fredenburgh credits Gulli with developing the minimalist hardcore style of drumming that has become so popular in the Washington, D.C.-music scene.
“His drumming just blows my mind,” Jolbitado says.
Laue, 49, of Martinsburg is the newest addition to The Chef Eric Band. He says he started playing bass guitar in fifth grade and took is first formal lesson in 1970. In addition to being a member of The Obsessed with Gulli, he has also played in a variety of other bands.
Fredenburgh says he had been following Laue’s performances for awhile before the band’s former bassist left and there was an opening for him.
“When I saw him play the bass on stage, I thought ‘wow,’” Fredenburgh says.
Laue says he was familiar with The Chef Eric Band for a long time before joining, attending their shows whenever he could. “I’m glad to have a chance to play in this band,” he says.
Barham of Annandale, Va., says he’s “50 couple” of years old during a lively phone interview (he showed up later at the session). He says because his friends encouraged him to do it, he began singing in the late ’80s. The harmonica, on the other hand, which Barham says is properly referred to as a “Mississippi saxophone” in the blues community, is an instrument he has been playing by ear since age 11.
“There are some very accomplished musicians in the band, and then there are some of us who play by ear, and I think we all mesh very well,” he says, echoing Jolbitado’s earlier comment on the symbiosis of his and Fredenburgh’s opposite approaches to guitar playing. “I feel very lucky to play with all of them,” he says.
Wright says he heard the band’s album, “Today’s Special,” before he had ever met the members.
“I thought, ‘This is great,’ and took a year off to promote their music,” he says.
A sales manager by profession, Wright now spends his time booking gigs, playing in a few bands himself and taking guitar lessons from Fredenburgh.
After the interview, the band members set up for the jam session and begin playing.
Barham shows up just in time with his suitcase full of harmonicas, and alternates between belting out the lyrics in his soulful voice or tearing up the harmonica.
Fredenburgh, Jolbitado and Laue’s fingers are moving wildly up and down their guitars’ fretboards. Geffert and Gulli provide the percussion, with metal tipped fingers and a washboard, and a cheetah-print drum set, respectively.
Each member interacts with one another during the set through nods and smiles, and it’s quite apparent that they are indeed like a family.
Krista Lively - Journal News - Weekender Section (Nov 21, 2007)