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Country-rock band Rocket 88 makes return to Whiskey Blues
One of Oxford's newest and best country rock bands will return to Starkville to play Whiskey Blues this Friday.
By BEN BOUNDS
For the Bulldog Beat
Rocket 88 was formed in the Summer of 2005 by members Jamie Posey (lead guitar, vocals), Rosamond Posey (rhythm guitar, vocals), Nathan Robbins (bass), Robert Chaffe (keyboards, organ) and Bradley Gordon (drums). All of them are veterans of Mississippi's music scene with the Poseys formerly being with Honey Blonde, Robbins with Seth Libbey and the Liberals and Property of Wanda, Chaffe with The Kudzu Kings and Pithecanfunkus Erectus, and Bradley Gordon with Daniel Karlish and The Cross Eyed Cats, Three Legged Dog and New Madrid Click.
The band's first show was at Two Stick on June 6, 2005. Since then, Rocket 88 has played some of the best venues from Memphis , Tenn. to Baton Rouge , La. on a regular basis.
In May of 2006, Gordon moved to Taiwan, which opened the door for Ryan Rogers, who was a member of the Jackson-based band Geronimo Rex, to join the band.
Daybreakdown keyboardist Eric Carlton also performs with the band as a guest musician on a semi-regular basis.
By May of 2006, Rocket 88 had played both Oxford's Double Decker Arts festival and Baton Rouge's Fest for All, despite being less than a year old.
Rocket 88's only recorded track to date, "Highway," was selected from a field of over 30 regional and local bands to appear on the Fest for All Compilation CD Vol.4. This track was recorded at Voyager's Rest in Oxford.
In September of 2006, Rocket 88 was featured on the Thacker Mountain Radio Show, a radio broadcast that can be heard all over the state on Mississippi Public Radio. This performance was recorded and can be downloaded from http://www. myspace.com/ rocket88music, for free.
Rocket 88 has been featured or reviewed in local Oxford publications Oxford Town, The Local Voice and The Daily Mississippian as well as The Scene, a Southeast regional publication, and even JamBase.com, a national publication.
"It's a gumbo of roots rock with a twist of Mississippi, a taste of old-line country for the redneck in you, a dash of hill country blues to make you sweat and a heap of juke joint gospel to get you right with Jesus," Jamie Posey said. "It's what we have all been exposed to over the years growing up. It's the Hank Williams that I listened to with my grandfather, it's The Blues that I heard in the kitchens of the restaurants I worked in as a kid. It is this and the environment that we all have come up in musically that has shaped how we sound. First of all, we are all from Mississippi. I am from Jimmy Roger's hometown for goodness sake, and I'm not talking about Meridian, but Pine Springs, a little community out in the county; the very ground that the 'Father of Country Music' walked."
Posey gave an example of how close we all are to our national music history that is all around us here in Mississippi.
"When I was in high school, I took Elsie McWilliam's great-granddaughter to the prom. I didn't know it then, but Elsie McWilliams wrote many of Jimmy Roger's biggest hits," Posey said. "Now how close is that I ask? Speaking for myself, that and living in North Mississippi has certainly opened my eyes to a lot of good local music. How can you grown up musically with the hill country blues all around you, not to mention the likes of The Tangents, Beanland, The Kudzu Kings, and Blue Mountain playing down the street and not be influenced by that?"
Jamie and Rosamond Posey share the lead vocal duties. They also sing two part harmonies on most every song. As far as instrumentation, Rosamond Posey plays the Hell out of her Taylor acoustic rhythm guitar. Jamie Posey plays a Fender Telecaster with a Fender Deluxe amp to get that gritty, 'Dirty South' sound. He plays some slide and harmonica as well.
"Our next step is to make an album and develop some merchandise," Jamie Posey said. "You have to have something to leave with people so that they will put a name with the good time they had the night before. Right now we are delivering the good time but we need something they can take home with them besides the smile on their face and the sweat on their brow."
The band's spring tourdates include stops at Art's Shedhouse in Meridian on May 4, and George Street Grocery in Jackson on May 18.
Rocket 88 will play Whiskey Blues this Friday night. Showtime is 9 p.m., and cover is $5.
For more information, visit http://www.rocket88music.com.