By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor
Corbin Main Street’s “Meet Me Downtown” free summer concert series continues this Friday with the second of three concerts. This week’s features Lexington jazz-fusion band SDQ, who will be performing at 7 p.m. Friday at the corner of Main and Monroe streets. (In case of bad weather, cancellation announcements will be made 24 hours prior to the event.)
SDQ is Sam Flowers (vocals, trumpet, keyboard) of Lexington; Brad Grable (sax, electric guitar, bass guitar) of Hopkinsville; Ross Whitaker (electric guitar) of Lexington; Danny Williams (bass guitar, electric baritone five-string mandolin) of Winchester; and Tyler Little (drums) of Lexington.
Want to know a little more about the band? Turn to page 3 for a conversation with guitarist Ross Whitaker.
Q: You seem to have a pretty strong following in the Lexington area. How long have you been together?
A: The band has been around for about five years. We’ve had the current lineup for maybe two or two and a half years. We should really keep a band timeline, because we never have an accurate answer for these questions!
Q: A friend of mine saw you playing at a club in Lexington — you performed the entirety of Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue.” What can the Corbin audience expect from Friday’s show? Will it be original music, or do you have something else special in mind?
A: On Friday, we’ll probably do a mix of our original material and songs by other artists. To give you an idea, we’ve performed material by (among others) the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Black Crowes, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, James Brown, Al Green, Sly and the Family Stone, etc.
Q: So here’s the lame “describe your style of music” question. I know, it’s “jazz, rock, funk and soul.” I guess, if you had to pick one of the four — jazz, rock, funk or soul — which is most important to your music and why?
A: They’re all important. If we excised any one of those four elements, or any of the others that are in there, it wouldn’t be SDQ.
Q: Is this music you can dance to or sway to? Or both?
A: You can move to our music in any way you see fit.
Q: Corbin’s in a fairly small, rural area and the idea of “jazz” might seem intimidating or off-putting to some folks. What would you say to convince people to come out to Friday’s concert?
A: Firstly, I wouldn’t call it jazz, and I have two reasons for that. For one, people think jazz is the boring stuff they hear during the local forecast, and that’s not jazz. (That stuff is usually called smooth jazz, or, lately, urban adult contempory. From the outside that might seem picky, but to us the two styles are as different as, say, Toby Keith and Metallica.)
Secondly, I wouldn’t call it jazz because it’s not jazz.
The two styles we draw on the most are things like funk/soul/R&B; (think James Brown, Stevie Wonder, etc.) and rock music (think Led Zeppelin, Gov’t Mule, etc.). When I personally think about what we do, I just think “American music.”
So I would tell people if they like funky grooves and rocking riffs, they will like what we do.
Homepage
Meet Me Downtown
- Homepage
-
Eleven-year-old Will Fields, of Corbin, reads "The Jellybeans and the Big Art Adventure" to his 4-year-old sister, Taylor, at the Corbin Public Library on Wednesday.
-
Summertime . . . and the reading's easy
Of all the events offered by the Corbin Public Library, the Summer Reading Program is by far the biggest.
-
Summertime . . . and the reading's easy
- Local News
-
-
Police search for suspect in highway beating
It was called by some as “road rage,” but Barbourville Police say last Saturday evening’s fight at a city intersection was definitely an assault. And they are still looking for the man who police say threw the first punch.
-
Woman gets five years for drugs
In U.S. Federal Court Wednesday, Heather A. Collins, who was called by Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove as a “kind of leader for the group,” was sentenced to five years after using prescription forms to acquire various drugs.
-
Father, son rearraigned for meth charges
A son and father were rearraigned Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in London.
-
Hounds hold on
Corbin Coach Rob Ledington rolled the dice after his Redhounds took a 6-0 lead, but it paid off with an 8-7 win over Whitley County as Corbin advanced to the 50th District Championship tonight with an ace up their sleeve.
-
Police search for suspect in highway beating
- Local Sports
-
The South Laurel Lady Cardinals celebrate after coming from behind to knock off Corbin, 4-3, in the finals of the 50th District championship.
-
South Laurel Sweeps
When it comes to a district championship game it doesn't get any better than a line drive down the third baseline with two outs to end the game, and that’s exactly what happened as the South Laurel Cardinals pulled off a 3-2 victory over Corbin in the 51st District Championship Wednesday.
-
Knox Three-Peats
Not many people expected the Knox Central Lady Panthers to three-peat as the 51st District champions after graduating seven seniors from last season’s squad. But Barb Gregory’s squad proved all of their naysayers wrong by jumping out to a 5-0 lead and holding on in the end to knock off rival Barbourville, 8-4, on Wednesday.
-
South Laurel Sweeps
- Letters
-
-
God’s Pantry needs your support
Today, very close to us, someone is hungry — a child, a senior citizen, a single parent, a worker juggling two jobs to make ends meet.
-
God’s Pantry needs your support
- Features
-
-
Corbin man tackles natural disasters, population in book
Ever wonder why humans populate the areas that they do, regardless of natural disasters and other forces of nature that affect those areas? Corbin resident Barry Vann answers some of these questions and many others in his recently published book, “The Forces of Nature: Our Quest to Conquer The Planet.”
-
Corbin man tackles natural disasters, population in book
- Entertainment
-
-
Archery tourney begins June 1
Professional and amateur archers will come to London beginning Friday, June 1 through Sunday, for the Archery Shooters Association tournament.
-
Archery tourney begins June 1




