“Nace Brothers stick to core
values, original members”
By John Wooley
It’s hard enough for
any band – regional, national or otherwise – to stay together for two decades
with three-fourths of its original membership intact. But even before the Nace Brothers Band began,
drummer David Nace and guitarist Jimmy Nace had logged several years together
in another band – their dad’s.
In the late 1960’s,
Johnny Nace recorded a couple of regional hits that took off in the
David, the eldest,
started working with his father’s band first.
Then came Jimmy, who joined up in the mid-70’s. Then the two broke away and formed their own
group. And, as you might imagine,
leaving their dad’s group took a bit of an emotional toll.
“It was tough,” said
David Nace in a telephone conversation.
“And at first, I think it was very much to his dismay. But at that time he was at a point in his
career where he still wanted to play but he wanted to travel less. He bought a ranch in
“Jim had been with us
for about five years by then, he was becoming a really good player, and we’d
been doing some things within the band.
We wanted to get out and see what we could do. And after a while Dad really got behind
us. We started traveling and getting
into some places we’d never been in before, and I think he was proud of us for
doing that.”
The first official
Nace Brother Band gig was in
“He’s been with us
from very beginning,” said Nace. “We’ve
got a strong nucleus. As we’ve gone on,
there’ve been changes around us, but not many.
We still call (keyboardist) T.J. (Erhardt) the new guy, even though he’s
been with us for six years. And the guy
he replaced was with us for eight years.”
Like their friends
the Cate Brothers and Levon Helm, the Nace Brothers create songs that are tough
to categorize. Honed in honky-tonks and
Midwestern bars, it’s an original and unusual sound, wedding music that’s part
R&B, part country and part rock ‘n’ roll with lyrics that draw deeply from
the people and things that touch the band’s life. It’s great entertainment for people looking
for something outside the mainstream, but not quite as great if you’re on the
inside looking out, trying to get on a mainstream record label.
One of the Nace
Brothers’ original numbers, “Club 15,” made it to the “Margaritaville Café Late
Night Menu” disc from MCA (the group regularly plays Jimmy Buffett’s venues in
Key West and New Orleans), but so far, a major-label deal has evaded them.
“Sometimes record
companies look at us and say, ‘man, you’re really good, but we don’t know what
to do with you,’” noted Nace. “Of
course, there’s a big advantage to being on a label, but there can be a
downside, too, until you finish paying for everything the label charges you
for. A good example is our friends the
Rainmakers, who got on a major label. We
talked to ‘em when they first came back from
“Obviously, we’d love
to be with a major label, but right now, it’s good to have complete control of
everything we’ve go – such as it is,” he added with a laugh.
The group’s new disc,
“Trouble on the Hill,” should be available the second week in October. The official release date is Oct. 2, when
they celebrate with a concert and party at