They fit together like a gut bucket and washboard and when John Fleming, Darrin Herting and Alton Gowen get together they have fun – and so do their audiences.
Born of “stoop sessions” on Gowen’s front porch over a year ago, Seal Skull Hammer has played house concerts, coffee houses, the Routes and Blues Music Crawl and Mushroom Fest in Sicamous.
And now the band has produced a new CD at Jesse Clarke’s Earthtone Studios.
Called Better Together and a Song, the CD features “regular” instruments such as a banjo, mandolin and guitar, with a lively dollop of gut bucket, washboard, jaw harp and harmonica.
“The three of us are definitely better; we get together and hang out and good things happen,” laughs Gowen.
He says the group’s harmonies have come a very long way and the band members are writing a lot of their own material.
“Just out of the blue, we began writing songs; they were just coming to us,” he says, noting one of the songs, First Wheels, was written specifically for a SAGA Public Art Gallery exhibition held last May.
“We’ve come a long way – slowly it’s turning into something,” Gowen says. “There’s a call for us.”
And there’s a call for an audience when Seal Skull Hammer launches their new CD Saturday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Sunnybrae Hall.
Special guests include Rob Milne and Joan Robertson. Tickets at $15 are available at Acorn Music or Synergy Studio, or $20 at the door.
