A new acoustic quintet made up of Nakusp and Burton residents had their debut on Saturday February 21 at Gaby’s Fairytale Café, playing two sets to a crowd of about 60 people without an empty seat in the house. Marty Guest, Shelley Thring, Brenda Buerge, Barb Harrison and Rick Offerman joined their talents to form the quintet now known as the Deep Fried String Band.
The event was free to attend, and audience member Dora Yano said, “We don’t get much that’s free around here. What a great thing to do.”
Musical numbers ranged from Bob Dylan to Cyndi Lauper, with everyone’s musical taste being taken into account in creating the band’s repertoire. Applause was loud and some audience members were even dancing, which says much for the talents of the band formed less than three months ago.
Guest and Offerman put the word out that they were looking for additional members- to which Harrison, Thring and Buerge all responded. Thring and Buerge both wanted the position of lead vocals, so it was a great bonus when they began to practice that their “voices just blended and we harmonized really well together,” said Thring. They ensure that many of their songs have parts for more than one person to sing.
And the name—well that came from a joke about how bassist Offerman was going to preserve his strings until he could afford to replace the old ones on his bass, “it was suggested that maybe I could dip them in fat and fry them to make them last longer.”
Offerman says they plan to continue to practice and get better and will look for more opportunities to play publicly.
