JOHN EARLE BAND

John Earle, a singer/songwriter from Jacksonville, Florida is one of my favorites of the local acts to see. Now a resident of Charlotte, North Carolina; John and his band (drummer Brent Couch, bassist Kyle Hasty, and saxophonist Darren Escar) travel between Charlotte and Jacksonville entertaining patrons in local bars, restaurants, and other venues where they can share their awesome musical talents.

It has been over 2 years since the first time I saw John Earle get onto a stage and sing. He was casually standing in the crowd as another musician was performing and when noticed, was asked to get up on the stage. I was sort of surprised by the song he covered, which I can’t remember exactly but I’m sure it was along the lines of late 90s R&B songs like “No Scrubs”, “Thong Song”, or Nelly’s “Ride Wit’ Me”. Since then, I had hoped to see him again somehow. I remembered his name, but didn’t know how to find him.

Months and months later, by chance, I was out bar-hopping with some friends when John and I crossed paths again. He and I share a mutual friend who introduced us, but he and I didn’t say much more than “hi” and “bye” to each other at the time. That night, before parting ways, he handed me and my friends copies of his “Free Your Mind” EP… I later woke up in the morning, hungover, with all 3 copies in my purse…  I took one of them out and slipped it into my CD player, turning up the volume. There are four tracks on  that EP, all of which I love, but there was one I had on repeat… “Have Mercy”, the favorite amongst my group of friends, became the song that brought him to our attention and had us wanting more.

So I did a little research, well, more like facebook stalking… and found him, sent him a request, and told him how much I loved his CD. He was very appreciative in his response which made me admire him even more. I later dragged a couple of my friends out to a restaurant, about a 45 minute drive away from where we lived to see him play live.  He saw me walk in and take a seat in the far back with my friends and over the mic, he said, “hey Monikah, thanks for coming out”. Surprised that he remembered my name and recognized me from a lousy facebook profile pic, I smiled up at him in awe. My friends were also in shock to hear him say my name over the mic, and we began dancing and singing (or yelling, really) along with the cover songs. I was the only one at the time who knew the lyrics to his originals, but that changed soon after.

In the months to come, John Earle’s following grew rapidly. Faces started to become familiar at shows. My friends and I weren’t the only ones going out to eat at a restaurant or drink at a bar specifically because he was playing that night. As the summer approached, a group of people got together and created the John Earle Band street team, “The Wrecking Crew”. More than a dozen t-shirts were personalized with “THE WRECKING CREW” printed across the front and the names of the band members (at the time it was “Earle. Flood. Couch.”) printed on the back in glow-in-the-dark and fluorescent paint. We all showed up for the release of John’s second EP, “Summertime”, at the Freebird Live in Jacksonville Beach wearing our street team shirts and had a blast meeting other fans while making a statement. The John Earle Band were only going to keep on growing, and their supporters were also going to keep growing in numbers.

It’s been over a year since the Wrecking Crew was formed, and even though our group has parted many different directions, John Earle and his band is still strongly supported by the street team. Even though the term “Wrecking Crew” is starting to fade into a distant memory, the one thing that matters, the music, still lives on. And you can bet that every time that John plays a show in his hometown of Jacksonville, there is always a “Wrecking Crew” reunion happening.

John Earle, is one of a select few of musicians, who is personable and really gets to know his crowd. During his breaks between sets, he walks through and introduces himself to the members of his audience and thanks them personally for being there.

More information about John Earle and his band can be found on johnearlemusic.com

You can also see them on youtube.

Follow them on twitter @JohnEarleBand.

Download music on itunes.

Or search and friend them on facebook!

Support the music!!!