Keeping the Grove Going with Roster McCabe

Amid all of the flood concerns, take a break with Roster McCabe next weekend. The Minneapolis five-some will be pumping out original tunes at the HoDo in downtown Fargo and the Crosstown Lounge in Grand Forks.

This dynamic band has been hitting the regional festival circuit in the past few years, playing Bella Sol, Summerfest, Fat Fest, Harvestfest, and the 10.000 Lakes Festival. They already are scheduled for slots at Operation Adaptation at the Concord House in Sullivan, WI on April 24 and 25 and at Bella Madre at Harmony Park on May 22 to 24.

When they’ve been able to pencil in a few club dates in the Red River Valley, Roster McCabe has quickly become an area favorite. They grew out of a solo acoustic act on the University of Minnesota campus four years ago. Drew Preiner, rhythm guitar/vocals, met their current keyboard player, Alex Steele, there at U of M, but Steele wasn’t even playing piano then. He was a djembe player! As these two musicians began to explore tunes together, they attracted Mike Daum (lead guitar) who was visiting his girlfriend in her apartment over the band’s practice space.

As these three moved more and more away from acoustic music into jazz and electric rock, the began writing music for a full band. In search of new players, they found their first drummer, Sassan Scott Zaker, from U of M. He, however, moved on to pursue music production, his college major, and Jeff Peterson quickly picked up the sticks. Bassman Scott Muellenberg answered an ad the band put up at the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul and soon found himself dividing his talent between a blues trio and Roster McCabe. Eventually, Roster McCabe became his fulltime gig.

Originally, the band also had used saxophone player Jason Parvey. He moved away from the band, as Roster McCabe’s new sound drifted from jazz-based work to more rock-rooted, edgier music.

“We’re still going to do the jams, but we’re more like Umphrey’s McGee and less like the Dave Matthew Band now,” Drew Preiner said in an interview.

Their new music stems from changes within the songwriting collective of the band. “Mike comes up with a lot of the original ideas. Then, he’ll bring it to either Alex Steel or me. We’ll start to write a song from that,” Preiner explained. “It’s usually a collaborative effort in the end. There aren’t too many songs that Mike writes all on his own. But he does from time to time.”

Though lead guitarist and principal songwriter Mike Daum doesn’t sing, the material does suit the rest of the band vocally. Steel, Preiner, and Muellenberg all share vocal duties, and even the drummer adds vocals, too. “We’re working on a lot of songs that have four-part harmony now,” Prenier said. “That’s something that we think is very important. It just creates another element, another step of musicality.”

Don’t expect an ordinary rock and roll show when you catch a Roster McCabe gig. You are equally likely to hear reggae and funk. Drummer Jeff Peterson and bassist Scott Muellenberg lay down the that foundation of funk, while Michael Daum’s electric leads keep the rock deeply embedded in the band’s music. Alex Steele’s soulful lead vocals are aptly backed by Preiner and the rest of the band.

Catch a welcome breathe of musical goodness at a Roster McCabe show next week, and check them out this spring at the two festivals they have booked so far.

Who: Roster McCabe

Fargo: Thursday April 2, Hotel Donaldson, 8 pm, free

Grand Forks: April 3, Crosstown Lounge, $5 and a free beer, 10 pm