Bragg Jam Preview: An Interview With Packway Handle Band
Well, it’s that time of year again where music lovers of Middle Georgia come together for the annual Bragg Jam Festival. The festival, which occurs on July 26th features one magical night of 57 bands on 14 stages. As a sort of preview for what you can expect from the event, I talked with Josh Erwin of The Packway Handle Band about his music and his experience with Macon and past Bragg Jam Festivals:
Anna Mae Kersey: How did The Packway Handle Band get started?
Josh Erwin: Everyone except for Andrew (the fiddle player) actually grew up together…we went to middle school and high school together and always played music…that was what we ended up doing more so than sports or whatever…anyway, we had this history of playing music together and eventually the band was all in Athens around 2000 or 2001 and there was a particular night that Tom’s brother, Doug, came into town…and we would always just get together and play music…this particular night, Doug was like “Oh hey, let’s play these songs and we’re going do this, and this, and this one, and y’all are going to sing this, and this, and this.” Up until this point, none of us had ever sung harmonies before except maybe in our cars alone, or in our own houses with no one else around, and those were a whole lot of fun…that was really the starting point…that was the beginning.
AMK: As an Athens based band, what motivated you to come to Macon for Bragg Jam?
JE: We’ve played Macon for years and years…we used to play The Hummingbird a whole lot; the last few shows we’ve done at The Cox. We’ve played Bragg Jam a couple times…Bragg Jam to me has always seemed kind of like an Athfest for Macon…I think Macon’s such a cool city, as far as just the music scene downtown…the times we’ve played down there we’ve always had a really good time, people seem to like it…we’re very happy to come.
AMK: How would you describe The Packway Handle Band’s sound?
JE: If you start off Rock n’ Roll as like a big nucleus, and then you shoot off from there with Americana…then from Americana you have different sub-genres of that-Country, Alt-Rock/Alt-Americana, Bluegrass/Folk…we definitely fit into the Americana side of things, but leaning heavily on the Bluegrass sound.
AMK: What do you look for in a song?
JE: Something that’s not too complicated…I don’t do very chord-y songs with complicated structures…I definitely want something that’s catchy and has a good feel to it, something that people will kind of latch on to…if it doesn’t feel good to play, then it’s not going to feel good to listen to.
AMK: What’s next for The Packway Handle Band?
JE: We’ve started a co-album with Jim White…that’s kind of an exciting avenue to go down…That album is going to be released in January.
The Packway Handle Band will perform at 10 PM on the Macon Beer Company Stage at The Library Ballroom. You can give them a listen at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-packway-handle-band/id251369879?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
