Americana Music Magazine – Bluegrass, Roots, Folk, Blues, and Old-Time
Originally known as Southbound, the five-piece Dayton, Ohio band now called Ludlow Creek made the change when the time had finally come to stake their claim to the territory of “original” rather than “cover” as the group’s prime descriptor. They even went so far as to reissue some of their material under the new name when they realized the need to differentiate themselves.
As drummer and vocalist Jeffrey Friend explains, “We quickly realized that nobody could find us, because if you look up ‘Southbound’ anywhere—on the web, on Spotify—there’s a million of them!”
The band originally grew out of a tradition created by Tom and Michelle Scarpelli (bassist/vocalist and keyboardist/vocalist, respectively) where they would host periodic “rock fests” and invite all their musician friends and their bands to come together and spend a day playing. When Jeffrey’s previous band (a rock fest regular) needed the quick addition of an opener to cover a show, Tom and Michelle helped out. One thing led to another and, “We did two or three shows like that,” Jeffrey recalls, “and the next thing your know we started talking about ‘why don’t we think about putting a band together.’” They rounded out the lineup with Allen Seals on guitar, mandolin and vocals and Dave Benson on guitar and vocals. A decision to focus on southern rock gave rise to the band’s original moniker.
The group enjoyed success in the Dayton area as popular cover band. However, the original music muse would not be denied its hearing. “There are five writers in the band…so, we have all this wealth of music—we just had to do something to get it out.”
The southern rock designation is also a bit too constrictive when describing the “new” band’s sound. Americana, country, blues rock, rock—they all make appearances. “We all grew up in the seventies,” says Jeffrey, “and back in the seventies, when you would get an album, you’d put it on and you’d get all kinds of cool stuff. That’s kind of what we’re trying to do now.”
Ludlow Creek’s upcoming album, Which Way Is Forward, is due out in July 2022.
Check out Ludlow Creek’s website here. Listen to the full interview here.
By Dan Walsh