The Music Of Spayed Koolie

Central Florida is home to the guys from Spayed Koolie, and Americana/country/southern rock band who borrows its name from famed 1940’s swing fiddler Spade Cooley. Fiddler Neal Phillips spent some time with us recently, talking about the heritage of his hip band who’s opened for Montgomery-Gentry, Kellie Pickler, 38 Special, and Charlie Daniels, just to name a few.

“We like to call it southern swamp rock,” Neal suggested, when asked about the music flavor of the band. Neal says he finds himself covering the keyboard and harmonica sounds on the violin which offers the band part of their unique sound. “It gives it that twang to the traditional rock and country songs,” he said. “Our original songs, which we are very proud of,” he said, “mostly come from David’s (Dorr) background and life,” David Dorr founded the band roughly seven years ago.

“David and I joke on stage that we have five wives and seven kids among us, and that’s just the ones we know about,” Neal quipped. “People seem to get a kick out of stuff like that. But our music is based on things like that; heartbreak, love, and loss, and sometimes just what it would be like simply growing up in Florida.”

Most often performing as a duo, the band, when they can, will also perform as a trio, a 4-piece, and even a 5-6 piece band when opening for name acts or playing at well-attended festivals. The band’s instrumentation includes acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, percussion, fiddle, and the occasional keyboard, banjo, or mandolin. “The make-up of the full band changes as availability changes, with the original band being made up of mostly full time employees at Disney,” Neal said. “As somebody would filter out, new people would filter in.”

The band in it’s current form, is excited about their first professional single release, “100 Years (Need)” and their cover of Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl, both from the recent album release, Ashtray Change.

To find out more, visit
www.spayedkoolie.com