Steamboat Pilot & Today

Although Dave Gerard's Groove Thang is from New Hampshire, the band plays like Southern boys. It's hard to say how a bunch of Yankees picked up an Allman Brothers/Widespread Panic sound. Gerard's only explanation is that they picked it up along the way since hitting the road 20 years ago.

Southern rock may be their planet that all else revolves around, but hints of many other musical ideas have made it into their sound as the members explored the world through their instruments.

When bass player Dave Bailey went on a major sailing trip, he spent time in Hawaii and came back to the band with an interest in acoustic Hawaiian music.

"He brought it in, and we applied it to our way of playing," Gerard said. "It's a little phase we went through, but some of it is still there. It's like building blocks. We've also been influenced by the New Orleans scene, and that became part of what we're doing. And we've come out three times to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and that had a big impact on us. It all makes up a big melting pot."

As a trio, made up of bass, guitar and drums, members of the group can improvise without stepping on one another's toes. It also helps that Bailey and Gerard have been playing together for two decades, since they were in college.

"We have a certain unspoken understanding of each other's music," Gerard said. "When you play together for that long, you develop a telepathic thing. We're great friends, and we both crave growing musically."

Dave Gerard's Groove Thang usually plays in Steamboat Springs once a year. It usually does well here because of the large number of New England transplants who live in Colorado.