Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Bands. I'm Shecky
and today we're talking about a band that almost
nobody outside the jam world knows about. And
that absolutely should not be the case. Picture
this. It's December 2018, Burlington, Vermont.
One of the most beloved small music venues in
the country, Nectar's. The same legendary bar
where Phish played their very first shows back
in 1983. And on this particular night, three
musicians who have spent decades at the top of
their respective worlds walk onto the stage together
for the first time. Nobody had planned a band.
Nobody sent out a press release. It was just
three incredible musicians in a room. A packed
crowd that showed up to see what would happen.
And two hours of music that left everyone in
that room understanding they had witnessed something
brand new. That's how LAMP was born. And that
story is what we're diving into today. To understand
LAMP, you need to understand the three people
who make it up. Because each of them carries
a pedigree that would be extraordinary on its
own. Together, they are something else entirely.
Let's start with Russ Lawton, the drummer. Russ
is from Massachusetts, grew up with drum corps,
Portuguese feast parades, marching rums in the
street, He eventually found his way to Burlington,
Vermont and became one of the most in -demand
drummers in the entire jam scene. He played with
Mike Gordon of Phish, he played with Strange
Folk, he became core member of the Trey Anastasio
band, the backing group for Phish's own frontman,
and has been there for over 20 years. When Trey
Anastasio needs a drummer for Saturday Night
Live or The Tonight Show, he calls Russ Lawton.
Ray Piekowski is the keyboardist. Ray's from
Vermont, spent years milking cows in a Middlebury
farm at night while playing gigs and recording
music during the day. That is not a metaphor.
He literally milk cows and he'd go play a show.
Ray toured with Dave Matthews and friends for
three years. built a reputation in the Burlington
music scene that stretched back to the late 1970s
and eventually joined Trey Anastasio band alongside
Lawton. Ray plays Hammond B3 organ, Hohner Clavinet
and Wurlitzer electric piano and his ability
to work all three simultaneously, painting melodies
and bass lines at the same time is something
genuinely you have to hear to believe. Russ and
Ray have a duo project called Soul Moaned. And
the chemistry between them is what the band's
own bio describes as improvisational leaps interpreted
telepathically. 20 plus years of playing together.
They don't need to look at each other. They don't
need to count off. They just know. Then there's
Scott Metzger, the guitarist. Scott is from Brooklyn
and the Village Voice once called him an ace
guitarist of a thousand styles. He's the founding
guitarist of Joe Russo's almost dead the beloved
Grateful Dead tribute project, fronted by one
of the most creative drummers in the jam world.
Metzger on the guitar is a thing of beauty. Melodic,
adventurous, with a telecaster tone that slides
between jazz, twang, and full -on fuzz depending
on where the music wants to go. These three people
have been aware of each other for years. But
it wasn't until that December night at Nectars
in Burlington that anyone asked the question,
What if we got on the stage together and played?
The Nectars show in December 2018 was the first
and the only public performance as this trio
for quite some time. But the crowd that packed
into the room that night knew immediately that
something special just had happened. The way
Metzger described it later, the debut show produced
a fresh, so tight it's free sound permeated with
technical prowess and deep pocket punch. which
is a pretty good description of what happens
when you put a world -class rhythm section, two
musicians who play together like it's one organism,
behind a guitarist who can absolutely do anything.
The following spring they decide they create
a name, and the name they landed on is wonderfully
straightforward. LAMP, capital L, capital M,
capital P. Lawton, Metzger, and Pekowski. the
first letters of each member's last name, simple,
clean, direct. There's something I love about
that choice. These three people are all already
well known under their own names in the world.
They could have invented a completely new identity.
Instead, they said, this is literally who we
are, our names, our last names, right there in
the band name. If you know, you know, and if
you don't, you're about to find out. They went
to Sugarhouse Soundworks Studio in Vermont in
May 2019, laid down seven tracks over two days
with engineer Roger Strauss and their self -titled
debut EP dropped in July 2020, a pandemic project
that became a full band movement. My one song
for LAMP is Ramblin from the debut EP. At just
over six minutes, It's the longest track on that
record and it earns every second. It starts out
with Pachowski's organ settling into a groove
that feels like a late afternoon sunshine. Warm,
circular, just slightly hypnotic. Then Lawton
drums drop in and the whole thing immediately
has weight. Not heavy weight, the right weight.
The kind of drumming that makes you feel like
the floor just got more solid under your feet.
Start with rambling. then let the record play
through and find the Live at Nectar's album.
You'll get that in a moment. Some things you
should know about Lamp. As I mentioned before,
Ray milked cows until showtime. For 15 years,
keyboardist Ray Piekowski held down a day job
milking cows on a farm in Middlebury, Vermont
and then went out at night to play music. He
describes that period simply, you just made it
work. The man who now fills rooms with Swirling
Hammond B3, was waking up pre -dawn to Milk House
before driving to a gig. That backstory is everything.
They've appeared on late night TV repeatedly,
as members of the Trey Anastasio band, Russ Lawton
and Ray Pekowski, have appeared on Saturday Night
Live, The Late Night Show with David Letterman,
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan O 'Brien,
and Jimmy Fallon. When Fish's Tray needed a band
for national television, they called Russ and
Ray. The debut EP was recorded in two and a half
days. Lamp's entire self -titled debut, seven
tracks, was recorded in just two and a half days
at Sugarhouse Soundworks in Vermont. The session
started from an email chain in early 2019, moved
to a studio that summer, and became a fully formed
artistic statement no overdubs no fuss just three
people in a room playing all right here's my
verdict here's what i keep on coming back to
with lamp there's a thing that happens when musicians
who have separately become world class at what
they do who have each built decades of experience
trust in their own instincts and the confidence
to take real risks finally get into a room together
Something clicks that couldn't have clicked earlier
in their careers. The restraint is hard work
and hard won. The pocket is deep because it's
been dug over many, many years. The willingness
to leave space for the other person is a skill
that most young musicians don't have yet. LAMP
has all of that. And what makes them special
in this world is that they combine that maturity
with a genuine sense of play. They're not showing
off. They're not trying to impress each other.
There are three people who love music and love
playing with musicians that make them better.
And that joy comes through in every note. Starting
with Rambling on their debut EP, move to the
live at Nectar for the full live experience and
find one of us and hear what this band sounds
like when they've got some miles under their
belt and some attitude to go with it. That's
Lamp and that's Shecky's Jam Bands. Thank you
for listening. Please like and subscribe my podcast
and if you get a chance email me at SheckysJambands
at gmail .com and we'll see you on the next show.