The sound of Papa Otis hasn’t stayed still long enough to be pigeonholed.
The band, whose mainstay has been drummer Steve Mendias, has evolved from a three-piece celebrating rock music straight out of the garage and go-go ’60s to old country and jazz, early folk, hillbilly and blues.
Call it a major celebration of all things Americana as they explore the wide and expansive palette of American music, throwing themselves into music history and the public domain while connecting the dots between music’s past and present.
On Saturday, Papa Otis and the 88’s will play a daytime set in El Rancho for people wandering around the blocked-off streets during the Durango Motor Expo, then they’ll return to play again Saturday night.
Band members are Steve Mendias on drums and vocals, Sunny Gable on fiddle, Jack Tallmadge on mandolin, slide guitar and tuba, Richard Barnes on trumpet and banjo, Rick Quinn on accordion, Joshua Standard on guitar and vocals and Guy Ewing on bass.
Tallmadge is one of the newer members, a veteran of the Durango acoustic scene and a country-and-western historian who adds to their catalog. “Papa Otis has more grooves than a vinyl record store,” Tallmadge said recently via email. “My favorite are the jump blues and primal rock songs. Everyone in this cool, old-time band has deep musical roots and a good sense of humor. I feel lucky to be on the current starting lineup.”
The band is chasing an old sound with ideas, rhythms and melodies that have served as the seeds that grow into the roots that have made rock music. It’s folk, jazz, hillbilly and blues to rock and punk, tracing the lineage of Scott Joplin and Charlie Poole to Bill Monroe and Chuck Berry to Iggy Pop.
The band has many influences, and songs 100 years old or one year old can be current material. “Everything great has influenced Papa Otis,” Mendias said in a recent interview at KDUR. “Folk, rock, country – we might as well throw punk rock in there, of course.”
Some may say that when it comes to art, there’s nothing left that’s original. That’s debatable. For a band like Papa Otis, there’s uniqueness within their sound, a dose of originality floating among a throwback ideology that encompasses American history.
“Early tunes, early blues tunes, stuff that is pretty deep. That opens up all these other ideas below it, and you say, ‘I remember that, barely,’ and somehow a punk-rock tune works. There’s lineage,” Mendias said. “I thought maybe it should be this old stuff, but then the other day, I heard this Iggy Pop song. It’s pretty much ragtime, if I’m listening to this correctly ... So we’ll just do it that way.”
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s best
Friday: Ska and punk with Oatie Paste, 7 p.m. No cover. Moe’s, 937 Main Ave., 259-9018.
Saturday: Hillbilly blues, country and rock with Papa Otis and The 88’s, noon and 10 p.m. No cover. El Rancho Tavern, 975 Main Ave., 259-8111.
