Farewell to Marshall’s Good Time Rounders

by Staff at East Texas Towns

• Tweet
• Email
• Print
• 0 Comments

"It's not just a band, it's a family," said Brumley.

MARSHALL — The Good Time Rounders, Marshall’s popular and rollicking folk-rock-roots band, will give their final Telegraph Stage performance on Saturday at 8:30 pm. After seven years, the group has announced they are moving on.

"We would like everyone to know that this splitting is not out of any malice or anger between members," the Rounders stated via their facebook page on June 12. "It has come time for some of us to spread our wings and we all truly wish each other the best in the paths we must now seek."

Musicians John Fox and Nick Brumley, founding forces of the band, said they both had mixed emotions. "It's upsetting to think we won't be playing together," said Brumley. "But it's exciting too; another chapter in that book of life."

Brumley, 26 and Fox, 25, have played music together since meeting at East Texas Baptist University in 2005; Brumley was a sophomore and Fox a freshman.

"I taught him in Bible study", said Brumley, with a grin.

It seems the friendship was heaven-sent. They started singing and playing guitars together, added banjo and mandolin, and, with other ETBU students, they soon began performing as The Baker Street Irregulars, a popular attraction at the Friday night wine-tastings at Under The Texas Sun. In time, with an expanded repertoire and some shuffling of the personnel, they became the Good Time Rounders, the "house band" at the OS2 Pub, entertaining every Halloween, every New Year's Eve, and on many a raucous weekend. In the past year, they've performed for a community of fans and friends at Charlie's Backyard Bar, and all over the area.

Pioneers in Marshall’s burgeoning music scene, they’ve enjoyed the growth downtown, and have played a key role in it. “It’s like pieces in a puzzle that keep falling into place,” said Brumley, an accomplished songwriter. “I hope the puzzle never gets finished. It will be this huge masterpiece some day.”

"As musicians get better, they have to move on," said guitarist Pap Watson, 52, the elder member of the group. Watson met Fox and Brumley as a fan, back when they were playing outside the wine shop. He remains a fan now, and encourages the younger musicians to move on, to play with as many musicians as they can, to grow and learn.

"It's not a good thing or a bad thing; it's a necessary thing," said Sam Kilpatrick, 21, multi-instrumentalist for the Rounders. “It’s bittersweet.”

Recently, Kilpatrick and Brumley, along with bassist Eric Gardner, have been performing and touring with vocalist Maggie Koerner’s band, The Slow Burn. With Ms. Koerner living in New Orleans, Brumley and Gardner are considering a relocation too.

And, within a year or so, Fox said he may be leaving Marshall; his girlfriend, former Shreveport television news journalist Erin Stevenson, has taken a position at a Dallas news network. Fox too is exploring other musical endeavors. “I’m buying an electric guitar next week,” he said.

Fox and Chris Dean, lead guitarist for the Rounders, have performed as a duo downtown, and have nurtured the tradition of the Thursday night Electric Jam.

It’s a time of transition in all of their lives, but all the members of the Rounders felt confident they’d remain great friends, and find an occasion to perform together again in the future.

"It's not just a band, it's a family," said Brumley.

The Goodtime Rounders, featuring Fox, Brumley, Watson, Kilpatrick, Gardner, and Dean, will perform on the Telegraph Stage Saturday night at 8:30 pm. The free concert is presented by the Birthplace of Boogie Woogie program in connection with Marshall Main Street’s Second Saturday, and sponsored by Danny Cole's Marshall Toyota. Lawn chairs are recommended.

Their final performance will be August 3 at Charlie's Backyard Bar, with an all-star cast of musicians and friends.

Tweet