The CBGB (Colin, Bonnie, Graham, Band) is a full band collaboration of Austin singer/songwriters Colin Gilmore, Bonnie Whitmore and Graham Weber. Like the iconic NYC rock club the shares the band’s initials; this band is a musical community of like-minded artists and friends who have, toured and recorded together in various combinations. The CBGBand is a reflection of the singer/songwriter, country-rock that is the essence of this one-of-a-kind music and a good way to pay homage to their name sake of CBGBs.
We sat down with Graham Weber prior to the show at The Southgate House Revival on Thursday August 14th!
Give us some background on CBGBand…
GW: The band formed organically. We've all played and/or toured together in different projects & formations over the years in Austin and on the road. Matt Winegardner, our drummer, is the drummer in So Long, Problems (a rock & roll band I'm in), but he's also Colin's Texas drummer & Bonnie's drummer for their solo bands respectively. Bonnie & I have toured as solo acts together over the years, and she's also played bass for me & recorded on my 2011 album "Women", and she plays bass for Colin. Colin & I played a show in Memphis in 2006 & became friends, and have been on bills together sporadically & record at the same studio. Austin is a pretty small town musically speaking. Matt came up with the idea initially (my guess is to save himself a few set ups & tear downs of his kit). But we are all friends, and all mutually fans of one another's songs, so playing as a combined unit seemed to make sense.
What can one expect to witness at a CBGBand performance?
GW: We wanted to be able to showcase our individual material, but not as a traditional song swap. So since Bonnie is a very good bass player, & having Matt on drums, Colin & I play guitar, and we back each other up. We will go around, in no particular order, doing songs from each of our catalogues, & mix in a couple covers (Petty, The Kinks, etc) with our spin on them. We may strip it down for an acoustic thing for a couple songs, but primarily it's a song swap that works as a cohesive band unit.
Tell us how you came up with your band name?
GW: A lot of Lone Stars. It's our initials (Colin Bonnie Graham Band). You'd think with 3 songwriters we could have been more creative & thoughtful but not so. I'm a big Talking Heads fan, and I'd love to say it was a tribute to The Ramones but it's not. The funny thing is that the now defunct club had an array of different types of music. In that respect we are drawing from all of our influences and presenting an eclectic mix of music in our show.
What is next for CBGBand?
GW: It's still a fairly new project, but it's been very well received thus far. We all have our own albums to promote & tour. Bonnie & Colin both put out great albums in 2013. I put out a new album, "Faded Photos" & So Long, Problems put out "Ashes in the Rearview" this year, both of which I am very excited to be bringing back home to Cincinnati for the first time on this tour. This is our first tour out of Texas with this band, it won't be our last. We are looking to do some more collaborative writing as a unit & record something together later in the year.
CBGBand
w/County Graves
The Southgate House Revival
Thursday August 14th
9:30p
