Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 6, Issue 11, November 2002

Copyright 2002 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article and photos below in your research. Be sure to quote the Seattle Sun as your source.

LIVE FROM NORTH SEATTLE!

Jammin' Lil' Puddin' spreads 'gospel of good grooves'

By CLAYTON PARK

If bluegrass legend Bill Monroe and acoustic rocker Dave Matthews were to team up with the Grateful Dead, the result might sound an awful lot like up-and-coming Seattle band Lil' Puddin'.

The mostly acoustic band made its performance debut as a trio a little over a year ago at Conor Byrne's Pub in Ballard and has steadily gained both fans and band members ever since.

Lil' Puddin', which now boasts six members, bills itself as a "certified organic musical collective combining the home-style taste of funky folky fingerpickin' with the robust flavor of country rockin' blues."

If that sounds like the recipe for something good to eat, that's exactly the idea the band had in mind. It hopes listeners will keep coming back for repeat servings of its groove-oriented music. The band's penchant for free-flowing improvisational jams guarantees that no two performances will ever be the same. As the band's Web site states: "Lil' Puddin' has been working hard to spread the gospel of good grooves and fun lovin' music."

"Everybody loves Lil' Puddin' has sort of become the band mantra," says percussionist Nat Cutler, one of the band's three founding members, along with lead singer and rhythm acoustic guitarist Jono Sher, and lead acoustic guitarist/banjo player/backup vocalist Neal Parry. "The (band's) name is a description of the vibe, energy and positive love we put out in our music."

Lil' Puddin' now features a lineup that includes electric violinist/mandolinist/backup singer Beth Fortune, electric bassist Rob Kruy, and its newest member, drummer Adam Greenberg, who joined the band in October.

The band got its start when Parry became housemates with Sher and discovered they had similar tastes in music, ranging from Fleetwood Mac and Dave Matthews to Indigo Girls and even Alice in Chains.

Eventually, the two began writing and playing music of their own together. Parry decided to send cassette tapes of their songs to Cutler, a friend who was still in college at the time, attending the same school Parry had graduated from, Claremont McKenna College in California. When Cutler graduated, he moved back to Seattle and teamed up with Parry and Sher to record a 13-song CD during the summer of 2000 at a small recording studio in the Lake City area. They decided to title their first album "From the Ridge."

Instead of proceeding to immediately line up gigs, the band went on hiatus when Perry quit his job as a parts buyer for Boeing to travel around the world for a year. Parry didn't get to hear the album he had made with Sher and Cutler until several months later, when he received a copy in the mail while visiting relatives in Britain. Sher eventually traveled to Europe to hook up with Parry for the final three months of Parry's trip. The two busked on the street for tips playing what Sher described as "beater guitars."

When they returned to Seattle, they were surprised to learn that Cutler, who had gotten a job as a classified sales rep for the Puget Sound Business Journal, had been busy promoting the band by sending the CD to local clubs. Cutler's efforts resulted in the booking of three shows in the fall of 2001. The band continued to get more shows and in early December, they added Kruy, a Microsoft employee and Lake City resident who in addition to playing bass is also in charge of the band's Web site.

Fortune joined the band in February of this year. A native of Missoula, Mt., had previously played with a "full-on hard core jam band, sort of Grateful Dead and Phish with a bluegrass tinge" that had broken up. She moved to Tacoma to take a job as a school music teacher.

Parry learned of Fortune through a mutual acquaintance and asked her to audition for the band. "We need we always needed only the punch that the bass provided (through the addition of Kruy), but also a real shot to the jugular that the fiddle could provide," he said. "We had the good fortune to meet someone actually named Fortune!"

After several months of playing with the band, Fortune decided to move to Seattle this past summer and took a job as a full-time teacher at Washington Middle School in the Central District, where she teaches orchestra and choir. A classically trained musician, Fortune was invited to participate this past summer in the Silkroad Festival, a multicultural musical event organized by renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Greenberg is a professional drummer and percussion teacher who moved here from Cleveland two months ago so his wife could attend law school. He and his wife now live in Federal Way.

Parry, who now lives in the Wedgwood neighborhood, currently holds two day jobs, bussing tables in Ray's Boathouse restaurant in Ballard and an eatery near University Village called Nana's Soup House.

Sher, who currently shares a house in Magnolia with Cutler, which serves as the band's rehearsal space, is a bartender at the Widmark Hotel in Kirkland. Cutler recently got promoted to advertising and marketing coordinator at the Business Journal and is also training to become a firefighter.

Like most bands, the members of Lil' Puddin' dream of someday making music their full-time occupation.

Whether that will ever happen remains to be seen, but the band is off to an impressive start, having already played shows in both Oregon and Idaho in addition to Western Washington.

Lil' Puddin' recorded a second CD earlier this year, a four-song disc titled "Completely Unorthodox," which can be purchased at the band's live shows or via its Web site. (The recording was done prior to the addition of Fortune and Greenberg.) The site also offers sample songs that can be downloaded off the Internet.

The band is not worried about people making bootleg recordings at their gigs rather they encourage it. "Our live show is what the Pud is all about," the band states on its Web site. "We'd love to have them captured for posterity. If you do record our show (to tape, CD, video, whatever), we only ask that you give us a near first-generation copy. We might put a live song on a future album, and if we use your recording, we'll credit you appropriately on the disc."

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Lil' Puddin' is scheduled to perform at the Old Town Alehouse (5233 Ballard Ave. NW) in Ballard on Saturday, Nov. 2, from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. For more information about the band, visit its Web site at www.lilpuddin.com.