James and Mary Everest at 331 Club on 8/3/07

By: Bob Longmore

James and Mary Everest - Photo from http://www.myspace.com/jgeverestmusic

The 331 Club is first, a place to hang out, and second, a place where bands play. I’m not putting down the bar—it’s one of my favorite places to be in Minneapolis. I’m just saying that if you really want to get gritty and lowdown with a band, this is probably not the ideal venue. That said, the environment inspires bands to relax a bit. They know that for most patrons, they are background music, something to plug up the holes in conversation. Overcoming that was the quirkiness and talent of James (JG) and Mary Everest.

The siblings Everest provided an exquisite display of simple ideas presented in complex ways. At the heart of both James and Mary’s music is songcraft, but their approaches differ greatly. The spare simplicity of Mary’s music is in direct contrast to her brother James’s layered and looped festivals of sound.

James started off the evening with an acoustic guitar strapped around his body, but oh, so much more was in store than just the strum of those six strings. You see, his band was beneath his feet. His pedals looped the percussion of his hand against the strings, the gentle picking of a melody, a bow scraped across the strings and then the strumming of chords. How many different sounds can you get from one hollow-bodied instrument? Add to that maelstrom the sharp ring of the glockenspiel, a trumpet’s wail and the screams and faux beat-box looped from James’s mouth. Then came the gritty vocals winding their way through the sound. His sister Mary added some piano and there were two violinists seated in front of the stage. This was like the lo-fi bedroom experimentation of a musician with a new eight-track recorder—adding layer after layer to a simple song. As the song went along and loops were added and deleted, it became impossible to tell what sound was coming from where. Where are those timid squeals of feedback coming from? Is that a violin, a piano or an electronic oboe? Do I hear tap dancing? Is this really happening? The sound was looping, building and swelling to its climax, then suddenly, with a couple taps of his feet, James Everest’s melodious cacophony came to a halt with barely an echo left hanging in the air.

Whereas James beautifully and skillfully obfuscates the bones of his songs, his sister Mary chooses, for the most part, to build her songs with an economy of sound. A dichotomy in sonic style, Mary’s first song, “Little Things,” was a slow, mournful ballad filled mostly by piano and Mary’s strong, yet vulnerable voice. Mary’s songs have a more country sound to them and they are just as powerful in their slightness as her brother’s are in their complexity.

Throughout the night, the Everest siblings traded songs back and forth as the stage ebbed and flowed from just the two of them to, at most, seven people contributing to the songs—not counting the loops. Even though their songs are mostly dark and serious, the night never felt heavy or somber. There were even moments of outright joy. An out-of-left-field cover of “9 to 5” sung convincingly by Mary was dedicated to “all the working people.” Sure, it evoked some raised eyebrows, but everybody in the room knew the song and the band absolutely played it without shame. Also adding to the frivolity, a sappy sweet happy anniversary song sung to the tune of "Happy Birthday" played just for James and his wife at a few minutes after midnight, apparently, a few minutes into their anniversary.

As the only band for the evening, James and Mary played two long sets of music. About halfway through the second set, you could feel the already relaxed vibe get even looser and more playful. The between song banter seemed to linger a little longer and the songs seemed to come a little easier, even to the point where a couple false starts and missed cues were obvious to the audience, but it didn’t matter. The playfulness of the musicians made up for any missteps. By the end of the night it felt less like a performance and more like some friends getting together to play some music. The band and the patrons seated near the stage bounced energy and praise back and forth. The experimental nature of the music made me feel like nothing was out of bounds. I was always on the edge of my barstool waiting to see what happened next.

Location Info: 331 Club
Artist Info: JG Everest, Mary Everest

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