Mix a little bit of the Jefferson Starship with a pinch of the Grateful Dead and you get a rare concoction with a Native American name and roots to an earthy, nomadic lifestyle. Moonalice isn’t your average, everyday band, but their live shows and musical tastes (think mid-1960s San Francisco) are garnering the attention of music critics and jam-band aficionados across the country.
The band, which features founder and guitarist Roger McNamee, guitarist G.E. Smith of Saturday Night Live fame, former Jefferson Starship keyboardist and bassist Pete Sears, San Francisco jam-band scene survivor Barry Sless, and occasional bass player and Epiphone signature artist Jack Casady, played a well-received set at the Mercy Lounge in downtown Nashville last night before swinging by the production facilities at Gibson Custom this morning for a tour of the plant, and a look at some very interesting guitars.
McNamee, a former techie venture capitalist with an acute penchant for anything musical, has been playing a recently acquired 1962 Gibson ES-330 during the band’s most recent live shows. Gibson Custom personnel were in attendance at last night’s show and invited the band to visit, and McNamee and the boys jumped at the chance to get a look inside Gibson’s guitar playground.
“We were in a guitar store in Ithaca, New York a few weeks ago, and over in the corner is this beautiful, single-pickup ES-330 in Cherry Red finish from 1962 that had a little bit of water damage to the finish on the back. I was looking at it, and the color alone just drew me in. It stole my heart,” McNamee said. “Every once in a while, good karma brings you together with the right stuff. And this was one of those magical moments.”
McNamee and Moonalice continue their tour with a Saturday night show at the legendary 40-Watt Club in Athens, Ga., and Sunday night at the Pour House in Charleston, S.C. The tour winds up with a two-night stand at the Magnolia Fest in Live Oak, Fl., on October 24-25.
For a wealth of information on Moonalice, including free downloads of the band’s live shows and various studio tracks, check out the band's website here.