Web Master “I hate shaving,” says Spookie Daly in a thick Boston accent. He faces the mirror, his four leaf clover tattoo rippling on his shoulder as he slathers on a layer of Barbasol. In a small, but somehow not cramped, back room of Mississippi Nights, I sit with the lead singer of Spookie Daly Pride, and as the hours before the show wind down, ponder the culture and politics of music, World War II history, and razor burn.
Spookie Daly Pride (SDP) began back in 1998, almost haphazardly. “It was like a solo thing,” Spookie recalls, “and people started coming in and playing and jumping on board. It’s been kind of gradual. Petey and Chris just came on last year.” For the past four years the band has been touring and working together on their songs and their sound. But it is since early 2001 that the band has really taken its current shape, which includes lead vocalist Spookie on keyboards, Pete Witham on guitar, Chris Forkey on bass, Tommy Diehl on drums, and Stash on horns and percussion.
If nature takes its course with SDP, that course just might lead them all the way to the top. Their sound is that unique and their songs that catchy. Yet nothing about the band is pop. Spookie himself stumbles over his words when he tries to describe their sound, and he finally settles on “a real loose, trashy kind of rock and roll.” They received incredible support on the festival circuit this summer, but their music is harder than what is typically embraced by the jam band crowd, with energy rivaling punk in its intensity. This is a head banging band, a body rocking band. You are not going to groove at their shows, you are going to jump, flail, and possibly even kick a metal bucket. (continued on page 9)