Fletcher's Grove
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Fletcher's Grove

Morgantown, West Virginia, United States | SELF

Morgantown, West Virginia, United States | SELF
Band R&B Funk

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"Top local CD releases for 2009 showcased by variety of talent"


Fletcher's Grove, "All the Way Home"
Last winter I ran into the West Virginia University/Marshall University-student built jam band Fletcher's Grove up at Timberline's lodge in Canaan Valley rocking the mountain down with a great live jam.
A snapshot of that sweet live Grove groove was captured this year by Jeff Bosley, long-time veteran of the Mountain Stage crew. Bosley engineered the October release, "All the Way Home," an all originals CD of nine songs he recorded in August in part at the Jomie Jazz Center at Marshall. The Grove is definitely one soul with its eclectic jam that blends in influences from Phish and Lotus back to the Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead.
Bosley also helped put together a stellar national CD release, "Still Moving Mountains," a critically-acclaimed anti-Mountain Top Removal CD that featured Kathy Mattea, Del McCoury, Blue Highway and many others.
Before they head back to their respective schools, see the Grove live with Freekbass at the V Club on New Year's Eve.
- Herald Dispatch


" Putnam County band puts out its funk infused jams in new CD release"

HUNTINGTON -- During the week, Fletcher's Grove is a house divided.
Part of the band goes to West Virginia University and part of the band goes to Marshall.
But on the weekend, the five-man jam band of Putnam County boys brings it "all the way home."
Today, Oct. 31, the funk-infused jam band, of Hurricane and Winfield boys that formed in 2006, celebrates the release of its new all-originals CD, "All The Way Home," with an opening slot on the almost-legendary dance party, The Halloween Freektacular at The V Club, 741 6th Ave., starring Cincinnati's grand master of funk, Freekbass.
Doors open at 8 p.m. The show starts at 10 p.m., and you bet your Strawberry Shortcake, it's a Halloween Costume Party.
Cover is $10 at the door.
Made up of Ryan Krofcheck (vocals/rhythm guitar), Matt Marion (vocals/percussion), Wes Hager (lead guitar/flute), Taylor Pratt (bass) and Adam Greene (drums), Fletcher's Grove is ready to share its new CD. It was cut with engineer Jeff Bosley, formerly of Mountain Stage, and recorded in part at the Jomie Jazz Center at Marshall University.
Krofcheck said while not united in college or costume choices, the Grove is definitely one soul with its eclectic jam that blends in influences from Phish and Lotus back to the Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead.
"We've been in between being a cover band and an original band," Krofcheck said. "Now we really want to be an original band and to get our CD out there. We don't know what that's like yet for people to listen to the songs we wrote and then come to the show and want to hear that."
That could change starting now with "All the Way Home" filled with nine original songs.
The band, which recorded its first demo with Brick & Stone Sound out of Nashville last year, hooked up with Bosley, who has done such projects as the recent "Still Moving Mountains" CD, when Hager met him on the MU jazz band's trip to Europe this summer playing the Montreux Festival.
"We spent the summer fine tuning everything and writing as much as possible," Krofcheck said. "The first song that we wrote, 'All the Way Home' we knew that was the song for the title track. It has all of these mentions of things from the valley and was so downhome with a bluegrass feel. When we recorded it, it felt so good and organic and natural that we didn't mess with it."
Recorded live over two weeks in August with few overdubs, Bosley caught the five-man-band making sweet jam on such freshly-written tunes as "All the Way Home," "Discotheque," "Alien Opera" and "Don't Take My Peace."
"We thought it was important that this CD was completely about the feel and improv and the communication through one another musically," Krofcheck said. "So it's exactly how it is at a live show and that's what we wanted, something good out with some good jams and showing what everybody can do."
The band, which just drew more than 150 fans into 123 Pleasant St., is excited to be back playing Huntington, since it hasn't played here in a while even though Hager, Pratt and Greene, all go to Marshall.
Krofcheck said they've also got a couple big area shows planned for Thanksgiving weekend at Shamrocks in Huntington (Friday, Nov. 27) and at Creekside Cafe in Hurricane (Saturday, Nov. 28).
"It seems like things are starting to happen and there's a scene and people wanting to hear the music here," Krofcheck said. "We have a really good feeling that we are starting to change things." - Herald Dispatch


"Local band prepares mainstream release"

SCOTT DEPOT -- Another musical sensation is ready to explode out of Putnam County.

Fletcher's Grove -- a five-man jam band based in Hurricane that has been performing at venues up and down the Huntington-Charleston corridor -- will release its first mainstream CD under Brick & Stone Records, the Nashville music label founded by Scott Depot's Redding Brothers.

"We've done several performances with the Redding Brothers in the past and have been good friends for a while now," said Ryan Krofcheck, lead vocalist for Fletcher's Grove. "They suggested this opportunity might be good for us, too, and this is what we have always wanted to do, so we are all pretty happy about it."

Fletcher's Grove is made up of Krofcheck on acoustic guitar and lead vocals; Matt Marion on percussion and vocals; Wes Hager on lead guitar; Taylor Pratt on bass, Adam Green on drums, and Jenifer Billups on vocals.

- The Putnam Herald


"Night Sky Entertainment signs two regional bands"

To pull a Big '80s A-Team quote out of the hat, "I love it when a plan comes together."

Last week, I got an e-mail from Nashville-based, West Virginia native Doretta Pugh Osburn that her Night Sky Entertainment (which also manages Redding Brothers and Gabriel) just signed Bug out of Charleston and Fletcher's Grove, the five-person jam band out of Hurricane and Winfield.

Saturday, we clunked our ski boots up to the Fireside Grille at Timberline Four Seasons Ski Resort in Davis, W.Va., and lo and behold, four hours from home, Fletcher's Grove was getting its two-drummer-driven, Garcia-approved groove on.

Made up of Ryan Krofcheck, Matt Marion, Wes Hager, Taylor Pratt and Adam Green, Fletcher's Grove filters its tunes whether original or covers (Phish, Rusted Root, Grateful Dead) through a melodic Dead-fed roots blend that's nothing but a peaceful, easy festival feeling in the ears.

That blend only gets better when part-time singer, Jenn Billups steps to the mic.

Go online at www.myspace.com/fletchersgrovewv to check out a handful of the band's original songs.

Honky tonk 'n' roll

Shamrocks Pub goes honky tonk 'n' rolling at 9 p.m. today as The Dirty Coal River Band, who was last seen and heard in our fair city backing up Jesco White, The Dancing Outlaw at a sold-out show at Shamrocks in '08, is back in the house.

The band's founder, Jay Hill, who has been backing up White at gigs around the country (including the one last year when they got booted out of the Ryman Auditorium), said things are moving like a spring flood for the band that's finishing its CD, which is fueled with equal parts, honky tonking, folk-rocking and bluegrassing.

Like it was when Jesco was here, the band will be taped by Jason Dobbins of J.D. Film Productions, out of the Clarksburg/Morgantown area.

Dobbins is working on a full-length documentary about the band, which will have special guest and sessions player Brandon Shuping sitting in with them on mandolin and banjo.

Go online at www.myspace.com/thedirtycoalriverband to get a slice of Boone County's best made up of Hill, Joey Dehart on bass, Joe Nichols on guitar and Josh Hager on drums.

War Eagle and Richie Tipton also are on tonight's bill at Shamrocks.

Brazilian beats to the H-Town streets

With temperatures hitting less than zero, it's somewhat of a mid-winter night's dream to think that someone would have the wisdom to book, oh, I don't know, one of the best pop artists ever out of Brazil to heat up the 40th annual Marshall University Winter Jazz Festival.

Yes, it's only a week before the Marshall Artists Series presents the Grammy-winning pianist, bandleader and composer Sergio Mendes at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31. He'll bring in his Brazilian beats and sexy sambas to heat up Marshall University's Winter Jazz Festival at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.

It's not a scientific study but about 1.5 seconds after I tossed in Mendes' "Timeless" CD (that he cooked up with Black Eyed Peas producer/songwriter will.i.am), my 6-year-old son, Will, broke out into a full-bore dance fit, getting down on the kitchen floor, break dancing to Mendes' hit "Mas Que Nada."

That spirit of feeling the music in every fiber of your body definitely pervades Mendes' infectious blends of rhythm and melody matched up with the additional energy of new artists such as Jill Scott, Fergie, John Legend, The Roots and others that Mendes and will.i.am gathered for "Timeless" and their latest collaborative effort, "Encanto."

At the Winter Jazz Festival, Mendes joins a who's who of jazz musicians from Clark Terry, Arturo Sandoval and the Count Basie Orchestra that have played the festival that was started by the late Marshall professor J.D. Folsom. Folsom founded the Marshall Jazz Ensemble.

If you only know Mendes through his 1983 hit "Never Gonna Let You Go," let me say a ticket buy is not even a gamble as Mendes has been on the scene in America since 1964, a decade when he was the top-selling Brazilian artist and still cooking up his music spicy and hot.

Tickets for Mendes, who won a Grammy for his album "Brasileiro," are $60 and $45 and youth (17 and under) are $30 and $22.50.

Groups of 10 or more may receive a 10-percent discount.

Tickets may be purchased through the Marshall Artists Series box office, located in the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, or by calling 304-696-6656 or 304-523-5757.

Read an interview with Mendes in the Sunday Life section of The Herald-Dispatch. If you're the first person to call me at 304-526-6686 and tell me what famous Swiss-based jazz festival the Marshall University 12.0 Jazz Ensemble has been selected to perform at in 2009, then I'll get you copies of both "Encanto" and "Timeless." - Hereld-Dispatch


"Fletcher's Grove a young band with a big plan for the future"

Fletcher's Grove a young band with a big plan for the future


Carolyn Harmon


Putnam County’s own Fletcher’s Grove will perform New Year’s Eve at the V Club in Huntington.

HURRICANE - Youth can be deceiving; it can hide the experience behind the number as in the case of the Putnam County band, Fletcher's Grove, who began performing when its members were in middle school.

Now, with its members at the ripe old age of 20, the group has an agent and in-between gigs they are all attending college.

Ryan Krofcheck, of Hurricane, acoustic guitar player and singer for the band, said the group is young and has a lot to learn.

"I think of it as a cannon that we keep packing and we're making sure we're packing it right so that when we get out of school we're going to come firing out 150 percent," Krofcheck said.

Krofcheck's first band, One Way, formed in seventh grade with Matt Marion, percussionist and vocalist for Fletcher's Grove. Both in show choir the two were friends, playing in talent shows and eventually were joined by a third and became an acoustic trio called Fletcher's Grove. They started playing guitar and singing harmony in coffee shops and open - mic nights. At this time they were about 15 and trying to play in bars, without much luck.

Meanwhile, an instrumental jazz fusion group was forming by Adam Green, now the drummer for Fletcher's Grove.

"We thought they were awesome and they thought we were good and once we saw them playing we thought we could use some guitar solos and they could use some vocals and we really started getting this together," Krofcheck said.

In 2006, Fletcher's Grove began informally as it is now, with Krofcheck, Marion, Green, Wes Hager on lead guitar and jazz flute, Taylor Pratt on bass. Vocalist Jen Bilups fills in as needed. Krofcheck said they called it the big band for awhile because they went from a little band to a big one. It took the group awhile to get everything together and they are still working on that, Krofcheck said.

"My counselor said, 'What do you want to do for the rest of your life?' I said, I'm in a band and going places already and I want to be a rock star. He and other people are like, 'Yeah.' You get that," Krofcheck said.

Many people have been asking the group what their sound is and how they are recognized. Krofcheck began taking flatpicking lessons and getting into the folk bluegrass scene. He was greatly influenced by West Virginia's Appalachian heritage. When Krofcheck started taking lessons from Robin Kessinger he learned that Kessinger's dad played the banjo and his dad played the fiddle and that education was passed down from one generation to the next.

"And once we started listening to more 60s music - the Grateful Dead was a huge influence on us - in between the rock- n -roll we started seeing their acoustic, rootsy, bluegrass sound and it caught our ear for awhile," Krofcheck said.

Some of the other guys like the new, hippie, techno, danceable, electronic music. Krofcheck said the different personal styles of the band make it an interesting combination.

"I'd like to get that out of this band, this huge variety from Tom Petty one minute to an instrumental jam, then some jazz and next bluegrass," Krofcheck said.

But for now, all of the band's members are in college getting experience in fields that will help the band progress, such as advertising, public relations, and jazz studies.

"It takes one step at a time to get to the top and really make something out of it," Krofcheck said. "Finding out who you are, what you're music's going to be like, and where you stand."

Fletcher's Grove will perform New Year's Eve at the V Club in Huntington. For more information log onto www.fletchersgrove.com

- Putnam Standard


Discography

Fletcher's Grove - "All the Way Home"

Photos

Bio

Fletchers Grove is truly a big fish in a little pond. Widely regarded as one of West Virginias most promising up-and-coming band, the group of five has used their Appalachian successes to pack a variety of venues and festivals along the East Coast. Fueled by their 2010 debut album All The Way Home, the band effortlessly weaves funk, rock, and jazz influences into a completely unique, genre-free, and contagious sound.

Known for their high-energy shows, the band mixes pulsating bass lines, dual-guitar solos, and an eclectic percussion section that makes standing still nearly impossible. By maintaining a solid focus on perfecting musical intricacy and creating seamless improvisation, Fletchers Grove has captured the imaginations of thousands in the Mountain State and beyond.

In the summer of 2011, Fletcher's Grove hit the festival season hard playing such festivals as All Good Music Festival, The Werk Out Music Festival, Highland Jam, Hookahnanny, Hookah in the Hills, Masquerade Ball, Camp Barefoot, WV State Fair, Mon Arts Festival, Woodlands Spring Jubilee, Live on the Levee, Recipe Family Cookout, and Halloween Masquerade Ball.

The five-man-band is made up of Ryan Krofcheck (Vocals/Ryth. Guitar), Matt Marion (Vocals/Percussion), Wes Hager (Lead Guitar/Flute), Taylor Pratt (Bass), and Adam Greene (Drums). Aside from the music they grew up on their musical education and degrees have carried them throughout improvisational jams and intricate song writing. Throwing in heavy jazz rudiments and a diverse array of instruments from the mandolin to the flute.

Fletcher's Grove plays over 150+ shows and festivals a year, sharing the stage and line-up with bands such as Furthur, Primus, Yonder Mountain String Band, Umphree's McGee, Dark Star Orchestra, Gov't Mule, Rusted Root, Papadosio, The Werks, Ekoostik Hookah, EOTO, STS9, The New Mastersounds, Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, Cornmeal, Great American Taxi, and number of other talented artist.

Fletcher's Grove now calls home to Morgantown, WV. They are in the studio working on their new album that will be release in the spring of 2012. Fletcher's Grove also landed full-time spot playing as the house band on The Coffee Talk Show - a WV based late night style talk show that showcases the people and stories around WV.

2011 Festival Seaons:
-All Good Music Festival
-The Werk Out Music Festival
-Highland Jam
-Hookahnanny
-Hookah in the Hills
-Masquerade Ball
-Camp Barefoot
-WV State Fair
-Mon Arts Festival
-Woodlands Spring Jubilee
-Live on the Levee
-Recipe Family Cookout
-Halloween Masquerade Ball

Band Members