| e.company |

The boys of e.company, a New Orleans based funk/soul group, took Starkville on a wild musical ride at their CD release party this past Friday night at State Theatre. The album “ON” is the band’s first full length album and was produced by none other than the revered John Synder. Speaking with the band’s keyboardist/vocalist, Joe Shirley, I could really sense his excitement that the album was finally being released and the relief that he and fellow band mates could get down to the business of blowing audiences away with their live performance.
The intimate setting at State Theatre’s main stage was bursting at the seams, both from the band’s chemistry and the high energy level of the audience. e.company moves through their funky tunes as one organism. They ebb and flow with each other just like the rising and sinking of a breathing beast’s chest. Their sound is silky smooth and at the same time, electrifying. The overall superior musicianship of the rising young group is topped off by the dynamite Rev Gooden on sax. In my hazy memories of after the show, there was nothing but positive remarks about the performance and demands for a late night location so the madness of the evening could continue.
If you love the sounds you hear when you walk down Frenchman Street in Beautiful New Orleans, Louisiana then you will definitely dig e.company. If their groove doesn’t infect your shoes, then you may want to get your ears checked or else just take yourself a little less seriously. The band’s fan base continues to grow with the well-attended CD release party here in Starkville. Their last performance here was to the legions of concert-goers at Old Main Music Festival in April. They tell me that they will soon be back to Starkville, which they consider their favorite Mississippi city to play. Whenever their next show is here in Starkville, it’s definitely one I would wholeheartedly advise all to attend.
-Brice Lambert - Music Maker Productions, Starkville MS

Some cities play host to rich, lively musical scenes created or fueled almost exclusively by those endemic to the environment; others seem to have magnetic properties that pull musicians from near and far into their artistic orbits. Such is the case with New Orleans, which, like New York, continues to be a beacon that draws musicians in like a lighthouse calling to ships.
The members of the quintet known as e.company originate from all over the South and came together in New Orleans; certainly experiencing this pull in their own way, their music seems, however, to indicate that they were seduced by the city, not its musical history. The music of e.company is closer to the sound of Maroon 5 than The Meters or any member of the Marsalis clan, which may disappoint those who feel NOLA-based musicians are required to fall in-line with one of the city's native styles, but this band isn't letting its base of operations determine its artistic course of action.
There are trace elements of Adam Levine, Lenny Kravitz and Gavin DeGraw in vocalist Joe Shirley, and the production values of the album are largely in-step with what often surrounds those artists, but e.company also reaches beyond the stylistic settings usually inhabited by those singers. Some modern soul is thrown into the mix ("Somethin Crazy"), raucous rock-funk visited ("I See 3"), and the art of jamming clearly understood during the latter portion of "Like Me," the opening of "Treehouse," and at various other points throughout the album.
While improvisation comes into play with soulful saxophone work from Matthew "Rev" Gooden ("Rain"), edgy guitar soloing from Chris Walker Lippincott ("Interpose"), and excitable organ work from Joe Shirley ("Like Me"), these episodes are delivered in service to the songs. The music borrows from jam band ideology, jazz, funk and soul, but wrapped in an attractive and easy to understand pop package.
While NOLA will always be the city of Armstrong and Bechet, Congo Square, and second line, music is often a reflection of the times in which it was created, and the music of e.company testifies to this at every turn.
-Dan Bilawsky - All About Jazz . com

Based in New Orleans, but creating fan bases across the south, e.company’s debut album ON incorporates elements of funk, jazz, and R&B into all their tracks. The vocals onON are laid-back and smooth, but they are not the star of the show, acting more as an enhancement to the instrumental funk that occurs. Almost all their tracks are five to seven minutes long, with the instrumentals dominating your attention. Their music would not be out of place at Jazz Fest or floating out the door of a club on Frenchmen, with lengthy jam-out sessions towards the ends of their songs. You can hear each instrument is distinguishable—bass, keyboard, and drums—making significant appearances even alongside their more aggressive saxophone solos. Track 3, “I See 3” builds into brass frenzy with guest trumpeter Mario Abney, and there is a slightly classical addition to track 4, “Like Me” with the addition of a cello and violin. The last track, “Treehouse,” is all music and no vocals, closing out with their signature sounds. e.company will find fans among those who enjoy groovy melodies and dancing.—Elizabeth Tran - Where Y'at Magazine, New Orleans

Easy Company, up-and-comers from New Orleans, is a group of six people on a mission: to bring you some of the most chilled-out yet funky music down here in the South. Rather than following the common convention of layering brass upon brass for a cheerful-yet-gaudy sound, Easy Company combines cooled-off jazz and energetic, guitar-based funk and blues with a healthy dose of soulful vocals to make a real New Orleans treat.

Easy Company is Chris Lippincott on guitar, vocalist Symphony Howlett, pianist and organist Joe Shirley, Roy McGrath on sax, bassist Calvin Morin-Martin, and Dave Shirley with drums and percussion. Though the group started out as a freshman dorm-room-jam-session among music students at Loyola University, it has evolved, split up, and now recently reformed to tour the South and release their first album.

"We've recorded some tracks before at the Loyola studio, burned them to CDs, and put them out at shows," said Lippincott in an interview with Tiger Weekly. "But for the new album, we've written around 15 or 16 originals. We love original music and try to write as much as we can. We do covers at shows, but we want original songs on the record, and it should be out by the end of the semester."

Noting the band's slogan, "Satisfy Yo' Southern Side", it's easy to see that Easy Company has something familiar about it, existing very much in the wide space of New Orleans music. But with a polished sound, plentiful harmony, and a chilled beat, there's not much that won't quickly put you in a good mood. After all, there's a reason that their style is known internationally as the soundtrack to good times.

"If you were to put a label on the sound, it would be funk, soul, and jazz," said Lippincott. "I mean, we play funky stuff, but I feel like we're not constricted by that. We do a lot of different things and we incorporate elements of rock and jam bands, but our primary sound is soulfulness. And half of us are jazz majors, so we have that influence as well."

"We try to maintain the groove at all times," continued Lippincott, "but that's especially true with the material we've been writing lately. There's a much heavier jazz influence than any of the other original songs. It's a real clean, funky, jazzy kind of sound, and it's really pleasing to the ear, I think."

Since most of the group is still attending Loyola, the tour can only reach so far from New Orleans, but that doesn't seem to stop the Company from getting out there.

Ready to spread their music, Easy Company is currently scheduled for eight shows in Louisiana, including a November 11 show at Bogie's in Baton Rouge. The show starts at 10:00 PM and will also feature EarPhunk. So if you're looking for a live experience that will leave you beaming instead of broken, make sure you're in good company. - Travis Leeper, The Tiger Weekly

Loyola's newest band, Easy Company's, sound is a combination of funk, jazz, soul, and blues. The six piece band consists of Symphony Howlett on vocals, Chris Lippincott on guitar, Roy McGrath on saxophone, Calvin Morin-Martin on bass, and brothers Dave Shirley on drums and Joe Shirley on piano.
Lippincott and Shirley had been a drum and guitar duo for a while, when the idea of expanding the band was born. One-by-one, the guys came together and by spring 2009, they were creating music and playing gigs around New Orleans.
"Our first gig was at Satchmo's," Joe Shirley says. "It was a great experience and really fun. We packed Satchmo's."
The band went on to play bigger venues like Tipitina's, Cafe Prytania, and The Howlin' Wolf and began to feel at home on any stage, Joe Shirley says.
Later in Fall 2009, the guys decided to add Howlett to the band. "We all add our own color to the band," Joe Shirley says. "Symphony adds soul to our sound and now, when we write music, we focus on what the others sound like and we use that to our advantage."
Band members also contribute different flavor when writing lyrics, says Lippincott.
"The bulk of the writing is Joe and me. Joe adds a classical style and I write catchy, bluesy phrases and melodies," he says.
Their influences range from Derek Trucks Band to James Brown to Jimi Hendrix.
"Everyone in the band has their own different influences, musical or otherwise," Dave Shirley says.
"We just want to be heard," Dave Shirley says. "We'd love to play at bigger venues, tour, and just be part of the local, New Orleans music scene. - Erica Colbenson, The Wolf Magazine