HIGHWAY 49

Highway 49 calls Auburn home and their music Americana fusion. The band plays all original songs with orchestrated sounds of the 1960s and '70s – large horn sections and complex layers of vocal harmonies.

"We've been likened to Tower of Power with the brass sound of Motown," said band founder Jeff Summers. "Our music is a compilation of country rock, southern rock, blues rock, folk and Motown."

The group introduces the flute in many of their songs, hearkening back to Jethro Tull and The Marshall Tucker Band.

"Nowadays, you hear a lot of what I call 'processed' music," he said. "Songs don't have the intense harmonies or the solo parts they used to have. They're canned to fit into specific timeframes that meet corporate and commercial interests. We're trying to change that."

Sandra MacDougall-Nell, co-lead singer says, "Some characterize us as a Chicago-type band, but with a female singer."

MacDougall and Summers write all of the band's lyrics and music. He leans toward blues and southern rock while she writes more folk and some rock.

"What is so interesting about our music," MacDougall noted, "is that people in their 80s all the way down to teens seem to enjoy it."

Drummer Travis Crocker said, "Retro classic rock is back. In our music, we talk about real life."

Crocker also plays congas and percussion in the acoustic five-piece smaller version of Highway 49. In the '90s he toured the country with a band that featured as many as 30 drums on stage at one time.

The acoustic band plays for smaller events, at coffee shops and wineries, while the full band plays at larger venues.

Sax and flute player, Katie Mathew, also an adjunct professor of studio art at Sierra College, recently joined the group and is thoroughly enjoying the experience.

"Our music is based in traditional rhythm and blues, southern rock and folk," she mentioned. "It's good ballad material."

Through their music, these local musicians capture the essence of whom they are and where they live in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Highway 49 consists of individuals who in their day jobs range from music teachers, to truck drivers, grocery produce managers, cabinet makers, high tech purchasing, an art professor, and piano teacher.

"We all have other careers," said Summers. "But we love music and travel around northern California to play at festivals, fairs and private events. We hope our songs touch you the way music used to, by capturing the moments in your life."