Lackawanna Carriage Works

I probably don’t know as much about Jacksonville as I often get credit for, but I do know a little bit about Jax history. I was recently told I was a “grandfather of the Jacksonville music scene,” (which many of my contemporaries would object to), but I do pay an inordinate amount of attention to the local music scene. My experience is often called upon in the middle of the night from desperate friends looking for a good band. But I am often still wrong about the details of these musicians, since there is no authoritative chronicle.
I’ve also delivered enough pizzas all over this great city of ours to be familiar with most neighborhoods (although I recently got terribly lost on Spring Glen Road and I’m still not sure exactly what neighborhood I was in). So when I first heard the name of Jacksonville’s own alt-country, all-star band, Lackawanna Carriage Works, I chuckled. This name is perfect for this band.
My friends that live in Murray Hill often joke about not being “Riverside” enough and the ironic divider between Riverside and The Hill being railroad tracks. In the aristocratic food chain of the Riverside area, Avondale is in the upper echelon and Murray Hill is thought of as the lower echelon and the rest of the Riverside neighborhoods are part of the descent. Even lower than Murray Hill is its North Riverside neighbor, Lackawanna. North Riverside is ablighted mostly industrial area on that vague border between Riverside and Westside proper. Although inhabited by many good people, this neighborhood is not known for any particular landmark or characteristic. In fact, its lack of a specific characteristic just might be its defining characteristic.
The most notable landmark to Jacksonville residents at large is probably the WW Gay building. Lackawanna is one of the least populated parts of North Riverside, although it still has some great people that live there and are working to restore it. Lackawanna is fairly overlooked, so what it has to offer is more or less unknown to most people. This is precisely why Lackawanna is the perfect neighborhood for this band to associate with.
Brennan Hamill, who plays guitar and sings for the group, might be the most Lackawanna of the bunch. His imposing presence makes him impossible to not notice, with wild red hair and a red beard that surrounds his gracious smile. I first met him as a bartender at Yesterdays and then learned of his dirt-rockin’ muscle car band Dang!. He also does an impressive cover of Neil Young’s ‘Cortez the Killer’ on his MySpace. These attributes are easy to praise now that I know him, but all of these things are also easy to overlook if you aren’t paying attention. Like Lackawanna, Brennan lived and functioned here for a long time before I ever noticed him.
Damien Waters, who plays guitars and sings for the group, suits the Lackawanna title too. I first knew of him when he played with Reggie Youngblood (of Black Kids) in a band called Cubby. Later he invited me to come to the London Bridge and play Johnny Cash’s guitar. I have seen him many places, but he was another character that was somehow easy to overlook, just like I overlook the Lackawanna neighborhood that I drive through almost everyday.
Ryan Turk, who plays guitar and sings for the group, doesn’t really remind me of the neighborhood of Lackawanna for being overlooked. Ryan has been in Jacksonville’s spotlight plenty of times, and he has been a part of the music scene here for as long as any other musician I can think of off hand. He was the singer/songwriter for many bands, probably most notably Lovecraft. They were a Jacksonville indie rock band who, after breaking up, sent players on to Crash the Satellites, Shangrala, Michelle Payne Band and healthy solo recording projects. The aspect of Lackawanna that I identify Turk with the most is the industrial aspect of this blighted neighborhood. It is apparent that it has seen some hard times, but it does not give up. Ryan’s output of music has been more prolific and eclectic than any other local musician I know.
Hammil, Turk and Waters all alternate playing various stringed instruments (acoustic guitars, mandolin, electric guitar) and switch off on lead vocals, often harmonizing for one another. Jeremy Nix (keys, organ, synth), Kevin Peffer (bass, vocals) and Adam Deli (drums, vocals) round out this enormous stage-presence of a band, and all of them are bearded except for Jeremy Nix, the token fashion rocker of the group.
While beard are certainly on the uptrend, that isn’t why the facial hair also suits this band well. The beards work because they are playing an old style of country music. It’s old-school country played by indie rockers, but it manages to not become too alt-country. It isn’t experimental like Wilco, it isn’t fused with disco or dreamy instrumentation like Band of Horses, it actually sounds like authentic country music. When Hamil sings, you might think you’re list - N2U Publishing