Excuse the lame title, but the point I’m getting at is if you haven’t made it out to see the Varnish Cooks yet – get out there now!

The Varnish Cooks are an old time String band based right here in Rochester, NY. For more info on them and to learn a bit more check out their web sites: Varnish Cooks  or the site every band is nuts to not have since they’re free:  Varnish Cook’s Myspace page.

After a pretty decent burger at Red Robin I took the family up to House of Hamez to see the Cooks along with the Powder Kegs, who I bet were awesome – but having a 5 year old meant I didn’t get to stay for the whole show… I did manage to use my son to get us some seats though!

First of all, House of Hamez is in fact, one of the best small rooms to play an acoustic show in Rochester. Formerly known as Daily Perks, It’s barely 4 months into it’s run as a new business. It’s a place a lot of us musicians feel has a lot of potential, even as Perks.

They hired a sound guy who although he’s a bit quirky and out there, does an amazing job. He told us he custom built the PA speakers and really has put some thought into making that room sound good. He also – get this – stays at the sound board while there is music being made, taking his headphones on and off all night and monitoring everything with the visual aid of some computer sound recording program. I know from personal experience, he’ll do that same thing even when you’re playing to an empty room.

But last night was no empty room at all – something I’m sure the owner, James Rowe took notice of… Hamez was so packed that they had to turn people away! And get this… some people were waiting outside so that when a few people would leave they could get in! I’ve never seen anything like it.

I’m guessing a lot of the draw was for the Powder Kegs, as they’ve been blessed with some exposure since they won a contest on NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” I saw a lot of people in attendance that were probably in their 60′s or older – people who were amazed out loud at the talent of the opening act – The Varnish Cooks.

But there was also a good amount of young faces in the place, besides my wife and I. I hear that most Cooks shows have a very good turn out. Probaby because there aren’t a lot of people playing this kind of music – playing it well anyway. It’s a niche that seems forgotten most of the time.

“John,” you might ask, “where did you hear about the Varnish Cooks?”

Well, I have this love for the music and respect for the life boldly led by one of Rochester’s Gems, Gregory Paul. Greg is a local musician, artist, poet – a renaissance man in the truest form. This is what he does. Constantly playing gigs with different musical projects or having his artwork in one of the local galleries, he  doesn’t go to work in some factory every day to keep up the appearance of a normal life. He’s free of all that – a blessing and a curse, but none the less, people like him are essential to the artistic side of the City of Rochester.

GP recently joined the Cooks and was very excitedly talking about the band to my friend one night at the Lux Lounge. Great name, cool posters, old timey string band, and Greg is in the band now? I’m fuckin’ there man! And I’m so glad we went because they killed it up there. My wife liked it too, which just completes the experience for me.

The thing about the cooks is that they oozed realness from the stage. None of them were mind blowing or shredding up their on banjos or whatever. I saw Ricky Scaggs open for Wille Nelson this summer and it was great – but that band is made up of people who are recognized as the best players – period. They were jaw dropping, but it was almost too good.

The Varnish Cooks were just some real, local dudes playing with feeling and they were still amazing to anyone who’s ever tried to play any of the instruments up there. Ben Proctor the Banjo player was pulling out some great stuff, picking with a fever and pulling some bluesy bend offs. Greg Fair  on mandolin was chunking away at his side and providing a little background info before each tune. Ryan Griffith, the bass player was entertaining as hell for me anyway. He was huffing and puffing and rocking back and forth – playing the stand up with his whole being. And there’s no frets, so that already makes you good in my book.

The vocals were great although mic placement might have been better if centered more – but that’s me being picky, and the band looked like you’d want a group like this to look. No flashy suits, no bare feet, overalls and straw hats, they just looked like real guys.

But the neatest thing to see was Greg Paul taking a supporting role. In his solo music, Gregory Paul is up there, pushing sonic boundaries, creating all this sound as one man and a guitar or banjo and creating a very surreal and often reflective mood while his voice floats high in the air, tackling lyrics which are often comprised of poetry and prose. The guy is deep and it shows in his music and writing. Some people love it and others don’t understand it or find something they just don’t like about it… His solo music doesn’t have mass apeal in otherwords, and as much as we artist types feel proud of that fact when it applies, inside it can be rather crushing to not have people like your art. GP has played the game long enough where he’s pretty calloused to this, or at least he says he is.

In the Varnish Cooks though, he’s taking the roots of his music to the forefront.  Whatever it is inside him that makes him play old traditional covers and Hank Williams songs during his solo shows is allowed to stretch it’s legs and breathe with the Cooks. You can tell he’s having fun, and as I looked around at a packed ass house where people were almost sitting in each other’s laps to be there, it seemed he was getting a well deserved taste of recognition. And sure, it’s not singular, it was a general feeling towards the whole band – but I think that’s what all of them are looking for. (Varnish Cooks philosophy)

Good times, great music, a sense of pride playing American roots music, voices in harmony singing out… the music is happy and sad, beautifully simple but terrifyingly complicated at the same time – it’s about as real as life is, and last night the Varnish Cooks drove it home.

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