Beef brings myriad influences to its southern rock, country

Sometimes they're aggressive, other times achey and road-worn. Sometimes they're the evening's boogie-bringers.

But they're always Beef.

Frontman Jamie Gooch describes the band as a mix among genres.

"It's pretty much evolved ... but it's always been sort of the southern rock, touching the outlaw country," Gooch said. "We play country, but now we're trying to add different layers of music to it. It's a more polished band than when we started."

By polished, he means proficient, not clean. There's still some hefty distortion going on.

But even then, it's not country or even southern rock, per se. It rolls with a similar drive, but it's grungier, more fuzzed-out.

Beef members cite everyone from Drive-By Truckers and the Allman Brothers to Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash as stylistic influences, but Gooch draws heavily from personal experience for the subject matter, with songs such as "Life Will Thrill Me."

"I started my life over again when I was 35," he explained. "These are songs that are about dealing day-to-day with things after having a sort of rockier past."

The result, combined with Gooch's twang-edged vocals, is a unique concoction.

"I'd say the band is Jamie, and we're really his backing band," lead guitarist Jason Heeter said. "Wouldn't you say that's right, guys?"

"Definitely," drummer Devon Dale nodded.

Bassist Whitley Dabbs and sometimes-bassist Walter Pollock agreed.

Creatively, they've coalesced around Gooch's particular grunge-country vision.

"This is the first band I've played in that does country stuff," Dale said. "I always did more prog rock or alternative kind of stuff."

And neither was Heeter typically to be seen playing their current style before joining the band, sticking more to jazz or jams.

But Gooch said his hope for the band is that it becomes more of a collaborative effort from a writing perspective.

"It's pretty much all been Jamie. I'd say he's just progressed. It's a lot more focused from the first time I saw him playing out at Pitter's," Heeter said. "We'd like to try and work in some things like vocal harmonies, dual guitar melodies."

And after having worked on writing a debut album for the bulk of five years, Gooch is happy to call the eponymous disc completed.

"We bought the studio piece by piece," he said. "Took about eight months recording, and we're very happy with how it turned out."

They've got a CD release party booked for Sept. 26 at Pitter's Cafe and Lounge, 811 Broadway in Cape Girardeau, to promote it.

"Our band is true to Southeast Missouri," Gooch said. "We've got a lot of roots in Southeast Missouri. We try to play our hearts out every night. We love the people who come out to see us."

Anyone interested in being counted among those fans Beef loves so dearly can catch its next show Sept. 19 at Rude Dog Pub, 123 Main St. in downtown Cape Girardeau.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627

Pertinent address:

811 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

123 Main St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.