Introducing Whiskey Creek

Change has come.

For about the last 20 years, local music fans could count on one gig, Bruce Zimmerman and the Water Street Band's regular Sunday night appearance at Port Cape Girardeau.

Even when Zimmerman reduced the frequency of his Thursday night gigs at Port Cape last year -- from every Thursday to every other Thursday, staggered with Southern Illinois bluesman Ivas John -- he kept the Sunday gigs.

But now Zimmerman will only play on the first Sunday of every month, citing a desire to slow down after almost five decades of making music. Last Sunday was the final weekly gig for Zimmerman and his band. Starting this week they'll be replaced by newcomers to the local scene, southern rock and country band Whiskey Creek out of Farmington, Mo.

Port Cape owner Dennis "Doc" Cain said he was seeking something different when he first started talking to SE Live about the end of the Zimmerman era last year, and Whiskey Creek is definitely a departure from Zimmerman.

Where Zimmerman pleased the audience with energetic blues sets that elicited dancing, Whiskey Creek brings five to six pieces (depending on whether the fiddler is playing) to the stage with toe-tapping, rock-infused twang inspired by Hank Williams Jr., Alan Jackson, The Marshall Tucker Band, Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash and Lynyrd Skynyrd, to name a few.

Whiskey Creek features Matthew Helmes on guitar and vocals, Fred Oder on guitar, Shannon Cox on lead guitar, Mike Taggert on upright bass, Buck Jackson on percussion and, for some shows, Kevin "Coon Dog" Lewis on fiddle.

The band is already playing gigs at St. Louis-area night spots like Helen Fitzgerald's, Twister's in Imperial, Mo., and Duke's in Fenton, Mo. With the addition of a weekly gig at Port Cape, Helmes said the band will be playing six nights a week between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis.

Whiskey Creek is also getting airplay on Farmington and St. Louis country stations, and opened for Pirates of the Mississippi at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis.

"Our plan was to play once a month, and things just got crazy," Helmes, who quit a $70,000 a year job to play music, said of the band's start 10 months ago. "I wrote a couple of songs, and they started getting radio play, and people started calling."

The group throws everything from bluegrass (care of experienced bluegrass bassist Taggert) to Southern rock to modern country into its sets, Helmes said.

Cain said he's thrilled to have Whiskey Creek take over Zimmerman's spot. He said he was blown away after he heard the band's songs.

Before Whiskey Creek starts the Port Cape gigs, they'll play Friday at Schock's Pub in Scott City.

Zimmerman will still perform the first Sunday of every month at Port Cape, with the Ivas John Band playing every Thursday.

Whiskey Creek will play in the River City Yacht Club at Port Cape.

For more information on the band, go to www.myspace.com/whiskeycreekbanddesloge.