Drop Top Lincoln reaches the ears of the people of Mesa County with the artful waves of local musicians Scotty Waters, Casey Smart, Chris Howard, and Jack Chipchase.
Casey Smart, lead singer, is also the owner of a 1978 Lincoln Continental that his grandfather once owned. That inspired the name of the band and brings them lyrical contributions, riffs of blues and jazz from slide and lead guitars, the banjo, and steel, slicing finish of the harmonica. Projecting those vocals straight back to their audience is vocalist Scotty Waters. Backing up vocals is Chris Howard on drums. The basic, yet enduring drum beats are kept by Chipchase, whose drums create rhythm for the rest of the musicians to weave into. Within this weave is a sound Howard and Waters describe as a blend of rock or bluegrass base woven in with jazz and given an edge.
In May, Drop Top Lincoln released Sixxx Dollar Suit, their self released album containing songs that mix the slow and swinging pulse of southern rock with a sound that runs an electric hillbilly rock current through each wave. A song by the album title, Murder Song, featured an elevated yet dynamic beat with a tweak banjo, and a classic titled Primer Gray Ford. Howard described the inspiration as a derivative of both home produced Sangria and a story lived by Waters himself. A man fails to get a car running during a relationship also heading nowhere except a place to feed pain into song.
Another popular song is Flat Black, written about a heaven full of drag racing and what such a place will be like. The band can now sense the following of listeners more due to its familiar turf where Drop Top seeks to reach all listening ears.
Currently the band is working with Prophecy Records to release another album of an undisclosed title in Spring 2011. A taste of their five star rockabilly sound can be obtained at www.droptoplincoln.net Inspired by Miq Jagger and as a man of show and Janice Joplin as a singer of pure soul; Waters uses these inspirations to drive his vocals while Howard sights his buried influences of country and rock as drives to create. As a band, the characteristics of aspiration come from the effort to operate cohesively as a business. Drop Top tells it like they see it, confirmed by the emphasis Waters places upon the stories told by their lyrics.
“There is no other sound like truth,” said Waters.
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rversaw@Mavs.coloradomesa.edu