Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Bands. I'm Shecky and today we're talking about a band that almost nobody outside the jam world knows about. And that absolutely should not be the case. Picture this. It's December 2018, Burlington, Vermont. One of the most beloved small music venues in the country, Nectar's. The same legendary bar where Phish played their very first shows back
in 1983. And on this particular night, three musicians who have spent decades at the top of their respective worlds walk onto the stage together for the first time. Nobody had planned a band. Nobody sent out a press release. It was just three incredible musicians in a room. A packed crowd that showed up to see what would happen. And two hours of music that left everyone in that room understanding they had witnessed something brand new. That's how LAMP was born. And that
story is what we're diving into today. To understand LAMP, you need to understand the three people who make it up. Because each of them carries a pedigree that would be extraordinary on its own. Together, they are something else entirely. Let's start with Russ Lawton, the drummer. Russ is from Massachusetts, grew up with drum corps, Portuguese feast parades, marching rums in the street, He eventually found his way to Burlington, Vermont and became one of the most in -demand
drummers in the entire jam scene. He played with Mike Gordon of Phish, he played with Strange Folk, he became core member of the Trey Anastasio band, the backing group for Phish's own frontman, and has been there for over 20 years. When Trey Anastasio needs a drummer for Saturday Night Live or The Tonight Show, he calls Russ Lawton. Ray Piekowski is the keyboardist. Ray's from Vermont, spent years milking cows in a Middlebury farm at night while playing gigs and recording
music during the day. That is not a metaphor. He literally milk cows and he'd go play a show. Ray toured with Dave Matthews and friends for three years. built a reputation in the Burlington music scene that stretched back to the late 1970s and eventually joined Trey Anastasio band alongside Lawton. Ray plays Hammond B3 organ, Hohner Clavinet and Wurlitzer electric piano and his ability to work all three simultaneously, painting melodies and bass lines at the same time is something
genuinely you have to hear to believe. Russ and Ray have a duo project called Soul Moaned. And the chemistry between them is what the band's own bio describes as improvisational leaps interpreted telepathically. 20 plus years of playing together. They don't need to look at each other. They don't need to count off. They just know. Then there's Scott Metzger, the guitarist. Scott is from Brooklyn and the Village Voice once called him an ace
guitarist of a thousand styles. He's the founding guitarist of Joe Russo's almost dead the beloved Grateful Dead tribute project, fronted by one of the most creative drummers in the jam world. Metzger on the guitar is a thing of beauty. Melodic, adventurous, with a telecaster tone that slides between jazz, twang, and full -on fuzz depending on where the music wants to go. These three people
have been aware of each other for years. But it wasn't until that December night at Nectars in Burlington that anyone asked the question, What if we got on the stage together and played? The Nectars show in December 2018 was the first and the only public performance as this trio for quite some time. But the crowd that packed into the room that night knew immediately that
something special just had happened. The way Metzger described it later, the debut show produced a fresh, so tight it's free sound permeated with technical prowess and deep pocket punch. which is a pretty good description of what happens when you put a world -class rhythm section, two musicians who play together like it's one organism, behind a guitarist who can absolutely do anything. The following spring they decide they create a name, and the name they landed on is wonderfully
straightforward. LAMP, capital L, capital M, capital P. Lawton, Metzger, and Pekowski. the first letters of each member's last name, simple, clean, direct. There's something I love about that choice. These three people are all already well known under their own names in the world. They could have invented a completely new identity. Instead, they said, this is literally who we are, our names, our last names, right there in the band name. If you know, you know, and if
you don't, you're about to find out. They went to Sugarhouse Soundworks Studio in Vermont in May 2019, laid down seven tracks over two days with engineer Roger Strauss and their self -titled debut EP dropped in July 2020, a pandemic project that became a full band movement. My one song for LAMP is Ramblin from the debut EP. At just over six minutes, It's the longest track on that record and it earns every second. It starts out with Pachowski's organ settling into a groove
that feels like a late afternoon sunshine. Warm, circular, just slightly hypnotic. Then Lawton drums drop in and the whole thing immediately has weight. Not heavy weight, the right weight. The kind of drumming that makes you feel like the floor just got more solid under your feet. Start with rambling. then let the record play through and find the Live at Nectar's album. You'll get that in a moment. Some things you should know about Lamp. As I mentioned before,
Ray milked cows until showtime. For 15 years, keyboardist Ray Piekowski held down a day job milking cows on a farm in Middlebury, Vermont and then went out at night to play music. He describes that period simply, you just made it work. The man who now fills rooms with Swirling Hammond B3, was waking up pre -dawn to Milk House before driving to a gig. That backstory is everything.
They've appeared on late night TV repeatedly, as members of the Trey Anastasio band, Russ Lawton and Ray Pekowski, have appeared on Saturday Night Live, The Late Night Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan O 'Brien, and Jimmy Fallon. When Fish's Tray needed a band for national television, they called Russ and Ray. The debut EP was recorded in two and a half days. Lamp's entire self -titled debut, seven tracks, was recorded in just two and a half days
at Sugarhouse Soundworks in Vermont. The session started from an email chain in early 2019, moved to a studio that summer, and became a fully formed artistic statement no overdubs no fuss just three people in a room playing all right here's my verdict here's what i keep on coming back to with lamp there's a thing that happens when musicians who have separately become world class at what they do who have each built decades of experience trust in their own instincts and the confidence
to take real risks finally get into a room together Something clicks that couldn't have clicked earlier in their careers. The restraint is hard work and hard won. The pocket is deep because it's been dug over many, many years. The willingness to leave space for the other person is a skill that most young musicians don't have yet. LAMP has all of that. And what makes them special in this world is that they combine that maturity with a genuine sense of play. They're not showing
off. They're not trying to impress each other. There are three people who love music and love playing with musicians that make them better. And that joy comes through in every note. Starting with Rambling on their debut EP, move to the live at Nectar for the full live experience and find one of us and hear what this band sounds like when they've got some miles under their belt and some attitude to go with it. That's Lamp and that's Shecky's Jam Bands. Thank you
for listening. Please like and subscribe my podcast and if you get a chance email me at SheckysJambands at gmail .com and we'll see you on the next show.