Southern band Ten Toes Up stops in town on East Coast tour
They're going for rock 'n' roll. Leather jackets and dark wash jeans offset lace-up boots and oversized belt buckles.
Ten Toes Up, based in Pawleys Island, has been playing with its current lineup since 2004, which includes frontman William Craven, bassist Charles Freeman and drummers Joshua Gregory and Adam Miller.
"All of our backgrounds are very different," Craven said. "Writing together has matured into more rock 'n' roll sound."
The band looks to older rock 'n' roll greats like the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones for inspiration, but their sound falls more into the easy-listening rock category with Southern ties.
Ten Toes Up is a four-piece band with two drummers. Percussion plays down the heaviness of established rock to create a more rhythmic sound, which is helped by a little harmonica and lyrics rooted in the South.
"Most of our songs come from real-life experiences and most of us have spent our own lives here," Craven said. "We're southern by nature."
Ten Toes Up is touring from Washington, D.C., to Florida in a circuit centered in tourist towns, where the band has the opportunity to play for hundreds of different people with each performance. But with a new album, they're gearing up for a farther-reaching list of gigs.
The band currently has two recorded albums and one live disc and is working on their next live CD, which will be released before the end of this year. It will be their first album working with a big-name producer in Nashville.
Ten Toes Up will play The Loose Cockaboose Saturday at 9 p.m.