Columbia-born band’s frontman to return tonight
It was a fond farewell July last year when Columbia-born bandmates of CherryCase performed their final concert, packed up their instruments and traveled to Nashville, Tenn.
But Columbia better roll out the homecoming carpet because frontman Jake Etheridge will be stopping by the New Brookland Tavern as part of his “I Could Be Your One” solo acoustic tour, and he’s bringing all of the original band members back with him.
“We’re just really excited about coming back, seeing all our friends and playing with Columbia bands again,” Etheridge said. “We really haven’t performed with the original lineup since the farewell show when we left Columbia.”
After the band settled in Nashville, Etheridge has been performing solo for a while at venues more accustomed to singer-songwriters. He began to feel the loneliness that came with not having the band around, but he thought lonely was a good state of mind to be in, considering the style of music that he performs.
“Being lonely really isn’t that bad if you are writing and playing lonely songs,” Etheridge said.
The track “I Could Be Your One” continues Etheridge’s streak of performing bittersweet, acoustic pop music. The main verse of the song (“Memories don’t come easy / There’s nothing left to love / And I was just hoping maybe / That I could be your one”) says it all about what Etheridge is singing: wanting to be with someone you know you cannot be with. From the way the Etheridge sings it, you could tell that he wrote the song from personal experience.
“The song definitely comes from a direct moment in my life,” Etheridge said. “I really like it because of how simple and honest it is.”
Etheridge may be touring alone, but he still uses the band’s name to promote the tour as CherryCase isn’t just the name of a band to him. To Etheridge, CherryCase describes the sound of the music he performs, clueing music fans in on the style of the music they should expect to hear.
“I Could Be Your One” has helped advance Etheridge’s career in music in more ways than one. The song was recently selected to be featured in a short film called “Wholehearted,” a film about two lost lovers who reunited in Los Angeles. Etheridge felt the song was very fitting for the film’s overall tone about loss and regret.
“The song is placed at the point in the movie where the lovers leave and they never see each other again,” Etheridge said. “The guy messes up and loses the girl for good, and that fits in perfectly with the clichéd CherryCase feeling.”
Etheridge’s show tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the New Brookland Tavern will be the only performance on the tour featuring the full band: lead guitarist Danny Norris, drummer Taylor Desseyn, bassist Domonique Turnipseed and keyboardist Ben Catoe. They will be performing along with Ned Durrett and the Kindly Gents, kemp rildey and Hunter Duncan.
Etheridge will also be performing in Camden on Saturday at the Old Towne Tavern, 1044 Broad St.
The trailer for “Wholehearted” can be found on wholeheartedmovie.com.