The Road to CukoRakko: A Conversation with Davis Little of Little Raine Band September 29, 2015 09:52
-
Our latest segment, "The Road to CukoRakko," consists of a series of interviews leading up to the festival held this weekend at Horse Pens 40 in Steele, AL. We recently caught up with Davis Little of the Little Raine Band, one of Birmingham's most promising young bands.
-
Little Raine Band is a band on a mission to follow their dreams by creating an amazing concert experience and music with lyrics that have visionary, philosophical, and universal elements that will leave an impact in people's lives. Each member has former jazz band experience and influences from all forms of music including bluegrass, funk, electronic music, jazz fusion, progressive rock, avant garde, indie, folk, R&B, and gospel.
-
The band's influences are vast, but the band is naturally developing their own unique sound and also a noticeable following of fans that seems to be growing month by month. Little Raine Band is set to play CukoRakko at 8:00 PM on Saturday, October 5th.
-
-
Interview by Jordan Kirkland: Live & Listen
-
The Little Raine Band is one of many young, up-and-coming bands to surface out of North Alabama in recent years When did you guys officially get this thing get rolling? Tell me about the band's early days.
-
Davis: Its hard to say when things officially got rolling, but the band as a name has been around since Daniel Raine and I (Davis Little) began the to play gigs when we were around 14 or 15. We spent a majority of our high school years as trio (with Marc Cameron Kosow on drums and Daniel Raine on Guitar/Bass/Harmonica) playing at small pubs and restaurants in Birmingham. We also most importantly had a 4 year weekly residency at a Mexican restaurant called Pablo’s, where we really learned how to play together, and we started a small fan base comprised mostly of friends and friends of our friends.
-
Around senior year a good buddy brought Isaiah Smith over to Daniel’s parents basement, where we would jam, and things instantly clicked. Once we graduated, we tried to cut an album. Right before we started the album, our drummer left the band to start his landscaping business. Daniel and I knew DeVonte Hutchins from playing with him at high school in the show choir band. We jammed with him during our free classes in school. So I called up DeVonte, and he was stoked at the offer and joined immediately. We never released that album, but we did release a debut album in April.
-
There has been an abundance of great, original live music coming from North Alabama in recent years. CBDB, The Doctors & The Lawyers, Mother Funk, and you guys, just to name a few. How big of an impact has the the music scene in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and beyond had on the band?
-
The music scene in Alabama has no doubt had a huge impact on us. Each Alabama city has always had its own music scene, with its up years and down years. Recently, the music scene in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Auburn has been on a huge rise. Its to the point where we are now seeing these music scenes in each city merging into one big scene/community. We are good friends with most of the other Birmingham, Auburn, and Tuscaloosa bands. It's really a special thing, because we are all mutually in the spirit of working together to help create a big scene, as opposed to the inevitable competition in cities like Nashville, Athens, New Orleans, L.A., and so on. We are insanely honored to be part of this Alabama music scene/community.
-
It's easy to get caught learning new cover tunes, as the requests seem to always roll in at the college/bar gigs. How much original material has the band accumulated over the last few years?
-
Davis: Surprisingly, we have around 40 original songs.
-
-
Every band has their own unique way of putting together a setlist. What does the process entail for you guys as you prepare for each show?
-
Davis: We take a lot of care in writing our setlists. We have a database of all of our song,s and we have just about all of our recent set lists from the last few years. We kind of judge our sets depending on the set of the last time we played in that venue/city. Mainly though, we get together and write the set list before the show or on the way to the show and try to create a journey with our song choices. However, we really try to listen and be at "the forefront of the moment" as we call it, so more often than not we end up straying from the set list and exploring other musical areas.
-
We're coming up on CukoRakko, one of Alabama's young, growing music festivals. Horse Pens 40 is without a doubt one of the most amazing locations in the state. What does it mean to you guys to be back for the second time this year?
-
Davis: CukoRakko is a very special festival to us. Not only is it the only festival in Alabama that consciously chooses to showcase mainly Alabama based bands, but its a grassroots handmade festival with genuinely good people running the event and attending. Greg and Jamie are some of the kindest men in the music industry. It is an honor to be back again this Fall.
-
-
CukoRakko will give you guys an opportunity to play in front of many fans who know your music forward and backward, as well as many who will be seeing you for the first time. How would you best describe what the crowd at Horse Pens can expect from The Little Raine Band?
-
Davis: There is no telling what everyone can expect from us this year. There is a lot of magic on the grounds of Horse Pens 40, so we’ll feel it out when we get there.
-
-
