ARTIST PROFILE: MEET DERRICK COFFMAN & THE CADILLAC KINGS
Updated: 2 days ago
INTRODUCTION TO DERRICK COFFMAN & THE CADILLAC KINGS
I'm Derrick Coffman, the singer/songwriter of the band with my esteemed colleague pedal steel player utility player Mark Greer. We met a few years ago about nine years ago. We both live in Muscle Shoals Alabama, we kind of linked up and have been annoying the piss out of each other ever since.
COMING TO, "IN A JAM DOWN BY THE RIVER"
This is our second time at, the "In a jam down by the River" festival. This year, instead of trying to put anything back to back with it. We just really wanted to get here and get settled in. We're doing full band this year versus acoustic of last year. We wanted to take in everything about the scene and the festival. Get in the vibe of everything.
HOW'D THE BAND COME TOGETHER
I was in all of these bands, you know, forefoot level, or any of these other bands, and you get to a certain point with those bands that you just get ready to take the next step. Then when you lose your bass player or your drummer quits, or, or somebody gets married, or somebody screws somebody else's wife and you know. So one day, my longtime co-writer asked me, Man, Will you quit the band stuff and just go with Derrick Coffman? I started putting all the songs I'd written together and got a few of them together and then the Cadillac kings have always been kind of an incarnation of different players. A couple of real full-time players like a harmonica player by the name of Gary Vance. Mark Greer here on pedal steel has been playing with me predominantly for the last four or five years.
HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE SHOWS WITH SO MANY MEMBERS
From Muscle Shoals, Alabama to New Braunfels, It's about 130 miles one way, it's not an easy trick. It's not an easy place to bring six different guys. So with this incarnation of the Cadillac kings this year, we have the drummer Chris Smith from the Ghost Dance Band coming in. He's going to be an honorary Cadillac King tonight. Then we also have Jason Custer coming in to play bass with us. So it allowed us to travel light. You know, with my travel from Muscle Shoals, I was able to travel in and still get the full band effect.
HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING IN ANY OF THESE JAM SESSIONS
I've been playing with some people, sending some sounds out there and everything. There are a lot of players here and it's just music 24/7. I mean, they were going last night right outside our spot until 5 am. Then we started getting going at like 8 am. There's music going on all the time. There are lots of people working together, new people playing, and everybody's welcome. We're seeing unfinished songs get finished out here as well. That's the line I've been waiting for, for the bridge.
WHAT IS WAITING FOR YOU BACK IN MUSCLE SHOALS
I do a lot of singer/songwriter stuff, I host a local Songwriters Showcase in Muscle Shoals on Tuesday nights once a month at a place called the Lava Room. We do that and a lot of it is acoustic shows and full-band shows. It's kind of hard to bring a seven-piece band to a honky tonk, That's gonna start asking for Luke combs and only pay you 300 bucks. The only way to get a seven-piece band to make money is to put the show on yourself. Just rent the space, hire the sound company and bring in the crowd and do it your way.
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