PHOTO BY MATT MARCINKOWSKI
A five-piece blend of influences and styles, composed of members of other bands, The Scandaleros is a musical melting pot. Vocalist and harp player Phil Wright describes the band’s eclectic sound as “swamp boogie and funk—sloppy-as-hell, greasy bayou funk.” He’s joined by guitarist and primary songwriter Carson Mann, drummer Bill Walters, bassist Josip Capan, and percussionist Sean Anglin. Mann says, “Everybody does their homework, gets prepared, and then we do our dance together.”
The group’s home base is the Broadway Oyster Bar, and its members are frequent guests on the Wednesday-night series helmed by Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players. The rotating all-star session tackles a night of covers by a single artist. Various Scandaleros are frequently guests of the Funky Butt Blues Band as well.
St. Louis’ answer to New Orleans’ anything-goes music venues, BOB is also the inspiration for the name of the band’s latest album, a nine-song disc titled A Confluence on South Broadway. “It sounds like a real band, a real record,” jokes Wright. “The disc’s still us,” adds Mann. “There’s maybe a tempo shift here or a flubbed note there, but that’s rock ’n’ roll.”
Relying on a live sound, the band “included a lot of the scratch vocals,” says Wright. The principal recording took place over several nights at local studio Phat Buddha Productions. “The band’s played these songs live so many times, it was easy to do,” says Wright. Afterward, the group recorded some solos and vocal overdubs, including work by such guests as Kari Liston and Emily Wallace.
And though the band itself is a side project of sorts, it’s even developed a four-piece spinoff, Grateful Dead tribute act Alligator Wine, after playing a one-off Jerry Garcia celebration. “The whole thing was about learning songs that I couldn’t play or that I had to teach myself before playing them in front of people,” says Mann. “We knew more songs than we thought we knew,” Wright adds, “and the crowd responded really well.”
Nonetheless, they still take pride in performing in The Scandaleros. As Mann says, “Playing original music, something you’ve made on your own and that someone comes to hear, is always an honor.”
Look for The Scandaleros at these other music rooms around town.
- Naked Vine: This Chesterfield “wine, whiskey, and music bar” features live music Thursday–Saturday: blues acts and singer-songwriters, folk and, yes, Dead acts. A group named Alligator Wine seems a perfect fit, eh?
- Venice Café: “I’ve been to some places (New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans) and there’s nothing like it,” Mann says. Wright adds: “We can get pretty rowdy there, but they seem down with it.”
- Pop’s Blues Moon: This micro-venue on The Hill was the birthplace of Alligator Wine, and the band often guests on the club’s Deadhead-friendly “Terrapin Tuesday” promotion, curated by bartender Laurie Anne Beetner.
