Songs for Older Women - the second of, thus far, seven albums by Chicago rockers Umphrey's McGee - includes a "secret track" on the CD, a song titled "Baby Honey Sugar Darling." And when he first auditioned for the band in 2003, Umphrey's McGee drummer Kris Myers discovered that the group, as it turned out, was no stranger to secrets.
"Yeah, that was really interesting," Myers says with a laugh during a recent phone interview. The audition took place in the basement studio of Umphrey's McGee guitarist Jake Cinninger, with other band members in attendance. "I knew a song of theirs - 'Hurt Bird Bath' - but I never played it before. So I played it, and then we talked." Afterwards, the band went upstairs while Myers, given new songs to practice on his own, played downstairs.
But to Myers' later surprise, the group hadn't left Myers completely alone; as he reveals, "It turns out they had a hidden mic in the basement."
Apparently, the group liked what they heard; earlier this year, describing Myers' audition to Relix magazine's Richard Gehr, Cinninger said that when Myers first played "Hurt Bird Bath," he did so "perfectly," adding, "I still have it on tape. It'll be a nugget for the box set." And given Umphrey's McGee's output and increasing popularity - their most recent CD, April's Safety in Numbers, hit Billboard's Top 200 and debuted at number 11 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart - that box set might not be far away.
Progressive rockers Umphrey's McGee - who will perform at the River Roots Live Festival on September 23 - have earned a steady following since their debut CD, the ironically titled Greatest Hits Volume III, in 1998, and are enjoying greater critical respect this year than ever before. Calling the group "one of the more exciting and unpredictable improv-driven bands out there," Chad Berndtson, in Boston's Patriot Ledger, wrote, "Their sound continues to be conspicuously original in a scene consistently overwhelmed by poseurs and knockoffs." And, describing their appeal in Rolling Stone, David Fricke wrote that Umphrey's McGee is what would result "if Radiohead had been born a cheerful Midwestern bar band with brains."
For Umphrey's McGee drummer Myers, this musical recognition is not only appreciated but, considering how unplanned his fame was, surprising. "I never expected this," he says regarding the group's current notoriety. "It's just amazing."
A native of Andersonville, Illinois, Myers' interest in percussion began when his uncle bought him a drum set at age 11; years of private lessons led to his receiving a four-year music scholarship to Illinois' Elmhurst College, which, in turn, led to a graduate degree in jazz drumming at DePaul University. "I was planning to work in a recording studio," he says, "to be a studio-session guy."
He did have a jones for performing, though, and after graduate school, he and friend Chris Siebold formed the jazz, rock, and fusion ensemble Kick the Cat, which Siebold is still a member of. "I really got inspired by him," Myers says, adding that, with Siebold introducing him to bands such as King Crimson, his tenure with Kick the Cat deepened his appreciation for musical arrangement and group improvisation. "I was happy to be part of" the group.
Toward the end of 2002, though, a new opportunity presented itself, when Umphrey's McGee drummer Mike Mirro announced that he was leaving the band to attend medical school. Although he hadn't heard the band's music previously, "a friend told me that the group was looking for a drummer," Myers says, "and I got on their Web site." After listening to tracks on the site, Myers not only realized that the match might be a good one, but that Umphrey's McGee percussionist - and designated application screener - Andy Farag lived "about a 15-minute drive" away.
"I dropped off my portfolio," says Myers. "I basically just stuck it in his mailbox, and I heard back in, like, five or seven days."
After the audition in Cinninger's studio, and before making the final decision to bring Myers aboard, the band heard him play a live gig with Kick the Cat, which Myers says was a little awkward: "They came to see me and hung around for a few beers, but it was weird. A little like someone stealing your girlfriend."
Out of some 250 prospective drummers, though, the band chose Myers - whose portfolio, ironically, was the first one received - and with less than two weeks to go before a concert in Bloomington, Illinois, the group inundated the drummer with, he says, "60 or 80 originals, and a lot of covers.
"It was the first part of January," Myers says, "either the 12th or the 10th, and we rehearsed 10 days straight for six hours a day. It was something, man. It was like commando tactics."
In addition to the long hours, Myers found the music itself a challenge. "Because of my background in jazz," he says, "I was playing in a more organic style. I was kind of getting into a jazz fusion style. Instead of playing stock beats, I was almost camouflaging the downbeats. The guys were, like, 'I don't know where the one is.' It was really hit or miss, and it took a long time to break away from that."
Myers' first performance with Umphrey's McGee took place at Bloomington's Buskirk-Crumley Theatre on January 23, and the thrill of it, says Myers, was unlike anything he'd imagined when planning his career as "a studio-session guy."
"What was amazing to me was the roar of the crowd," he says of the 600 fans who turned out to see Umphrey's McGee and its new drummer. "It was something I'd never experienced before. They were very welcoming, and it just brought everything to a whole new level."
So did the release of 2004's Anchor Drops, the first with Myers as the band's drummer. "It was amazing," he says. "I couldn't believe that this thing was in stores. Like, you could go to Tower Records and it'd be there."
Since Myers joined the group, there seems to be no end to the "new levels." Safety in Numbers casts the rockers in a more reflective, soulful light than what Myers calls "the happy, goofy music" fans had come to expect.
Regarding 2005, Myers says, "We had a hell of a year. A lot of personal issues, relationship issues," and a tragedy, when Brian Schultz, a close friend of the band, was killed by a drunk driver on December 31, 2004. "We were ready to deal with darker subjects, and something that would actually represent our emotions at the time, what we were going through," he says. "It had to be done, and luckily, we're in an environment where the fans are loyal enough to support us even in that context."
And Myers says that support for Umphrey's McGee has, of late, come from wonderfully unexpected places.
Famed saxophone player Joshua Redman, a recent acquaintance, performs with the band on the Safety in Numbers track "Intentions Clear," a fact that Myers still finds incredible: "He's one of my favorite artists out there, and when I heard he was gonna be involved with this, I just couldn't ... I totally flipped."
Huey Lewis - Huey Lewis! - adds blues harmonica and vocals to the CD's "Women Wine & Song": "We just really gelled, and he really dug our humor and everybody's personalities. ... He became a really good friend."
And on May 21 of this year, Umphrey's McGee received what may be the biggest sign of support that could possibly be extended to a band from Chicago: They were asked to sing the national anthem at a Cubs/White Sox game.
"It's mind-boggling," Myers says of his tenure with Umphrey's McGee. "The things that can come up. And have come up. Like for me, being a Sox fan, and being able to sing at my favorite baseball team's park, and just looking up at the crowd and everything, it was - it's really -
"Yeah," Myers says, and you can practically hear his grin when he does. "It's pretty cool."
