GEDSC DIGITAL CAMERA
Oxford came about its nickname “The Velvet Ditch” honestly. I’ve always understood it to mean that Oxford is one of those places that is easy to get stuck in. Maybe you came for school and planned to move on after graduation, or maybe you came to kick around a few years before getting a “real” job elsewhere, some other bigger city. And then the years pass, time ticks on by, and you’re still here, comfortably wedged in the velvety warmth of familiarity in a town that constantly changes, yet always stays the same.
Occasionally someone makes a run for it. They escape and move to a more glamorous locale – usually Nashville, Colorado, or even New York – and you can hear distant echoes of their longing for Ajax and The Grove. And these folks almost always return. The thing about the Velvet Ditch is that even though the landscape has changed, the general attitude of the place stays constant, and is always welcoming.
Just ask escapee Jay Lang. After living in Oxford from the time he was twenty, he moved up north about six years ago. His new career sailing boats in Wisconsin and around the Caribbean keeps him mellow. Still, Oxford’s siren call has him headed home for a spell this month, “long enough to piss people off,” he joked, and long enough to get the band back together. I called him up to get the scoop and was pleased to hear that Jay hasn’t completely lost his Southern accent after being in Wisconsin for a while.
“Honestly, I wanted to come back to Oxford to visit and hang out,” Jay said. “I called everybody in my band and told them I was coming into town and they were like, ‘AH! We gotta play a bunch of gigs!’ But I don’t want anyone to [mess] up their lives over this, don’t miss work, don’t miss exams, let’s have fun doing this and not stress out about it.”
Jay’s band, The Devil’s Due, consists of Nathan Robbins (bass), Harrison Smith (drums), Will Freeman (guitar), Jay Lang (guitar), and a special rock star appearance by Mills Hawkins (guitar). (Yes, that’s three guitars in one band.) One thing driving the excitement over a Devil’s Due reunion is a collection of rough recordings made at Nate’s home studio some time ago.
“Short version of that story is that when we came back from England, we had just released the other album that we recorded with Winn, and we were touring behind that,” said Nate. “But we had all these other songs that weren’t on the record and we wanted to get them down. So we sat down and did some extremely rough recording. The end result was much better than we expected.”
Having three years to sit on the recordings has given Jay time to mellow over the process. “It’s really weird when you go back and listen to that stuff you did three years prior. Some of it I just cringe listening to it, and some of it’s really good, and then I go back … and I can hear myself telling people what to do and I’m just wrong so much of the time,” Jay told me. “I play with a really good group of folks for a reason. And after listening to the stuff recently ad nauseum, I realize that I just need to let them do what they do, because they’re good at it.”
The band hasn’t played together in at least two years, but both Jay and Nate expect that the chemistry will still be where it was. After touring together and getting serious about making a living playing music, then eventually moving on to other things, Jay said he feels he’s able to approach the process with a much more laid back attitude.
“We’re going to go in there and play some cover tunes that we’ve always wanted to do and we’re going to play a bunch of new stuff. We’re going to tie up all the stuff we were working on for a new record.” As for the show at Larry’s, Jay said, “I don’t want to play any R.L. Burnside songs, and there’s all these songs that we had that were just filler so we could go in and play gigs. I just want to do nothing but have fun – all thriller and no filler!”
While the main focus of Jay’s visit will be to put in some studio work, Oxford can expect a high energy show at Proud Larry’s on December 18th. In fact, Nate told me to expect “Probably the most amazing time you’ve had this year.” When asked to be more specific, he replied: “the sound of a thousand horsemen will descend upon the stage as the giants adorn their armor and proceed into battle triumphantly.”
It’s a night you won’t want to miss.
