Artist description a new-england based acoustic groove quad with more soul than a Canadian fish market

Music Style funky groove acoustic

Musical Influences Anders Osborne, U2, Martin Sexton, Dave Matthews, Shawn Mullins

Similar Artists Anders Osborne, Dave Matthews Band

Artist History Nico is a 4 piece, New England based, curiously innovative band who delivers a soulfuly soothing, acoustic, funk-rock sound to the listening ear. The live sound of the band is hard to capture into a typical musical box...but picture radio savvy guitar hooks, funky bass lines, creatively percussive drums grooves, and vocals that have got more soul than a Korean fish market. This sound began to evolve when frontman Nico (guitars / vocals) started playing gigs in coffee shops on the West Coast of Canada where he grew up. In 1995 he packed up his guitar and a few albums of his most influential artists (U2, Sting, Dave Matthews Band, Martin Sexton) and moved to Amsterdam to work with drug addicts and the homeless in the Red Light District. On the side he refined his songwriting and started playing the streets, coffee shops, and bars; 3 years later he hooked up with Pappy (drums / percussion) and they started doing gigs together. After playing shows in Switzerland, England, Holland, and Canada, Nico migrated to the States to do music full-time playing venues ranging from stadiums to colleges, to homeless shelters, to youth gatherings, to a few main stage slots at East Coast music Festivals. Eventually, the momentum of success drew in Pablo Honey (bass) who brought a new paradigm of good ol' fashioned funk to the music and Scotty B. (guitars) who has camelian-like playing versatility where he can sound like Slash or David Wilcox depending on how many eggs he ate for breakfast. The band sold over 6000 albums independently and with the help of a short-lived record deal (NSI Records) NICO was able to play in front of over 40,000 people and shared the stage with many national acts including the Virginia Coalition and Jars of Clay to name a couple. Currently, Nico supports his wife and 2 kids working with youth near Hartford while the rest of the band lives in the Boston area. Meanwhile, the goal of the band is to shed the pressure of sounding like a typical mainstream band and capture the essence of a raw, bluesy, playful, jamming, spriritual experience in a live show. In other words, the goal is to "reduce the junk...increase the funk".

Group Members Scotty B. Pablo Honey Pappy Nico

Instruments Acoustic / electric guitars, bass, drums, Wurlitzer piano

Albums Freekboy, Sillyman, Burn, An Acoustic Fenomena, BLY

Location Boston, MA - USA

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