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Sound Circuit

Fleming keeps trucking

8/26/2015

Andrew Fleming is the kind of guy who stays busy. The Brother Trucker front man has developed a reputation as a hard, quality worker, but the last few weeks have seen him work through a period of transition.

Andy Fleming plays Gas Lamp on Friday, Aug. 28 at 9 p.m. Steven Simmons and Josh Davis also perform. Admission is $7.

Andy Fleming plays Gas Lamp on Friday, Aug. 28 at 9 p.m. Steven Simmons and Josh Davis also perform.
Admission is $7.

Most notably, Brother Trucker’s long-time monthly gig at El Bait Shop — First Wednesdays — is no longer. It is a decision that nearly came to fruition last year but was given a last-minute stay of execution. The reprieve was short-lived, however, and now the corner that El Bait Shop called a stage is going dark. The notion of ending First Wednesdays, however, was a non-starter for the band. They immediately began looking for a new home.

“First Wednesdays is going to be at Lefty’s,” Fleming said of the September edition. “We’re gonna move it around for a while and see where it works best for our crowd. I think the deciding issue is just making sure that the next home has really great sound.”

In the meantime, Fleming and his band are chomping at the bit, ready to get the next album finished and out to fans. A year into production now, the new album recently hit the kind of snag Fleming does not mind working around.

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“It’s a good story,” he admitted. “We’re as close to finished as we can be, then we got a phone call from (producer) Kevin Neal saying he’d taken a job on tour with Imagine Dragons.

“What are you going to say to that?” he rhetorically asked with a chuckle. “You can’t even be upset about that, you know?”

So the band is happy to wait for Neal. In the meantime, Fleming has been playing a healthy amount of solo gigs, an experience that helps give him a different perspective on Brother Trucker’s songs.

“You’re thinking about different things,” he said. “With Trucker, I’m trying to think of the next couple of songs we’ll play. Solo, it’s much more in the moment. You have so much more that you’re responsible for by yourself.

“It keeps the (Trucker) songs really fresh. I can do different arrangements of the songs. There are solo versions and Trucker versions of all the songs nowadays.” CV

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