By Brent Thompson
It was supposed to be a one-off gig played in front of friends and family. It didn’t turn out that way. Sharing a love of R.E.M., a group of local musicians decided to perform a show featuring the band’s music exclusively in December 2013. Bottletree Café agreed to host the show, and the band 7 Chinese Bros. was born.
“We reached out to (Bottletree co-owner) Merilee Challiss, and she said, ‘Sure, y’all can play,” recalls vocalist/guitarist Danny Whitsett. “It was billed as ‘One Night of Classic R.E.M.’ We expected 40 or 50 of our friends to show up. We were in the green room, and someone sent a picture to us, and there were people lined up down the street. It was a hard sellout. One guy even showed up with blue paint across his face like Michael Stipe. We were surprised to see how many R.E.M. fans there were in town”
Bassist Brian McCool says with a laugh, “There were a lot of minivans in the parking lot because our friends—most in their 40s at the time—came to the show. It was a little bit of a perfect storm—school had just gotten out, and we weren’t competing with football that night.” Guitarist/vocalist Ben Ridlehoover adds, “The ‘Stipe’ guy brought down people from Huntsville. They stopped admitting people, and the mystique of this took on a life of its own.”
On December 12, 7 Chinese Bros. will perform its fourth and final show at Iron City. The band consists of Whitsett, McCool, Ridlehoover, Tommy Prewitt and Peyton Grant. The band members view the project as more than just a casual tribute as they readily admit that R.E.M. forever changed their musical lives.
“Brian and I had been in bands since forever,” Whitsett says. “We’ve played in bands since college, and we’ve always played together. Ben and I started playing acoustic covers 15 years ago—we met at church. He and I were playing some R.E.M. one night and both realized that this was our soul music. As we’re harmonizing, we said, ‘We ought to get Brian and let’s do an acoustic night at a coffee shop.’ It was going to be all R.E.M. because of what R.E.M. means to us. When I was 14 or 15, and I put in the cassette and (R.E.M. song) ‘Feeling Gravity’s Pull’ came on, it changed who I was as a young person. When I met someone that knew R.E.M., I’d think, ‘We’re going to be friends.’”
Prewitt, also a veteran of the regional music scene, is perhaps best known for his tenure in the band Month of Sundays. Given he was not in 7 Chinese Bros. for the band’s first two shows, he jokingly refers to himself as the “half-brother” in the group. Though he and Whitsett were not acquainted at the time, the two apparently crossed paths at a previous show many years ago. “There’s an article that was written about the Tip Top Cafe in Huntsville, a little rock club that’s getting resurrected right now,” Prewitt says. “Month of Sundays used to play there a lot. The article included a calendar from 1993 and (Whitsett’s band) There from Here was playing with us.”
So with four 7 Chinese Bros. shows taking place from 2013 to 2025, how did the band decide which years to perform? “2013 was going to be it, but we did it again in 2014,” Whitsett says. “Four years went by, and people asked if we’d consider doing it again, and we said, ‘Okay, one last time, and that’s it.’” By this point, the band’s original drummer had bowed out, and Prewitt entered the fold.
“A friend of my wife’s asked if we’d do an acoustic thing to raise money for The Bell Center,” Ridlehoover says. “We played upstairs at Avondale and did R.E.M., Violent Femmes, The Smithereens and Drivin ‘N Cryin—just old college rock. We got Tommy involved to play on some songs, and he said, ‘I’ll just play on all of it.’”
With over a dozen releases in the R.E.M. catalog, how does 7 Chinese Bros. select songs and compile its set list? “We’re focusing mainly on the first five albums,” Whitsett says. Ridlehoover adds that material from other albums could surface as well. “I graduated college in 1993, and my influence goes through (1992 R.E.M. album) Automatic for the People. I think it’s the most beautiful album ever written. For (the other band members), it dies out a little earlier.”
At present, Whitsett and the other members are in the midst of rehearsals and planning for the Iron City show. “Tommy’s a great singing drummer, and you don’t find many of those,” Whitsett offers. “Ben and I sing really well together. Ben has never been in a band, but he’s played three shows that were all sold out,” he says with a laugh. “On some of the songs, there are symphonic strings. I reached out to (violinist) Niamh Tuohy, and she’s bringing a cellist and another violinist. For three of the songs, they’re coming out. The strings are really important to those songs.”
While R.E.M. is certainly an acclaimed band, the immense popularity of 7 Chinese Bros. still begs the question—how did this concept become such a local phenomenon? “No one was doing this,” Ridlehoover explains. “Cover bands were doing The Beatles and The Eagles. Black Jacket Symphony is amazing, but no one was doing R.E.M. It scratched an itch.”
Music takes us all back to certain times and places in our lives. R.E.M.’s music still provides Whitsett with a clear, visual memory. “Every time we play a song, I get transported back to a Datsun B210. I’m in the front seat with my best friend, and we’re putting the cassette in. I can literally picture being in his car every time I play these songs.”
The band will perform one night of classic REM on December 12th at Iron City. Tickets available on Ticketmaster.
