The Mighty Groove Masheen

We’re in the midst of a busy stretch. Last Sunday it was the Brink Lounge for the  Cliff Frederiksen benefit (we enjoyed hearing all the Madison veterans as much as playing), Tuesday it’s the High Noon Saloon, and Saturday it’s the Come Back Inn.

We are real excited to be opening for Todd Clouser’s A Love Electric at the High Noon Saloon on Tuesday, February 21st. We play from 6pm to 6:45, then Todd and his band play until 8 or 8:30.

Todd is touring the mid and mountain west in support of his February 15 release of Todd Clouser’s A Love Electric on indie jazz tastemaker label, Ropeadope. The band will be performing material off of the new album as well as arrangements of classics ranging from The Who to Dusty Springfield to Thelonious Monk. You can preview his new recording here. Should be fun!

It’s that time of year for taking stock of accomplishments and looking forward to new challenges.

We hope you had a good year, we certainly did. We started out 2011 as Four Lakes Five and after replacing our departing rhythm section morphed into The Mighty Groove Masheen, spent some time in the basement, and came out firing on all cylinders. Our first gig at the Come Back Inn was a blast and we’ve been busy having fun since.

Recently we created new recordings – check em out on the Music page. Just a slice of the fun we serve up. We seldom play with a setlist and go mellow or mightily groovin, as appropriate for the moment. Keep checking back because we’ll have more recordings soon.

It’s only fitting we start 2012 back at the Come Back Inn where we kicked things off last year. And we’ve got gigs booked in February, March, and May. We’re off to a good start.

We’ll be adding new songs throughout the year so if you’ve seen us before you’ll want to see us again. See you in the new year – have a happy one!

The Mighty Groove Masheen is taking the month of November for creating some new recordings. We’ll post when we have some finished products.

The band’s next show will be at the Brink Lounge on Thur, Dec. 15th from 8:00 to 11:00 pm. The Brink is always a lovely place to play, and we hope you’ll come join us for a fun evening of hip, danceable grooves.

We were pleased to play several more shows in August & September, including the Monroe Street Festival, and we’re looking forward to a double-header coming up in a couple of weeks:

* Fri, Oct. 28th from 9 pm to Midnight at Babes Restaurant (west-side)

* Sat, Oct. 29th from 9 pm to 1 am at the Locker Room (east-side)

Come join us for some hip, fun, and danceable grooves at some fun local venues.

The Mighty Groove Masheen has a new bassist! Matt Hollander is a guitarist/bassist with a Masters in jazz studies from Indiana University. In addition to our band he fills in with the Madison Jazz Orchestra and with Rand Moore’s band. When Matt isn’t playing music he’s busy teaching and studying for his doctorate in Social Psychology.

At our recent Babes show Matt played the entire night and fit in beautifully, despite no prior rehearsal with the band. That’s impressive! Not only is Matt a great musician but he’s a nice guy, too. Everyone’s thrilled to have him in the band, especially Michael who now has both hands free for soloing (Michael was playing bass with his left hand).  If you thought Michael was great before, wait until you hear him with both hands.

We’ll get Matt’s picture on the site soon, but the best way to see him is live. Check the left sidebar for our upcoming shows. See you soon.

Wow, what a blast last night at the Come Back Inn! Our first show with the new lineup so there’s always some questions, but we got them answered. This band is happening. A show like that is motivating; I’m headed right to the practice room after this. 

And the Come Back Inn is a nice place. Hard to believe that was my first time in there. I like it, I’ll be coming back in.  Sorry, lame pun. Wish we had some audio or video but somehow in all the excitement the recorder didn’t get turned on. That’s too bad because there was some nice stuff, especially when we veered off and started jamming.

Up next, Babes on August 5th. See you there!