LARRY
On the Road and Among Friends

by Lee Abraham

Tom "Fee" Watts feels like talking. He's enthusiastic. "I've been doing interviews for the past couple of days," says the thirty something guitar player. "We are on the total publicity trail right now!" Watts and the other members of LARRY are also on the road, touring in support of their new CD on Lauan Records, -Among Friends-.

It's an apt title. These guys were friends long before forming a band. "It basically just started with hangin' out in the garage and playing music," explains Watts. "When LARRY started, most of us were raw beginners on our instruments and now we've been playing for six years. We've been lucky because we've been able to do so many gigs and play so much that we've managed to improve."

Five years of cutting chops around the lone star state, with occasional trips to Colorado and Memphis, did more than just improve their skills as individual musicians, the collective maturation as a band forged LARRY's distinctive sound and dynamic onstage personality. "We are all about Texas music and we try to represent that," Watts is quick to admit. "The state is so huge and there's so many different influences, from Cajun to Hispanic, Latin grooves, rock and roll, blues, you name it, and we do 'em all with a distinct Texas flavor."

Featuring two guitars, bass, drums, a high energy harmonica player and a lead vocalist who also scratches mean washboard rhythms, LARRY combines neatly crafted melodies with extended, free flowing jams. And they've never sounded better. "We are kickin' it right now!" declares Watts. "We don't take ourselves too seriously, we're a bunch of clowns and stuff, but we do take the music very seriously. I think we really know how to work together and we make a sound that is so much greater than the sum of its parts. The communication on a musical level is amazing!"

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