1996 - Florida Bound
|
 Chris
Demers (right) came to Gainesville, Florida to pay Bill Casey
(left) a visit, do some pickin' and check out north Florida.
On their way back to Gainesville from seeing Bobby Blue Bland
at Vick's Supper Club in Palatka, where they served up a mean
fried porkchop sandwhich, they got to talking about fried
food, boilin' oil, and hey, boilin' oil sure would make a
cool name for a band! There you have it. They called their
blues / bluegrass duet "Boilin' Oil" and started
playing out in Gainesville, with a regular Friday gig at the
Books-a-Million cafe - woo hoo! |
|
1999 - 2001: The
"Hot Sausage" Years
|
 Bill
Casey moved on to jobs in other parts of the south while Chris
ended up sticking around Florida for a while, got married, and
met other musicians to continue the musical journey. He began
jamming regularly with Gregg Klowden (second from left), friend
and blues harmonica player; and eventually met up with Karl
Miller, a fellow guitar picker with a taste for flatpicking
guitar, bluegrass, folk and all kinds of music. The 3 began
jamming every Thursday night and performed a few gigs here and
there as Boilin' Oil. The fellow on the far left in the photo
is Gregg's father, Ron. |
2002 - 2003: Gaining
Momentum
|
 In
August of 2002 The Shamrock Pub in Gainesville began hosting
a bluegrass jam so musicians in town and around the area can
meet up and jam. Chris went to the first one and met mandolinist,
Max Williams (center), who was very interested in getting a
bluegrass band started. A week after this, Karl, Max and Chris
played at an open mic at the Mellow Mushroom pizza place in
Gainesville, had a blast, and continued to practice and play
several gigs over the next year. |
Summer and Fall 2003:
The "Kaz" on the Bass
|
|
 Karl
took a break from band activities in the summer and fall of
2003 while Max and Chris continued to practice and work up
more songs. In August of 2003, Chris invited Jeff Kazmierski,
a solid bluegrass bass player out of Lake City, to jam with
he and Max. Jeff's bass provided the drive they needed to
fill out their sound a bit and the three continued to practice
regularly and perform. One of the peak performances of this
trio took place at the North Florida Bluegrass Expo in Hoboken
GA, pictured here. See more photos of this event at http://www.nfbluegrass.org/
|
Fall 2003 - Spring 2004:
Boilin' Otis??
|
|
Max, Jeff and Chris were scheduled to perform
at the High Springs farmers market in November 2003. Just
before that gig they decided to join forces with Mark Archer
on dobro and Andrew Cook on fiddle, who were fresh off an
appearance at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival with their
previous band, Otis and the Lazy Bones. The five began practicing
regularly after that, developing a repertoire heavy on bluegrass
favorites, along with originals and newgrass takes on blues,
pop, and jazz tunes. |
Spring 2004 - Winter 2005:
Berl n' Earl
|
 
With Jeff off to Colorado for the summer, Andrew working and
exploring in Equador and Mark busy with life, Max and Chris
pushed on as a duet, focusing on the old time pickin and singin
traditions of the 40s and 50s. Playing duet arrangements of
songs recorded by the Stanley Brothers, Bill and Charlie Monroe,
Flatt and Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, and others, they sometimes
perform as Berl n' Earl. |
Winter 2005 - Present: John
Peyton, bass man
|
| John Petyon, formerly of the
"Peyton Brothers", bluegrass sensation of the Jacksonville
club circuit in the 1970s, met Chris at a Gainesville acoustic
jam session in December. Chris invited him to jam with him and
Max a few weeks later. The three hit it off and are the current
incarnation of Boilin' Oil. They are working on new material,
including some blistering instrumentals featuring Max on the
mandolin (Max won second place in the mandolin category at the
Sertoma Old Time Music Championship on April 2, 2005 - go Max!).
|
|
