THOMASTON, Maine — The Watts Hall Dance Band is getting ready for a show in Thomaston and 207 had front-row seats at their rehearsal.
Drummer Alan Hinsey hit four quick raps with his drumsticks and suddenly the band joined in. "Dancin’ in the Street" filled Watts Hall, as guitars, piano, and horns backed up three-part vocals.
The band was pulled together just two years ago by Hinsey, who had been a drummer in his youth. Now closing in on 70 he decided it was time to dig out those drums again.
Hinsey wanted to start a band. The band he wanted would play "high energy music" with strong vocals, choosing songs that made the audience want to dance, he told 207.
"I put it out on the midcoast message board, [on] Facebook...told them what kind of music [and] what kind of band I wanted to form," he explained.
As you can tell, his dream became a reality.
On March 30, the band will play for the Spring Dance Party at Watts Hall, a town-owned theater and meeting hall space on the second floor of an old Main Street building.
Watts Hall Arts, which manages the performance space, said it expects the show to sell out, as previous ones have done.
The music includes a variety of older rock and roll, R&B, blues, and funk, according to Hinsey. And the band members said audiences are loving it.
“How much fun is this?” We asked band guitarist and singer Sam Grinnell — who Hinsey said has become a leader of the band.
“On a scale of one to ten? Eleven," Grinnell said.
Grinnell bounced up and down on stage while playing. His enthusiasm was matched by singer Genevieve Gaus, who danced along while singing into the microphone.
Gause had moved to Rockland from Arizona and said she was looking for a chance to sing when she stumbled across the Watts Hall Dance Band.
"I had a band similar to this in my hometown and I felt I found my people,” Gaus said. “I used to be in a big band with horns and multiple singers, singing harmonies, and I felt I was back home again."
Three-part harmonies, with Gaus, Grinnell, and Susan Davenport all out front, are one of the hallmarks of the band.
"It's so much fun," Davenport said during a rehearsal break. "Especially with Genevieve, because she sort of fine-tuned the harmony; she has the ear. And when we’re singing the harmonies...it's just great.”
And it sometimes takes those three strong voices to compete with the horn section.
Unlike many bands, the Watts Hall Band has what saxophone player Dwight Burns calls a "nice, fat horn section."
Burns, a retired police officer, joined the band first, after an invitation from Hinsey, and decided it needed more.
"And one horn in a band like this is like a single duck in a pond, quacking. So I said 'How about if we get some more horns?' Alan said great, so we did.”
The band now includes a trumpet player and a trombonist, along with Burns on sax and flute.
Ten members in all, including bass, piano, and lead guitar. And as rehearsal moves on, the energy of the music seems just what Hinsey had hoped for when he began. And he said from their first performance, they people onto the dancefloor.
"They were dancing, and we say if you aren’t hot and sweaty by the end of the night, we are doing something wrong."
That energy and musical talent all come from players with a wide age range. The Watts Hall Band literally has members in their 20’s, all the way into their 70’s.
Kendray Rodriguez of Watts Hall Arts said she thinks that a mix of ages helps attract the audience, and Hinsey agreed.
The band so far has two shows booked this spring: Saturday, March 30, at Watts Hall, and a benefit for the Penobscot Bay YMCA on May 4.
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