Top Hat Blues Review to play at Rebekah Park

Bill Rethlake, Greensburg Daily News, Ind.
·2 min read

Sep. 10—GREENSBURG — The popular local blues band Top Hat Blues Review is playing a free show starting at 7 p.m. today at the Rebekah Park Amphitheater.

A four piece band comprised of Columbus native Mike Moody on drums and vocals, Rick Mitchell from Bloomington on saxophone, Tony Sadler from Waldron on bass, with founder of the band and vocalist Mark Gravely on guitar.

These musicians are have played together for more than 15 years, except for Sadler who joined the band in April.

Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s.

Blues incorporates spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.

The blues form seen in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions, of which the 12-bar blues is the most common.

THBR's combined talents have created a hybrid mix of rock and roll, blues and jazz; Gravely calls it "progressive blues."

"We're not a cover band," said Gravely. "Nor do we even want to be a cover band. We'll be doing at least four original [songs] Saturday, but that depends on how the night flows."

Top Hat Blues Review performs at local blues establishments and opened most recently for the renowned Gene Deer Band at the "The Porthole Lounge" on Lake Lemon.

Gravely said the crowd and their interaction are more important to musicians than the actual venue, and hopes to create that environment Saturday evening.

Unusual for a blues quartet, THBR uses masterful three part vocal harmonies.

"Blues has evolved into all kinds of things through the years," Gravely said. "And we have a few fun and danceable three chord shuffles, but we don't even worry about the musical lines we cross."

Copies of THBR's three CD releases will be available for purchase at the concert, and their music can be heard on YouTube.

Contact Bill Rethlake at 812-651-0876 or email bill.rethlake@greensburgdailynews.com