Local funk trio Brownstown Gritty set to perform following new album release

From left to right, Brownstown Gritty members Christian Thornton, TJ Barnes and Travis Shaw play regular shows in Augusta. (photo courtesy of Sarah Tau)

By Kolbe Dolin | Contributor

Augusta-based funk trio BrownsTown Gritty will perform Nov. 3 in the Westobou Gallery following last month’s release of their new extended play album “Funk City, Vol.1” on all major streaming platforms.

The group will perform alongside a string quartet and soloist Rob Foster.

The band previously released two singles earlier this year, and after months of writing and rehearsing have begun performing the eight track album live. For Travis Shaw, the trio’s bass player, bringing a new album to a live audience has had some growing pains.

“There’s like an aliveness with it,” Shaw said. “And when things are alive that also means that they’re like crawling around and they’re slippery.”

Keyboardist TJ Barnes hopes that fans will experience more from the new album than their previous jazz-centric releases.

“I hope that they get many other things out of it than just jazz. There’s drum and bass in there, there’s hip-hop kind of beats in it, there’s R&B kind of stuff, there’s lo-fi,” Barnes said. “Hopefully they come away from it thinking not just the word jazz.”

The trio’s drummer, Christian Thornton, shares a similar outlook the jazz label.

“We have a rough relationship with jazz,” Thornton said, “but it’s getting better.”

Shaw said the biggest challenge in the album’s process so far has been recording and mastering, having to completely restart the mixing process four times before the album was finally complete.

“Music production is hard and it’s very geeky,” Shaw said. “It’s a real craft, it’s a real skill and it’s really tough to figure out on your own.”

Thornton’s road to recording has had similar bumps, having to learn a new drum machine method for a number of the album’s tracks. However, he believes that the pressure put on by recording has made the band better.

“It was really nice to be able to dive in and bring that into what we’re doing as a group,” Thornton said.

For Barnes, the biggest area of opportunity was the process of writing and composing a full album while taking in the viewpoints of all three musicians.

“I’m used to being at my house and writing on my own,” Barnes said. “But I remember just being here at one point and like just thinking like, ‘It’s not just you now, it’s all of us.’”

On the topic of collaboration, Barnes said, “It was just like, woah, there’s three brains moving this project together instead of one. Being in a studio with two other people and watching things evolve was super interesting cool.”

For all three members, the feedback from the community has been the most positive aspect of the experience. One fan told Shaw that he listens to the track “Breakfast Before Beats” while drinking his daily morning coffee. Barnes said that the community has especially loved the locality of the band.

“It’s been nothing but love,” Barnes said. “People just love the fact that someone’s doing something.”

However, the band also highlighted the negatives of being a local band. For Thornton, the effects of being known in one area have highs and lows.

“It’s lot of good and a lot of bad. Some of the good is that since we are from Augusta, we know a lot of the people around town,” Thornton said. “The downside, Augusta’s music scene is still growing, and we’re definitely going through some growing pains.”

For Barnes, no matter the setting, the overall goal is always to bring about emotion through his music.

“If we’re playing together, I want to make the people out there feel good,” Barnes said. “I really want to go into just the most feel-good place that music can bring us all together.”

Shaw’s goals for music are similar. Without proximity and emotion to tie a performance together, there isn’t much for an audience to experience.

“I care so deeply about music, and every single day I wake up and I just love engaging with it,” Shaw said. “So my main goal is to just be next to it.”

In the future, Shaw hopes to see the band move on to bigger and better venues and events. For next month’s performance, his setlist will include six new compositions written for the entire ensemble, in the hopes of bringing about positive momentum for the group.

“A lot of what we’re going to have to do as a band is just like, evolve in the larger sense of getting deeper into the music,” Shaw said. “Getting deeper into how we all collectively contribute to making things feel alive.”

Those interested in obtaining tickets can visit:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-brownstown-gritty-feat-special-guests-tickets-428055835527

The band’s website can be found here:

https://thebrownstowngritty.com/home

Contact Kolbe Dolin at kdolin@augusta.edu.