On Friday, Green Bar might be the place to be for fans of heart-pumping, foot-stomping, soul-searching contemporary local music.
Local band Callooh! Callay! will be headlining at the bar along with Birmingham’s own Early Americans. Both bands are well-traveled on the West Alabama music circuit.
Callooh! Callay! has deep roots at Green Bar, a venue that has helped them grow into to a staple of the Tuscaloosa music scene.
“The folks at Green Bar and Egans have been kind to us since the Little Willie’s days,” Morrow said. “The sound engineer, Shane Lollar, did our first album, so he is awesome to work with every time. The booking guy, David Allen, is always open to working towards putting on a compelling show. That’s what matters.”
For Adam Morrow, singer and guitarist for Callooh! Callay!, Tuscaloosa has been a base of operations for some time – Friday’s show will be a familiar venue.
“We’d play anywhere people gathered for the purpose of hearing original music or participating in something,” Morrow said. “Art, a moment, whatever it is. These locales are trimmed down to Green Bar and Egans much of the time, so that’s where we are, we also love.”
Green Bar’s David Allen is excited to bring the innovative local act to the music venue regulars.
“They may be the most ambitious band in town,” Allen said. “They’re certainly the most dedicated to producing great, conceptually cohesive studio albums. Their latest album, ‘TALK,’ defies what should be possible with a three-piece rock group. It’s lush, atmospheric and exploratory. I can’t think of another Tuscaloosa band reaching for sounds like this. They’re able to pull it off live which is tremendously impressive.”
Callooh! Callay!, has a sound that plasters the listener with a lyrical wall of unconventional ambiance and musical accompaniment. The Tuscaloosa band recently released their second studio album, “TALK.”
The band’s Friday show will bring their latest studio endeavor to local fans.
“We released our second album, ‘TALK,’ at the tail end of last year,” Morrow said. “We’ll be doing a set that pulls pretty strongly from that. We’re definitely still in the cycle of promoting that.”
Many of the band’s songs also have the musical flexibility to be unplugged and played acoustically at an awe-inspiring minimum, capturing the true personality of the band.
Callooh! Callay!’s carefully refined sound could be attributed to the chemistry of the members and the bond that has pushed this group forward.
“Playing with the same two other folks for years creates a dynamic that is kind of hard fought,” Morrow said. “We understand each other and lean on each other in the songs, and I think in our better moments, the sum is much greater than the parts, the way the sounds and the energy mixes with each other. Those are my favorite moments, when things can leave the ground.”
