It's impossible NOT to dance while Big Chief is playing.  At New Year's 2001 in Camden, the place was packed.  Not everybody COULD dance, but everyone WAS, regardless.  Which is great!  After all, there is nothing sillier than just standing around while a fine band is playing.  Band leaders tell us that the most frustrating audience they can have is one which shows no emotion while they are playing - no dancing nor applauding nor movement!   So get on out there, dancers, and show the bands you love 'em!  They work hard for us!

     Big Chief got its name from a New Orleans song which is as well known as the Battle Hymn of the Republic down there.  This band is incredibly versatile.  For them, variety is key to the enjoyment of their art.  As Americans, we tend to listen to a very narrow slice of all the wonderful music that is available.  From New Orleans jazz, through the swing era classics, to blues and rock and roll, they play it all.  All four of the core members sing.  Together, they have "over 125 years of collective musical experience".   All four musicians work freelance as well, so that they end up playing approximately three to four nights each week.  The band also expands from the core four as needed for the event, adding keyboards, female vocalists, and occasionally a trombone or a baritone sax.  Adding one of these carefully-chosen musicians can revitalize and change the band in subtle and exciting ways, which helps keep the music alive and interesting for the musicians.  Playing as freelancers also keeps the creative challenge alive by experiencing new musical situations so the band never gets in a rut.   Playing and singing the music they love can overcome fatigue, fever, toothache, colds, and miserable outdoor weather.  Sometimes the band does two gigs in a day.  During the first gig, the band relaxes and loosens up.  They may be tired after the first gig, but because they are in a "meditative state", they sometimes play even better during the second gig.  

     A conversation with Jeff Davison, the band's originator, drummer and vocalist, is like a tour through the best danceable music this country has produced.  Jeff started out in rock and roll, but at sixteen got interested in blues. He met and played with many greats like Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor and Eddie Shaw. Later, Jeff went to Chicago and New Orleans to learn first hand from Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Professor Longhair, the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Bonnie Raitt.   Jeff played and sang with the several area bands including the Blues Prophets, Blues over Easy / the Upsetters and the Red Light Revue.  Jeff is from  Vassalboro.  He met his lovely wife Diane while they were both selling real estate.  They started taking ballroom dance lessons together, and today you will often see the tall and willowy Diane dancing while her husband is playing.  Jeff has "a bunch" of day jobs - basically he is an entrepreneur, with a number of Portland apartment buildings and  30 rehearsal studios for rent.  He also works as a loan officer for a Portland mortgage company.

     Bassist Dave Thibodeau was a prodigy tutored by his touring bluegrass musician father and his concert violinist grandfather. Dave followed suit and took an interest in the guitar at the age of ten.  After moving to Maine from his native Providence,  he studied bass at the University of Maine in Augusta while enjoying memberships in diverse and revered ensembles like the Dani Tribesmen Reggae band, Joy Spring Jazz and the Kennebec Valley Boys Bluegrass band. In his travels around New England Dave has opened for and played with Mose Allison, Chubby Checker, Levon Helm and the Band, to name a few.  In his spare time, he has worked for HP computers as a technical assistance guy, and at Perkins Music in Winthrop.  He lives in Hallowell.

     Guitarist Steve Lynnworth led his band the Swinging Blue Matadors to be winners of the New Hampshire Blues Bank Collective battle of the bands. His band became finalists in the 1996 International Blues Talent competition in Memphis, Tennessee. Like the others in Big Chief, Steve was mentored by a diverse collection of talent, in his case Boston jazz guitarist Gerry Beaudoin and legendary blues virtuoso Ronnie Earl. Steve has also shared the stage with B.B. King, Pine Top Perkins, Luther Guitar Junior Johnson and showboat Shirley Lewis. He collaborated with New England favorite "Little Jimmy" Junkins on a  1998 disc "Powerful Love."  Steve writes original compositions in a style reminiscent of Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon and T-bone Walker.  Steve's from  Waltham, Mass., is a guitar instructor, part time builder, and is building his own house in West Gardiner.  

     Sam Hall is originally from Jacksonville, Florida!   Sam’s impressive sound was shaped by his musical education on club stages in and around Richmond, Virginia. With the group Little Walter and the Bonnevilles, he appeared with the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, James Brown and numerous other artists. Sam’s great tone and broad musical vocabulary has been further forged by jazz jams with legendary Basie and Ellington band members.  Sam’s New England associations include Bill Chinnock, the Soul Brothers and Blue Willow.  He now lives in Greene with his wife and four children. 

     Big Chief is one of the great bands that play regularly for the Mainiac Swing Dance Society dances at the Presumpscot Grange in Portland.  Big Chief also plays, and you can dance, at venues like Front Street Tavern in Farmington, The Wharf in Hallowell, The Pier at Old Orchard Beach, and Jones Landing on Peaks Island.  You can keep track of BIG CHIEF at their website, www.bigchiefband.com or be on their emailing list by sending your email address to bigchief@maine.rr.com