Oct. 2000
By Karl Baldrate-Metronome Magazine Staff

   What's in a name? According to Brian Kelley, bandleader, "the original gentleman who started this group-his name is Stanley Steele- he had a very heavy day job, where he was really tied down in what he was doing and music was his part time love. He was never able to do music full time" thus the name, The Part Time Lovers. It's the bane of most musicians. In spite of the blood,sweat and tears involved, for most working bands, the financial remuneration's are meager. How many times have you heard, "I'm not in it for the money." We'll, I'm not about to analyze these guys financial portfolios, but just one listen to today's Part Time Lovers and you'll know you are hearing seven guys who are "in it" for the love of the music.
The current septet-they've been together for five years-is home to some of Boston's best talent: bandleader Kelley on drums, pianist,guitarist Bob West, a Buddy Guy veteran: tenor sax man Herman Johnson, a 17-year veteran Berklee instructor; baritone and tenor sax player Barry Fleicher; bassist Cole Grinnell, who doubles in the Brian Kelley Quartet; organist Ken Cook, and of course Steve Matthews whose dynamic high energy vocals have been a Boston staple for years.
Whether performing original material or steaming through well-loved classics, The Part Time lovers make everything they touch their own. Jay Miller of the Patriot Ledger writes, "It's tricky to reinterpret favorite tunes and plenty of cover bands have crashed and burned attempting this material." Why do the Lovers succeed where others have failed? Kelley explains, "the success is first of all through good musicianship. Also, through not being a slave to just the blues. All the members of the group are definitely aware and knowledgable of how to play all styles of music, be it jazz, or funk, or Latin, or whatever. When we play blues we obviously are playing it in the traditional approach, or a classic approach, but little nuances of the other styles of music are going to creep in and those influences are what we believe are the foundation for our sound. When you get seven good musicians and seven guys who all have a definite concept of how they sound and how they play and what they're influenced by, and you put that all together, you're bound to get something that is original sounding.
One would think that having seven incredibly talented,self confident musicians in the same room would be too much of a good thing; a battle of egos. Not so. Kelley explains, " the way the band plays has evolved over the last five years, the interaction between the band members, anything from the dynamics to the grooves that we play. Anything that kind of sounds like The Part Time Lovers is the result of playing a lot together, of the musicians listening and adapting to each other's styles. Everyone plays in a way that is a group concept and not a me concept. There's nobody in this who has an ego to say "well I can't express myself the way I want to." Everyone expresses themselves the entire night that we're playing, every time we play, in the way that they want to,without sacrificing anything musically what they are trying to express...it's just having good manners when you're playing, and listening to what's going on. Not everyone is trying to be a star up there. Everyone's trying to work together. That's how we get what we consider(to be) a pretty personal sound from the band."
Even with their many diverse influences-jazz,R&B, soul, and a recent propensity for funk- Kelley still categorizes he PTL as a classic blues band, quickly pointing out "that it is all rooted in the blues." The fact that they cover Marvin Gaye songs and material by The Temptations simply adds to their uniqueness. It also allows the band to play for any room. Although comfortable playing low-key for upscale dinner clubs, they're able to quickly switch gears, cranking it up as a sizzling,high energy dance band. It's this hallmark hard driving, high energy blues that recently garnered them first place at the 15TH Annual Harper's Ferry Battle of The Boston Blues Bands competition. Despite playing a full gig earlier that evening, the seven piece Lovers closed the night's competition with enough energy and spontaneity to win over the five judges, easily edging out the three other finalists. As winners, the Lovers have a chance to follow in the footsteps of other local blues notables, including Susan Tedeschi, by representing Boston in the National Blues Battle in Memphis February 2&3.
"When we get to Memphis," admits Kelley," there is one goal in mind, and that goal is to come out on top. I know there's going to be some terrific competition down there and what we will do is to go down there and try to give one hundred and ten percent like we do every time we step on the stage and hope for the best."
The recognition of winning at Harper's is a godsend for any band, but especially for a band with a new cd. The Lover's first effort, self titled The Part Time Lovers, was released earlier this year. The disc is every bit energetic as a live outing.
Fame and fortune may be looming just over the horizion for the Lovers, but in the meantime, it's just business as usual. "Between now and Memphis we're just trying to do as many gigs as we can," says Kelley. "We're doing at least four clubs a week. We're going to Virginia in December. The new year we'll still be doing a lot of gigging and we'll be working on more original material for our next cd which will be recorded in late February or early March, so we're still really busy between now and then."