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The diminutive Divided Sky, a second-story music spot and organic eatery, is near the south shore of Lake Tahoe in Meyers and at the intersection of highways to Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resorts. The clientele is functionally fashionable, except sometimes in summer when the knit caps feel a bit warm.
Ten dollars is hardly a discouragement to the sentient folks who came to party on a Friday night to the Dead Winter Carpenters, considering it was standing-room-only snug by 7 p.m., well before a doorman was detailed to collect a cover charge.
After a crowd-stirring sound check around 9 p.m., guitarist Jesse Dunn, demurs into the microphone, “We'll see you at, er, 10 o'clock.”
When the band finally returns, it's just like that first gig in March 2010 in the Crystal Bay Casino Red Room: It has the audience in a frenzy from the first note.
“Happy 11-11-11,” greeted the fiddle player, Jenni Charles, who is wearing a skirt, cowboy boots and a mischievous countenance. “In honor of the day, we're going to turn it up to 11.”
The song “How to Make a Living 101” begins with Charles and Dunn singing a cappella. It builds with Sean Duerr and his electric guitar, Ryan Davis and his drum set and the bearded Dave Lockhart with his double bass and whimsical eyes ablaze beneath a black ballcap.
Four of the members take turns singing lead on the first four songs, and by the sixth tune, Davis' shirt is gone because driving a train is a workout. It's a full-blown rocking hoedown. Fifteen frenzied original stomps later, the band stops. It is time for a break.
That was just the first set.
The owner later conceded it was probably the last Divided Sky show for the Dead Winter Carpenters. They have outgrown the place.
In less than two years since its March 2012 debut, the Carpenters built itself from a Tahoe bar band to a national touring act. A new studio record and fan-funded national tour await the quintet which quickly became too big for the Red Room, moving to the Crystal Bay Casino's larger Crown Room, where its peers are worldwide stars such as the Neville Brothers, the Derek Trucks Band and Jackie Greene, whose rise is similar. He grew out of the Cozmic Café, just down Highway 50 in Placerville.
The Dead Winter Carpenters are Lake Tahoe Action's Band of the Year.
It all started not too many months ago, when the Crystal Bay Casino music promoter, Brent Harding, took an educated chance on a brand new band which was the amalgam of Charles' family reggae band Truckee Tribe and Dunn's bluegrass Montana Slim.
“Brent gave us a shot,” said the 6-foot-5 Dunn, a former NCAA Division 1 basketball player. “We did two shows as the after-party for Yonder Mountain String Band. We were thrown into a situation and it worked out well. It created a buzz and we've been going strong ever since.”
The casino manager, Bill Wood, loves the Dead Winter Carpenters.
“I think the thing I like best about them is their authenticity, passion and ability to change genres, sometimes midsong,” Wood said. “You're listening to that great combination of acoustic instruments, guitar, fiddle, stand-up bass and all of a sudden the song morphs from Americana bordering on bluegrass to reggae or a hip-hop tease. Talk about getting your attention, all the while putting a big ol' smile on your face.”
Before heading out on a short tour, the Dead Winter Carpenters are home at the Crown Room for a free show Friday, Dec. 2. The Third-Hand String Band from Truckee will play the Red Room after-party.
“It's great to see our local talent recognized on a regional and national scale,” Wood said. “D.W.C. started out in the Red Room and now headline the Crown Room. They deserve every bit of success that they have rightfully earned and we look forward to their return on Dec. 2.”
Ten dollars is hardly a discouragement to the sentient folks who came to party on a Friday night to the Dead Winter Carpenters, considering it was standing-room-only snug by 7 p.m., well before a doorman was detailed to collect a cover charge.
After a crowd-stirring sound check around 9 p.m., guitarist Jesse Dunn, demurs into the microphone, “We'll see you at, er, 10 o'clock.”
When the band finally returns, it's just like that first gig in March 2010 in the Crystal Bay Casino Red Room: It has the audience in a frenzy from the first note.
“Happy 11-11-11,” greeted the fiddle player, Jenni Charles, who is wearing a skirt, cowboy boots and a mischievous countenance. “In honor of the day, we're going to turn it up to 11.”
The song “How to Make a Living 101” begins with Charles and Dunn singing a cappella. It builds with Sean Duerr and his electric guitar, Ryan Davis and his drum set and the bearded Dave Lockhart with his double bass and whimsical eyes ablaze beneath a black ballcap.
Four of the members take turns singing lead on the first four songs, and by the sixth tune, Davis' shirt is gone because driving a train is a workout. It's a full-blown rocking hoedown. Fifteen frenzied original stomps later, the band stops. It is time for a break.
That was just the first set.
The owner later conceded it was probably the last Divided Sky show for the Dead Winter Carpenters. They have outgrown the place.
In less than two years since its March 2012 debut, the Carpenters built itself from a Tahoe bar band to a national touring act. A new studio record and fan-funded national tour await the quintet which quickly became too big for the Red Room, moving to the Crystal Bay Casino's larger Crown Room, where its peers are worldwide stars such as the Neville Brothers, the Derek Trucks Band and Jackie Greene, whose rise is similar. He grew out of the Cozmic Café, just down Highway 50 in Placerville.
The Dead Winter Carpenters are Lake Tahoe Action's Band of the Year.
It all started not too many months ago, when the Crystal Bay Casino music promoter, Brent Harding, took an educated chance on a brand new band which was the amalgam of Charles' family reggae band Truckee Tribe and Dunn's bluegrass Montana Slim.
“Brent gave us a shot,” said the 6-foot-5 Dunn, a former NCAA Division 1 basketball player. “We did two shows as the after-party for Yonder Mountain String Band. We were thrown into a situation and it worked out well. It created a buzz and we've been going strong ever since.”
The casino manager, Bill Wood, loves the Dead Winter Carpenters.
“I think the thing I like best about them is their authenticity, passion and ability to change genres, sometimes midsong,” Wood said. “You're listening to that great combination of acoustic instruments, guitar, fiddle, stand-up bass and all of a sudden the song morphs from Americana bordering on bluegrass to reggae or a hip-hop tease. Talk about getting your attention, all the while putting a big ol' smile on your face.”
Before heading out on a short tour, the Dead Winter Carpenters are home at the Crown Room for a free show Friday, Dec. 2. The Third-Hand String Band from Truckee will play the Red Room after-party.
“It's great to see our local talent recognized on a regional and national scale,” Wood said. “D.W.C. started out in the Red Room and now headline the Crown Room. They deserve every bit of success that they have rightfully earned and we look forward to their return on Dec. 2.”
