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Sometimes fate steps in at funny moments. A band might form for a one-night tribute to the Scorcese documentary about The Band’s final concert “The Last Waltz,” and wind up having such a great time it starts touring as “The Last Waltz Ensemble.” A waitress might be singing at Remy’s one night when a chance encounter with a guitarist might lead to a new musical career.
Kris “Jellyroll” Gloer and Jessica Sheridan are living proof that such serendipity exists. Gloer was a member of the band Houndog when their one-night-only tribute to The Band led to steady touring around the Southeast playing the hits of Bob Dylan and The Band. It was during a stopover on the island that he heard Jessica singing at Remy’s.
That encounter led to the formation of the side project “Jess and Jelly.” We sat down with the pair for some Q & A.
You’re well known for your work with the Last Waltz Ensemble, but Jess and Jelly is a new project. What can you tell us about it?
Kris: Well, Jess and I started working together last summer. We’d known each other for a couple of years, just in passing, and I’d proposed working together maybe a year before it actually happened. It took her a minute to warm up to the idea. It’s been working out, though — she’s a talented singer, and we’ve been playing together quite a bit.
Jess: It’s been interesting, trying to learn all these songs — just a really big learning experience for me, really. Working on stage presence and trying to learn how to entertain properly. [Laughs] I’ve never done anything like this before. It’s a lot of fun.
Jess, your involvement in all this was sort of a happy accident, right?
Jess: Yeah, I was singing at Remy’s one night, and Kris came in and heard me, and it was all downhill from there. [Laughs]
What can fans of LWE expect from you and Jess as a duo?
Kris: A lot of the same music. We’re using time during the summer to work on songs for our fall tour, and we’ll use a lot of that material in the acoustic format as a duo. But we’re also adding a lot of participatory stuff to the set list — some Hank Williams, some other classic country songs, and things of that nature.
Jess: I don’t know a lot of songs that I can take the lead on yet, but I’m doing a lot of harmonizing on a lot of different songs. I can remember the words to the choruses easily. [Laughs]
In the Last Waltz Ensemble, you focus mainly on music from The Band, an act known for its raw, rootsy, colorful songs — and while some people who come to see you play are probably looking for that same spirit in your own performances, others are probably just looking for a polite evening of music. Do you find that you have to do a balancing act between those crowds at your shows?
Kris: Oh, absolutely. I mean, there are people who want to hear the hits, like “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Shape I’m In,” and they want to hear them in a way that doesn’t vary too much — they want to go down memory lane a little bit. We try to do a bit of both. We have over a hundred songs in our repertoire at this point, and we can bring the best of both worlds as far as that’s concerned. Because really, the demographics at our shows ... we have everyone from grandparents to grandchildren. Teenagers, college-aged kids, people who were at Woodstock.
You know?
Jess, have you given any thought to what the future holds for you as a singer?
Jess: This is the first summer, really, that I’ve been dedicated to trying to learn a lot of material. It’s been about getting up there on a regular basis and getting it down. It’s kind of scary — it’s fun. Eventually, I’d like to not be waiting tables anymore. You know? Working more on music.
What is it about this music that you think continues to call to people?
Kris: I think a lot of it is just time, but it’s also the songs. I mean, I think a lot of these songs are almost Shakespearean, in a way, you know? They have tragedy, they have uplifting moments, they have romance — they’re just timeless. The Band was a classy act. M
