Best Hip Hop Performer
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73.21% Strut Train*
Others with Votes:
* On the ballot |
Maintaining sway over fickle music fans has never been an easy task. This blunt reality is as true in Fort Wayne as it is in Nashville, L.A., New York, everywhere. Bands pop up seemingly out of nowhere, wow audiences, win awards, sell records and then, just as abruptly, drop into insignificance, victims of overexposure, infighting, lousy management, a shifting lineup, or the indefinable caprice of an ever-changing public. Or maybe they just plain suck. Whatever is the proper mix that elevates one band over another, Strut Train seem to have found it.
Building on a steadily increasing resumé, Strut Train walked away with three Whammys this year. The rowdy group added to its already impressive stash by stepping past the competition for Performer of the Year, Best Hip Hop Performer and Best Funk Performer. In the talent pool extant in Northeast Indiana, such dominance cannot be easily disregarded.
Strut Train won the Performer of the Year Whammy in 2000 and the Hip Hop and Funk Whammys in 2000 and 2001. Their debut CD, Aww Yeah also won for Best Local Rock CD in 2001. The band has been called on to open for national acts such as The Urge, Elwood, Gravity Kills and Caviar and was one of 30 bands featured in the Dreamworks/BMG documentary 30 Cities in 30 Days.
One key to Strut Train’s success could be its wide-ranging style, a mixture of funk, hip-hop and rock with just enough Jamaican flavor to keep the crowd buzzing.
Strut Train’s frontman Dave Pagan has a simple reason for the band’s success: “We practice like two times a week, and we’ve been doing it for six years. We practice a lot. People think we just party all the time and that’s it. But that’s not what it’s about. It’s about practice. Me and my boys, we’re not just slackers. We practice.”
Strut Train were not practicing on Whammy night. With a new horn section (trumpeter Ian Mosher and sax player/vocalist Matt Cashdollar recently left the band because of time constraints, though Cashdollar played at the Whammy gig), guitar player/vocalist Pagan, drummer Duane Alexander, bassist Tony Timms and new horn section Elton Bishop and Chris Davidson let loose. Apart from a cover of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker,” Strut Train performed all original stuff, which included the trademark rapping that Pagan generates on stage, an oral stream of consciousness transmission as potent and florid as any guitar solo.
Modesty is not a trait that makes for good rappers. Pagan proves that. But you can’t claim to be good unless you have the stuff to back it up. Extemporaneous rapping is not something you wake up one day and are good at. It takes work.
“Me and my boys, we put a lot of time and energy into it. It’s not like we accidentally got good. We practice a lot. It pays off. We got the Hip Hop award for three years now. I got friends who are rappers lookin’ at me like, ‘Oh man, you guys got the awards.’ I mean I’m not saying I don’t deserve it, because I feel like I’m like probably the baddest rapper in town, really.”
And Strut Train is the baddest band in town. At least whatzup readers seem to think so. So do a lot of other people. Reviews on garageband. com, gleaned from Strut Train’s website, strut train.com, had entries from around the country praising the band’s songs “Stooley” and “A Long Way”: “All I can say is WOW. You guys are great. The musicianship in this band blows my mind. Very interesting and well done. You’ve managed to mix so many styles and you do it well. My cap is tipped. Perfect rhythm, excellent solo …”; “If I had a label I would sign you guy’s in a heartbeat, just from this song. Awesome, awesome, and, awesome! …”
But awards aside, Pagan said the Whammys should be known for more than honoring individual performers.
“This event should be known as the only time that all the bands and musicians are in one place. It’s not about who won the awards. You get to see Pop ‘n Fresh, you get to see Strut Train, you get to see Sunny Taylor, you get to see Dave Todoran, you get to see it all. I think Fort Wayne’s got not necessarily a bigger scene but its got a better scene than a lot of big cities. There’s some quality talent here. Whatever you’re into, you can find that band somewhere here in town. This event is awesome.”
It’s hard to tell how far Strut Train will roll on before it derails. They’ve just finished recording a new CD and are waiting for the final mix. And with such a multifaceted cargo Strut Train may just have the goods to stay on the mainline while the varying landscape of American music flashes right on by.
Copyright 2003 Ad Media Inc.