![]() ![]() So my recording engineer asked me, ‘would your drummers both want to bring trap sets and you can have two drummers like the Allman Brothers or the Grateful Dead?’. It’s a marching bass drum he Steve played marching bass drum in high school and prefers having the bass role and if you look at the video of the Idaho Peace Band you might even see Steve playing the bass drum for the Idaho Peace Band. Ken said, “One of the things I like artistically and aesthetically is that one drummer plays the snare and the shaker instead of a ride cymbal and the other drummer plays a bass drum. It takes a certain situation, which is what it has been for the last six months or longer”.Īlthough some of the instrument setups seem normal and what the audience might expect to see on any stage, the drumming is unique. It’s nice to have a band like this, for when the situation calls. Ken feels that it is something he will be involved with, “Going forward, until I drop dead on stage-hopefully between sets. The Quirky Quarantine Quorum is not just a one-time creation. Part field band, part busking band and part blues, jazz and rock band, Ken declared that “I’ve been administrating and organizing and obsessing over bands my whole life-58 years-and this has kept me sane, unlike a lot of my contemporaries who are not playing!”. T he band consists of Ken Harris on keyboards, accordion, melodica and vocals George Hadden on Bass Becky Blake on vocals and kazoo Carmel Crock on vocals and percussion Mark Utting on guitar and vocals Steve McIver on bass drum Pat Reid on snare drum and shaker and Dave Simms on sax and bass clarinet. We have a policy that we only play outdoors”. K en explained that, “George and I are both in extremely high risk range so cannot play inside because of pandemic. ![]() This involved an occasional search for battery powered amps and mixers for the vocalists and some instruments. The other concept was that the band should be “unplugged”, able to perform any place. The idea he came up with formed around two concept, the first being a “ busking band” which is an old term used for street-corner musicians, many of whom used to play there, looking for a few coins for payment. I decided that this thing should be an official band!”. ![]() Then one day Carmel stopped by to say hi and I asked her if she wanted to sing a song and she said ‘Sure!’. She said, ‘You guys sound great!’ I said, ‘Want to sing a song?’ and she said ‘Sure!’. The little corner island soon got crowded, as Ken said, “ Becky was driving by and she stopped and parked her car. This turned into KTVB’s story on street-corner music and from there Ken’s idea grew. It just so happened when they were playing, a producer for KTVB Channel 7’s 208 local news segment drove by. ![]() George Hadden, a local bass player who has played in several bands with Ken and also participated with him in the Boise Blues Society’s program Blues In The Schools, came down with his electric bass and a portable amp to join Ken. I would sit there and play for my own pleasure and then people honked and waved”. There was this little island that I could sit on with my stool. The Pac-Out Drive-In is right down below my house and that’s been around since 1959. By late April, Ken explained, “I had decided that I was kind of going stir-crazy. When the pandemic reared its head in 2020, Ken found his musical outlet was nonexistent. Playing with several different groups on keyboards, piano, accordion and melodica, Ken also spends plenty of time in several of those groups with his wife, singer Carmel Crock. He’s had a Monday night radio show on KRBX, RadioBoise for several years, a once monthly spot on Shades of Blues. He’s played such places as the Sapphire Room at the Riverside Hotel, the Sandbar, Bella Aquila and the Boise Blues Festival. Ken Harris has been playing music around the Boise area for most of his life. The Boise Beat spoke with Ken about how the Band came to be, their music and the challenges of live shows in the age of COVID-19. Quirky Quarantine Quorum has just released a live album called Fifth and State. This band however has evolved from a single idea of longtime local musician Ken Harris into a unique group that shows how live music can still be enjoyed in the pandemic era. Quirky Quarantine Quorum is certainly an offbeat name for a band. ![]()
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