Copyright 2006 The Durham Herald Co.
By DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN
The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
The Run of the Mill band is booked. Really booked. A look at their performance schedule through mid-July:
Today’s “Fridays on the Front Porch” at The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill.
Next Friday’s Shakori Hills Moonlight, Music & Dance Series.
Six days later, Weaver Street Market in Carrboro.
A private performance the following weekend.
Then back to The Carolina Inn.
A day later, in Saxapahaw.
Three days after that, North Hills Mall in Raleigh.
Four days after that, The Streets at Southpoint mall in Durham.
Then two more festivals, two bars and another private event.
Within the coming weeks, two of the five band members will graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Another is waiting for acceptance into medical school. By the end of the summer, two band members will have moved away to further their education. The others will continue to play.
The musicians who perform the kind of music you might enjoy with a beer on a porch are actually busy multi-taskers. Four are college students, one works full time. The music is a fusion of bluegrass, funk, rock and jazz.
Friday night beginnings
Run of the Mill emerged onto the downtown Chapel Hill scene in the fall of 2004 as a house band for the Off Franklin bar, now occupied by Hector’s on Henderson Street.
They played every Friday night for months. Bass player Tim Shelburne was a month into his freshman year at UNC then, and performed with the band for the first time — at an open-mike night — just two days after he joined.
Shelburne, 19, played in a punk rock band in Kentucky, then a jam band when he moved to Winston-Salem during high school. His first weekend in Chapel Hill, the bassist sought out other musicians to jam with, most of whom did not play well, he said.
“I was just looking around. Then they called,” he said. Shelburne was recommended by a Winston-Salem friend who knew Run of the Mill was looking for a bass player.
Run of the Mill was formed in the spring of 2004 by Ben Parker and Ben Walters. Parker, who sings lead vocals and plays the mandolin, guitar and saxophone, graduated from Duke University that May and decided to use the summer to start a band. As a student, he had played in Paul Parker’s Backyard Brew at various Duke parties and events. He sought out UNC student Walters as a banjo player, Sam Gingher on keyboard, a bassist who soon moved away and a guitar player who ended up being fired. The first incarnation of Run of the Mill, named by the former guitarist, played just one gig that summer.
But Parker had been writing lyrics and decided to expand the band’s sound by adding a drummer, Robbie DiMauro. With the acquisition of Shelburne, today’s Run of the Mill was formed.
Funk bluegrass sound
On stage, Parker introduces Run of the Mill as a funk-grass band. At last month’s Apple Chill Festival, little children danced as the band played near the intersection of Columbia and Franklin streets.
Sitting on a ledge at a nearby storefront, Frank DiMauro tapped his foot to the music. The drummer’s dad, who works at UNC Hospitals, said he tries to make it to several of his son’s performances.
Robbie DiMauro, 21, is a student at the School of Communication Arts in Raleigh. Growing up in Chapel Hill, he picked up his sticks as a 12-year-old and now tutors other young drummers.
“I’m all for it. I’d rather him do this than anything else,” said Frank DiMauro, camera in hand. “They have a good night if they get free beer. They’re not too demanding. They just enjoy playing.”
Shelburne and the soon-to-be graduates Gingher and Walters are all music majors. Gingher and Walters will receive their undergraduate degrees from UNC in classical piano.
“I’ve gotten exceptionally better because of them,” said Parker, 24, a South Orange Rescue Squad EMT and research technician at UNC. “I’ve been doing music my whole life, but not at the same level. For their age, they’re so exposed to music.”
Gingher, 22, will attend graduate school for piano this fall at the University of Illinois. He teaches piano to Pam and Conrad Weiden’s two sons, ages 6 and 8.
“They’re really just a nice group of guys,” Pam Weiden said as the family watched Run of the Mill perform at Apple Chill. “It’s a really fun mix of many things. How many bands do you know that play “Fox on the Run” and “Superstition” at the same time?”
“We like the bluegrass and the funk,” Conrad Weiden said. After standing by the stage for awhile, one of his kids turned to him and asked if they could go.
“Just one more song,” he said.
Walters, 22, said he plays the banjo more than piano nowadays. Growing up in Alabama, he said he just always liked the sound of it. He taught himself to play at age 16 and is a self-taught guitarist as well.
“Every time I call Ben, the banjo is in the background,” Parker said.
Shelburne ended up a bass player by default.
“My dad collects a lot of instruments but can’t play them. He had an idea of the Partridge Family, but no one wanted to play bass,” he said. But in eighth grade, Shelburne wanted to put a band together to play Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in a school performance. Again, no one wanted to play bass. This time Shelburne gave in and taught himself the song and Everclear’s “Father of Mine.”
“In high school I listened to hard rock, punk rock. When I moved, I was more into Dave Matthews and Phish, which gradually blended into jazz. I started listening to funk, but never listened to bluegrass until college,” Shelburne said. It took him a few months of playing bluegrass before he began to enjoy it, he said. The UNC sophomore is double majoring in math along with music.
He said he’d love to be a professional musician, but it “kind of hinges on it happening. I don’t want to be worried if something will work out.”
Shelburne said it’s a good feeling to perform, to be part of the experience at a festival, fraternity party or bar.
Walters said he’s in the band because it is so open-minded. They perform about 20 original songs as well as covers such as “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Friend of the Devil” and “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” They can play solidly for four hours and rarely schedule practices anymore since they perform so often.
“I’m probably going to be in a band for as long as I can see in the future for now,” said Walters. “It’s hard to focus on anything else. It’s just a passion we all have.” He also plays with Kickin’ Grass out of Raleigh and Big Fat Gap Band out of Chapel Hill.
Parker’s last performance with Run of the Mill --- before he prepares to leave for medical school — will be July 14 at La Rez in Chapel Hill. Walters, Shelburne and DiMauro will continue to perform as Run of the Mill or something else.
“It may morph,” Shelburne said.
Go and Do
WHAT: Run of the Mill
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. today
WHERE: Fridays on the Front Porch series, The Carolina Inn, 211 Pittsboro St., Chapel Hill
ADMISSION: Free
MORE INFORMATION: visit www.runofthemill band.com