Sitting in with the Band: Pengea

Nestled in an unassuming, suburban and quiet. bedroom community outside of Memphis I met up with Hard Rock band Pengea to discuss the upcoming release of their latest album, Tales From the No-Tell Motel. I am invited into the living room of Jimmy Rogers' home by his wife Tracy to find the entire band performing an acoustic cover. Bobbie

Bobbie Parker holding her baby
 as she discusses the upcoming
Pengea release with her
 bandmates.

blushes, her 18 month old baby sits on her lap, and she apologizes as Robert, John, Kevin, and Jimmy stop playing to welcome this stranger into the most private, inner workings of a band, the dōjō, the practice room during an unassuming Thursday night band practice.   

John Davis rests his hands
 across his bass as Pengea discusses
Tales From the No-Tell Motel.

There is no mistaking that a musician lives in this house. A full size drum kit sits protected by a dust cover in the middle of the living room and a speaker stand towers in the corner. That is no real surprise, I live with a musician that keeps his 'Fellowship of the String' lined up in a pretty little row across the back of our living room. It is comforting to know that keeping musical equipment in the living room is the standards and hazards of living with a musician. Inspiration for a song can break at any moment and often does.  

Robert Parker strums the guitar as Pengea discusses the upcoming
 release of Tales from the No-Tel Motel.

Pengea consists of five members, Jimmy Rogers on drums, John Davis on bass, Kevin Greenburg on guitar, Bobbie Parker providing vocals, and Robert Parker on guitar. Together these musicians have a combined musical experience of over 150 years. The stories and antidotes of musical experience make the hairs on my arms stand up in giddy excitement. Jimmy, Kevin, and John have known each other for a couple of decades and used to play together in the infamous Memphis band Trash Cadillacs. Bobbie got her chops playing at The New Daisy and Nita Makris' The Stage Stop for the first time when she was 15 or 16. Jimmy also played The Stage Stop at 15. John recalled the first gig he played was the 1978 DeSoto County Music Festival. His band opened for Target; yes Jimi Jamison's band Target. Kevin confesses he picked up the guitar for the first time to attract girls. His Camp Lejeune High School garage band played three AC/DC songs after a football game at the dance. He has been hooked ever since. Robert picked up the guitar in 1990. While he played guitar for his church and a few country gigs he says his first, real gig was in 2007 at Reidmeisters with his band Chemical Zoo. They are rich in Memphis Music history. These are the people that put truth to the phrase "Memphis does music!"   

Jimmy Rogers cues up the advance copy of Pengea's forthcoming album.

Jimmy, who is standing behind a set of bongos, opens up the stereo in the book case to his left and begins playing Pengea's newly mastered EP over the surround sound. I have already pigeon-holed the band into the genre of Hard Rock, but the members of Pengea are quick to correct me. Each band member has personal music heroes and influences that are not exclusively Hard Rock musicians or music. Bobbie admits she loves classical music, Karen Carpenter, Ella Fitzgerald, Fleetwood Mac, and  Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Robert finds musical inspiration everywhere from thrash metal to bluegrass. While John is influenced by "Jack Bruce, Geddy Lee, John Entwistle, 'Duck' Dunn,... 1000 others." All of these influences contribute inspiration to the vast array of sounds produced in Tales From the No-Tell Motel. 

Jimmy Rogers looks intently
 into the camera while keeping
the beat at the Stage Stop
 on February 15, 2014.

When asked about the writing process Jimmy says they write in the moment whether that is hard rock, blues, country, or funk, all of which are represented on Tales From the No-Tell Motel. Their writing process often begins with a guitar lick, that is when Bobbie will pull out a notebook and have already written lyrics that fit the mood the song is conveying. She admits that she will flip through one of her many, many, many notebooks and say something like, "I have words for that, that go like this!" 

Kevin interjects with excitement, "We were sitting here one time and the words just flowed from her. As a band we had written a complete song within eight minutes flat and I was like, "Whoa!" It was just easy, natural." It blew them away but makes complete sense at the almost tangibility of the imaginative songwriting process.

John Davis playing the
 Valentine's Vixen show at
the Stage Stop on
February 15, 2014.

One of the goals Pengea set out for this EP is to record an album with a live sound. They want something true, a representation of what a listener would hear at one of their shows. In order to accomplish this goal they recorded each song in one or two takes.

Kevin Greenburg keeping rythm 
at the Valentine's Vixens show
 at the Stage Stop on
 February 15, 2014.

Robert speaks up that it is not absolutely perfect. He has tunnel vision focusing on a specific finger slip he says he made on one track, explaining that as an artist when you are recording you want perfection. At this point the rest of the band members speak up drowning out his confession of imperfection to assure him that it is not noticeable. They agree the slip does not ruin the song, it actually enhances the live feeling of the album, and that it is now part of the song. 

"For me," Bobbie answers, "The point of this album was to make some kick ass music that we like. People are always worried about what they 'think' everyone else likes, but if we don't like it, what's the point?"

Robert Parker whaling on the
guitar at the Valentine's Vixens
show at the Stage Stop on
February 15, 2014 

Jimmy expands on Bobbie's answer. He tells the room that this album, "It's about making good music. It's about making something that we like. It's about leaving a legacy. When a musician makes an album, that can't be taken away. It will always be here for people to listen to."

Bobbie Parker debuting
Dead Prostitute at the
Valentine's Vixens show at
 the Stage Stop on
 February 15, 2014.

From the first strike of the strings and heavy guitar rifts of the hard rockin' Dreamland to the last chord of the band's drinking anthem Sugar Daddy, Pengea has made a spectacular EP! This album has something for everyone: screaming licks, hard shreds, electrified Deep South dirt road blues, distinct grooves of down low funk, a heartfelt ballad, and country twangs and tones that pay homage to the band's rowdy Tennessee and Mississippi roots. Bobbie unapologetically has no filter - she pulls this characteristic into her lyrics with a sultry humidity that elicits lust, smoldering soul, and enough grit to give quiver to a rattlesnake. Pengea has accomplished all of this without losing the hard rock edge that this band has built a reputation upon.

Pengea performing at The Stage Stop. 

The future is endless for Pengea. To change it up a bit they are currently working on an acoustic set. Look forward to a live debut of the Tales From the No-Tell Motel release and interview with Pengea later this month on Radio-Memphis. Until then you can keep up with Pengea on Facebook, check out some live performances on YouTube, or listen on Reverbnation.