A blasting horn section, screaming Hammond organ, bouncing baseline, and popping snare drum coalesce in one organic sound, like a party in your ears.
It is a party, at least according to The California Honeydrops lead singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Lech Wierzynski.
“We try to keep this fun,” he said, “first and foremost.”
It’s a party that continues to roll throughout each show The California Honeydrops perform, whether they’re opening for blues icons like Bonnie Raitt or Buddy Guy or headlining their own tours across the country. The group will be the main attraction at Presqu’ile Winery in Santa Maria on Sept. 7, where the band has performed before, bringing their genre-spanning, celebratory sound to the venue’s outdoor amphitheater.
The California Honeydrops have been together for 10 years now, and released their first double album this year, titled Call It Home. It’s also the group’s first “concept album,” Wierzynski explained, examining the idea of finding a home where you might feel out of place.
Born in Poland, Wierzynski grew up in the United States after his parents transplanted their family when he was young, plunging him headfirst into a whole other culture and language.
“When you grow up speaking one language at home, trying to learn another one at school, I think you’re always kind of wondering where it is you fit in,” he said. “That’s a question I think I was dealing with early on. I think everybody deals with it, of course, but I think if you’re in a situation like that where you talk different or look different, you might think about it a little bit more.”
Though his parents didn’t gift him with perfect fluency in English, they did pass on a love for music. Wierzynski’s father played tons of “New Orleans music, old jazz, and old crooner singers” as he grew up. Artists like Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and others were at his ears all the time, he said.
His mother, however, was younger than his father, and had a taste for rock ‘n’ roll bands like The Beatles, Wierzynski explained. He also lived with his grandmother, who had her favorites as well.
“I grew up with a lot of much older people and kind of absorbed their musical tastes,” he said. “And then the other side of music was tied into trying to fit in and trying to be American and listening to all the things on the radio because that was kind of the fastest way to understand what the hell was going on around you, if you can get with the music. Me and my brother listened to all my stuff that was current on the radio as well.”
Wierzynski studied several instruments coming up including guitar and trumpet, and of course singing, picking up his favorite songs and sounds from all those eras he was immersed as a kid.
It wasn’t until 2007 that The California Honeydrops were born when Wierzynski and his friends started busking at a BART station in Oakland, California, the city they still call home. The band currently includes Wierzynski with percussionist Ben Malament, saxophonist and clarinettist Johnny Bones, keyboardist Lorenzo Loera, and bassist Beau Bradbury. They’re often joined on tour by trombone player Andrae Murchison and additional saxophonist Leon Cotter.
At the beginning, the group focused on American roots music, Wierzynski explained, inspired by the American South and places like New Orleans.
“We were playing a lot of jug band and old blues and pre-blues stuff,” he said. “There was a band back in the day, from the ’20s and ’30s called the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, and we named our band after that band.”
Eventually, they traded in their gutbucket bass for an electric and the washboard for a full drum kit and began expanding their sound to include more genres, but always with a bluesy, soulful heart that focused on good feelings and happy times.
That’s part of what the new album, Call It Home, is all about, Wierzynski said. The size of a double album allowed the group to explore more of their collected interests, he said, and the wealth of output he’s enjoyed lately as a songwriter.
“We realized that it was going to be really jumbled if we tried to put it on one thing because the range of styles is so disparate,” he said. “So we made one that was kind of old-school and then one that was really old-school, or a little more electric than the other.”
Call It Home checks just about every feel-good box you can find in American R&B, rock, and blues. There are tunes that sound like they are from a New Orleans parade, a Delta blues bar, a Chicago nightclub, or even a string-laced soul ballad reminiscent of the The Delfonics. Wierzynski’s high, soulful voice is the common thread that ties it all together, which you only want to do without if he’s firing out a trumpet solo in true Satchmo style.
Wierzynski said he’s become less concerned with his band sticking to one genre or style, and as he learned growing up, becoming unafraid of bringing in more, becoming more.
“I’ve kind of embraced it,” he said. “And that’s kind of what the album in a lot of ways is about, embracing the impermanence of things, and embracing a more everchanging way of seeing yourself and your identity.”
That’s why every show is different, he said, and fans who saw The California Honeydrops perform at Presqu’ile Winery last time around are in for a whole new treat at their Sept. 7 show there. It’s about connecting with the audience wherever they’re at, and continuing the party, Wierzynski explained.
“The Central Coast, between SLO and Santa Barbara, it’s always a good time over there; a lot of great fans,” he said. “And there’s nothing better than playing outdoors and getting to enjoy music in that environment. That’s one of the things that makes us The California Honeydrops, the enjoyment of life outside. That’s our favorite thing to do.”
Managing Editor Joe Payne needs to get out more. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 6, 2018.