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CommunityAcme sings the blues
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007
 Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted Photos
The Acme Blues Company — guitarist Steve Remy, left, drummer Chris Ruckman, lead singer⁄harmonica player Waverly Milor and bass player Steve ‘‘Wolf” Crescenze — performs original blues songs and other classics in area locations.
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The song ‘‘You Ain’t the First” begins to play, and singer Waverly Milor — who wrote 10 of the CD’s 12 songs — recalls his inspiration.
‘‘The song, ‘You Ain’t the First’ in parentheses is, ‘You Ain’t the First to Drive Me Crazy.’ [It] is about this woman I had been dating for a long time from Denmark. I went there a few times to visit her and her family, but she ended up breaking up with me,” he said in a casual way. ‘‘It’s basically saying I’m really messed up right now, but I will get over it.”
And he did. Milor bounced back from the experience and got a crowd-pleasing song out of the whole ordeal.
With two out of the four members present during the interview, the conversation flowed with bass player Steve ‘‘Wolf” Crescenze and Milor discussing their love of music.
‘‘I started playing back in the ’60s, but I had quit for some time because there were so many issues in the last band I was in,” said Wolf. ‘‘I had to stop listening to music for a year and a half, just to get away from it.
‘‘But eventually I picked up the bass again, and I was hooked.”
According to Milor, the band was formed years ago, but its current lineup with Milor, Crescenze, Steve Remy and drummer Chris Ruckman has been around for a year and a half. Both Ruckman and Remy were original members.
Milor, who also has years of musical experience, said he’s been singing and playing the harmonica in the D.C. area for 20 years.
‘‘I’ve been singing ever since I could talk,” he said. ‘‘But I’ve never been in a band that’s so collaborative. I joined this band about three years ago.”
Crescenze added, ‘‘Sometimes we don’t get along, because we’re around each other so much. Being in a band is like being married three or four times [at the same time]. The [efforts of the band] are pretty collaborative. In the end, it all works out well.”
‘‘Our drummer always says we’re like a four-legged stool,” Milor said. ‘‘It takes all four members to be a good stool, because everyone contributes something different.”
On their sophomore album, the band members stepped out to do something a little different — creating original songs instead of singing other people’s material. In a bit of a surprise, it got them positive feedback and a Wammie nomination — D.C.’s version of the Grammys — from the Washington Area Music Association.
They were nominated for best blues recording, alongside other well-respected blues artists such as Grammy-nominated Cephas and Wiggins.
‘‘Any harmonica player will tell you hands down that Phil Wiggins is the best harmonica player,” Milor said adamantly.
‘‘It definitely feels nice to be in good company,” added Crescenze. ‘‘It’s probably the greatest honor to be nominated by your peers.”
Both Crescenze and Milor acknowledge that they weren’t really aware of WAMA in the beginning.
After they began some research about WAMA, they were not only in shock, but honored, they said.
‘‘It wasn’t something we were really going after. We make music because this is what we love to do, and we like to please the crowd,” said Milor. ‘‘We’re known as a good live band. People like the entertainment value in it.”
‘‘If people like our CD, then they would really like us live,” Crescenze interjected, complimenting Milor’s style on stage. ‘‘He really gets the crowd involved by asking questions and making up lyrics on the spot. That’s always fun. I could never do that. Waverly just has a knack for making up lyrics on the spot.”
‘‘Sometimes I would wake up in the morning and just have lyrics in my head,” Milor said nonchalantly. ‘‘I just get inspired by the things around me — from reading books, listening to other people’s music. But some of it is definitely personal.”
Milor said his girlfriend, Amy, inspired the song, ‘‘A Little Somethin’ Somethin.’” The personal ‘‘definitely inspires” some of the songs, he chuckled.
‘‘We’re obsessive with music,” Crescenze said.
His girlfriend, Connie, does most of the public relations work for their band. ‘‘She’s like a fifth member,” he said. ‘‘She’s constantly pushing and exploring to promote the band.”
Although the band takes away from the members’ personal lives and otherwise, they said there is nothing else they would prefer to do.
Crescenze said most musicians play ‘‘because they enjoy what they’re doing,” not necessarily because of the money. ‘‘You have a [regular] job because it allows you to keep doing what you want to do.”
Milor then laughed at the thought of playing in the band for money, ‘‘What do you call a musician without a girlfriend?” he asked. ‘‘Homeless.”
E-mail Stacy Sneed at ssneed@somdnews.com.
