8/8/2019 ANOTHER HOOTIE: Cravin Melon is catchy, but not overly original

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Cravin' Melon is catchy, but not overly originalBy Chris TrayCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Nearly three years ago, aband by the name of Hootie &the Blowf,rsh released one of thehottest selling albums ever inCracked Rear Via+,. The albumsold more than 14 millioncopies, and Hootie & the Blow-fish were prominent in the pub-lic eye, appearing with KeithOlberman and Dan Panick ofSports Center and Dan Marinoof the Miami Dolphins in thevideo for "Only Wanna Be WithYou".By the time Hootie & theBlowfish released their secondalbum, Fairweather Johnson,many had grown sick and tiredof seeing and hearing the Blow-fish on nearly every radio andmusic video format in the coun-try. Consequently, Fairweather

The BandJJ BowersJim ChapmanDoug JonesRick ReamesIohnson drew an enormousamount of poor reviews, in ad-dition to disappointing retailsales and relatively little airplay.While'Hootie-mania' wasgoing on all over the country,another South Carolina bandwas beginning o build an ex-tremely repuuable regional fanbase. This band, which boastedfour graduates of Clemson Uni-versity, was Cravin' Melon.Cravin' Melon formed in1993 when Doug Jones-vocal-ist/guitarist; Jimbo Chapman-guitarist; Rick Reames-drum-mer; and J.J. Bowers-bassist de-cided that they needed to take a

little break from their individu-al, respective bands. Reamesand Chapman played together inthe band The Next Move, whileJones and Bowers were anacoustic duo called Doghouse.With all four members citing"creative stagnation" withintheir respective bands, it wasdecided that Cravin' Melonwould become a full-fledgedband, rather ttran just a sill' sideproject.

The regional success of Rust-ed Root here in the tri-state areacould be likened to Cravin'Melon's success in the Caroli-nas. With steady touring fornearly two years, Cravin' Mel-on's debut albam Where I Wan-na Be sold over 20,000 copies.Much like Rusted Root's CrzelSun, (which also sold well over20,000 copies) Cravin' Melon'ssuccess withWhere I Wanna Bewas orchestrated without na-tional distribution.Major-label record companiesbegan to take heed after finallyhearing the band's "Hootie-es-que" sound. Apparently sensinga major cash cow, MercuryRecords snatched the band upand signed them to a two-recorddeal.Shortly after signing to Mer-cury in 1996, the band went intothe studios with producer DonSmith. Smith's production cred-its included some pretty bignames in Keith Richards,Cracker, and The TragicallyHip.At the time of recording,Cravin' Melon had eamed thereputation as being an exciting"live" band. Transfening thatlive rock and roll energy to tapewas a daunting task, yet thistransfer was one that both Smith

and the band were extremelvsuccessful at.Red Clay Hamest begins withthe first single "Come Undone".As of April 18, "Come Undone"was the 30th most played songat album-oriented rock radiostations across the coun!ry. Thissong is essentially going to bethe track that is either going tomake or break the band.So far, the response on it hasbeen relatively positive. AtWFSE, the single has enjoyedextensive airplay, and feedbackhas been tairly favorable. Theonly negative feedback has beenthe steady complaint that theband sounds a little too muchlike Hootie.And these sentiments can tru-ly be fathomed on "Sweet. Tea".If Atlantic Records (Hootie'slabel) were wise, they couldpass this song off as the new

Hootie single. Then again, itsguitar riffs are so much like"Hold My Hand" that even rhistask could be relatively impos-sible. Other tracks that. are Joy-ful to listen to, but sound toomuch like Hootie, include "Pre-tend", "Simple Man", and"Can't Find My Way."Don't get me wrc,ng, I think itis great that Cravin' Melon cansing about important Americanvalues likejobs, girlfriends, and.making ends meet. It is just un-fortunate that Tom Petty, JohnMellencamp, and even Hootie &the Blowfish have alreadvmilked the cash cow that thistype of lyricism produces.If you are looking for origi-nality, please don't look herebecause without Hootie & theBlowfish, Cravin' Melon's earlvharvest by Mercury Recordswould have never hanrreno.l

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