Sheriffs' career flies straight as arrow to EP

Photo by By Brandon Dahlberg

The Sheriffs of Nottingham blend garage rock tradition with blues and insightful lyrics.

Even in the ephemeral world of rock-and-roll, a year-and-a-half is an uncommonly brief amount of time for a band to go from formation to the release of their first record.

But local alternative rockers the Sheriffs of Nottingham have made the turnaround with the release of their debut EP Hard Places, a collection of seven originals that updates the Memphis garage rock tradition with a healthy dose of the blues and uncommonly insightful, questing lyrics.

Photo by By Brandon Dahlberg

The Sheriffs of Nottingham blend garage rock tradition with blues and insightful lyrics.

The band will commemorate the release Saturday with a show at the Young Avenue Deli featuring opening band Mojo Possum.

The Sheriffs actually started in 2007 as collaboration between lead guitarist Kevin Lipe and his one-time substitute teacher at Harding Academy, lead singer and rhythm guitarist Justin Jamerson. Lipe taught Jamerson, who had sung in bands before but didn't play an instrument, how to play guitar. The novice learned quickly and was soon ready to take the next step.

"For Christmas that year I got an Epiphone Sheridan hollow-body, and I was like, 'Man, we should start a band,'" Jamerson recalls.

Lipe and Jamerson started off as a duo. Their first gig was at the University of Memphis Christian Student Center, where the pair strummed Black Keys covers through a shared amp.

That night the Sheriffs of Nottingham were born.

"I just kind of threw (the name) out there," Jamerson says. "I wish I could say I was like a huge fan of Robin Hood and that I always wanted to have a band named Sheriffs of Nottingham, but that's not the case."

Soon Lipe and Jamerson were looking to put together a full band. In the spring of 2008, Jamerson contacted drummer Kyle Fagala, with whom he had played in a rap cover band when they both attended Harding University in Searcy, Ark.

Fagala brought along Curry Smith, a childhood friend from northeastern Arkansas, who started on third guitar before eventually switching to bass.

"Right off the bat it was pretty evident this band had someplace it could go," says Fagala. "We were kind of going for a roots feel, somewhere between garage and Jimi Hendrix and all that good stuff. Pretty soon after that we started writing songs that we all seemed to really like."

The band's sound evolved quickly. Initially inspired by Mississippi hill country bluesmen like R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough and their modern-day acolytes like the Black Keys, the band found it couldn't faithfully pull off a straight rendition of that sound.

"It just didn't come out sounding right," says Lipe, the resident Memphis music buff. "(Jamerson) is coming from this blues kind of place, and I've always been influenced by Memphis bands. I'm a Big Star fanatic and worship at the altar of Alex Chilton. So it turned into this blues-rock thing that also has this pop sensibility."

Confident in their songs, this summer the Sheriffs went into the studio for the first time. While they're proud of Hard Places, the band has evolved rapidly and hopes to record again soon. "We feel we've just gotten better and better," says Fagala. "We can't wait to hear what we do next."

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Sheriffs of Nottingham

The Sheriffs of Nottingham Hard Places release party with special guests Mojo Possum, 9 p.m. Saturday at Young Avenue Deli, 2119 Young Ave. Admission: $5. Call call (901) 278-0034 or visit youngavenue deli.com.

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