Brian Slattery Photo
Sherrod.
Westerly, R.I.-based musician Laura Dowding stood behind her keyboard on the stage at Cafe Nine. She’d just finished another of her originals and had half the room in rapt attention.
“Do you know that it’s Greg Sherrod’s birthday?” she said. “He’s 21.”
“Again!” Sherrod yelled from his seat at a table not far from the stage. A ripple of laughter passed through the club. Of course everyone knew it was Sherrod’s birthday. It was the reason they’d come to Crown Street on Friday — to wish Sherrod well for another year, and have a chance to see him perform, from blues to soul to R&B to rock, with a band full of old friends he’s been playing with, some for over 20 years.
Sherrod grew up in the New Haven music scene and earlier last year moved to Stonington, where he established a new set of musical connections. That meant, for starters, bringing Dowding to the Cafe Nine stage. Dowding mentioned that Sherrod had become her vocal coach. By the sound of things, Dowding was more than ready to take the field.
With a mix of covers and originals, Dowding held the club with the strength of her soulful voice as she moved from jazz to soul to pop. In between, she traded lines with people in the audience — most often, Sherrod himself.
“Play that song of yours I like!” Sherrod shouted.
“Which one?” Dowding said.
“You know the one,” Sherrod said, playfully. At the end of Dowding’s set, they made good on their banter when Sherrod joined her onstage for a sweetly harmonized rendition of “Cruisin’.”
Sherrod then introduced pianist Jon Thomas, a collaborator with him in the Stonington area. Playing solo piano, Thomas turned Cafe Nine into a lounge. People chatted amiably with friends as Thomas swung tastefully through jazz standards, and clapped heartily at the end of every number. At the end of his set, Sherrod joined him for an intense take on Stevie Wonder’s “Joy Inside My Tears.”
Thus far Sherrod’s birthday at Cafe Nine had been cozy and warm, an intimate gathering of friends. The energy suddenly rose as Sherrod’s band — Jay Gerbino on bass, Chuck Czajkowski on guitar, and Mark Rudzinski on drums — launched into their first number, an instrumental that let them warm up their fingers and get into the groove.
That set the tone for Sherrod’s first number, “Have You Ever Been Misunderstood,” which found Sherrod digging into the blues without sacrificing his irrepressible sense of humor.
The band’s take on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” brought a couple dancing between the tables near the stage. Sherrod introduced his take on Little Bob’s “I Got Loaded” by mentioning that he was six years sober, which brought a round of applause. But he mentioned that before he found sobriety, “I used to get in trouble with you,” pointing at an audience member, “and you … and you … all of you.”
The band started Bill Withers’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” with the original’s trademark cool, but then took the song in a different direction that ended with Sherrod in a full-throated howl and Czajkowski shredding his way through his solo. A funky rendition of “All You Need Is Love” had people drumming on the tables.
Czajkowski ceded the guitar spot for a few tunes to fellow Sherrod co-conspirator Morris Trent, who helped turn “Sweet Home Chicago” into something James Brown might like. By then the rhythm section was fully warmed up, and they kept the music hot until well past midnight.
“We’ve been doing these things for a number of years,” Sherrod said early in his set. “So nice that everybody still shows up.”
In response, the crowd spontaneously broke into “Happy Birthday.”
Sherrod stood on the stage, beaming. “Thank you, everybody,” he said.