The proverb “blood is thicker than water” is often used to mean that family is more important than friends. But it is often disputed that this expression stemmed originally from the much older “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,” thus inverting the initial meaning.
The latter meaning of this adage can be applied to the Kopecky Family Band of Nashville, Tennessee. Led by Kelsey Kopecky, the group is a union of friends rather than relatives. Kopecky founded the band along with college friend Gabe Simon later adding musicians Steven Holmes, Corey Oxendine, Markus Midkiff and
David Krohn.
The Kopecky Family Band’s kitschy name came out of humor and irony rather than true ancestries.
“So, we thought it would be a funny thing,” Kopecky said. “‘Kopecky’ sounds like a Polish family band, and we were all in college and thought it would be a unique, funny name and it just stuck.”
As humorous as the moniker is, the concept of playing as a so-called “family” band may baffle fans of the typical, folksy music that has resulted from well-known acts like The Partridge Family and The Osmonds. Despite the label, the Kopecky Family Band brings fans exciting alt-rock with the a Nashville flair.
“Our experience is always unique in New Orleans just because it’s a unique city, and it’s fun with really vibrant people,” Kopecky said. “So I think people down in Louisiana just love music. It’s a part of the culture and we feel that energy when we’re playing shows there. It’s really awesome.”
Despite being young, active musicians, the Kopecky Family Band doesn’t entirely rely on the support of college towns.
“It totally varies,” Kopecky said. “Sometimes we’ll play a downtown of a city. Sometimes we’ll play a college town. It totally depends. We definitely don’t keep anyone out or pigeonhole. It’s kind of just a wide variety of whatever works.”
The group released its first album, “Kids Raising Kids,” in 2012. Kopecky said this current stretch of touring is promotion for new material that will be
released within the next year.
“The month of August, we were in the studio, and we are finishing up our new record, which will be out around March of next year,” Kopecky said. “We’re calling this tour the ‘Putting the Kids to Bed’ tour because it’ll be our last promoting or touring in support of ‘Kids Raising Kids.’ It’s really exciting. We’re playing a couple of new songs from the new
record and a lot of the ones we love from the last record.”
Different from the themes of “Kids Raising Kids,” the Kopecky Family Band’s upcoming album will work off more mature matters, including maturity itself. After being together as a band for nearly 5 years, Kopecky said she sees the second album as a huge shift in subject for the growing “family.”
“It’s years of touring on the road,” Kopecky said. “Years of playing together. Experience and the tales we tell. Our life experiences are more grown up in certain ways. At the same time, I think it’s an honest snapshot of where we’ve been in the last six months to a year. We’re excited to have something fresh out … something we’re proud of. We really had time to be in Nashville and write this record for the first time.”
The Kopecky Family Band is scheduled to perform at Spanish Moon on Friday, following an opening performance by fellow Nashville act COIN and North Carolina artist Pacifico. The group’s current tour started Wednesday night with a performance in Atlanta, Georgia at Vinyl. The stop in Baton Rouge will be the third in a long line of shows throughout the United States and Canada. The show starts
at 9 p.m.