In a little bar outside of the downtown Harrisburg scene, a middle-aged man in a corner nonchalantly gazes at a woman across the bar, a waitress breathes in her first cigarette after a long shift, a handful of people linger after dinner and a few early drinkers laugh a little too loudly.
Around 8 p.m., all of them will have the chance to witness the music of a would-be guitar hero and his band: Nate Myers & The Aces.
When showtime arrives, the four-man band is crammed into a corner with poor lighting, but the music they’re playing is more than enough to hold the bar patrons’ attention. Some of them are actively listening, while others are sitting at the bar with a pint, nodding their heads and tapping their feet.
Through the shoddy lighting and smoke-filled air, spectators can see bassist Pete Netznik, drummer Mike Noll, guitarist Chris Purcell and, of course, Mr. Myers himself.
What they can’t see is the aforementioned guitar hero. Harrisburg’s up-and-coming sex symbol was never able to live his dream of playing the guitar. The only instrument you’ll see Myers playing is the harmonica.
“The instrument kind of chose me,” says the frontman of The Aces, who picked up a harmonica during his freshman year of college in 1992. It was then that he met an old-style blues player who told him to forget the guitar and to pick up the instrument that Bob Dylan made “cool.”
“I still want to play the guitar,” Myers admits with a grin. “It’s just cool.”
Even without a six-string, Nate Myers has managed to attract a lot of attention. The most common reaction to the 30-something’s name is “Ooh, Nate Myers … he’s sexy.” Apparently, Central PA’s women prefer their blues men donning a harmonica, a trend Myers says he’s learning to “treat with respect.”
“I haven’t really noticed [the attention] until recently,” says the tattooed Myers. “I’m always flattered. I kind of dig it.”
All of the newfound attention hasn’t, however, overshadowed the band’s talent. For every comment about Myers’ sex appeal, about half are followed by some praise of his harmonica-playing skills.
Nate Myers & The Aces have a bluesy sound, traditionally popular among an older crowd, but are drawing a younger audience, too. Yet, they remain curiously obscure, at least as far as the bar-hopping Second Street crowd is concerned.
Myers does express interest in playing at a few Second Street bars but has been patient in his attempts to perform at those venues. Integrating his band’s blues style into a party-band atmosphere is a big step – not to mention a daunting one. However, Myers knows you have to get a foot in the door to get somewhere.
“I’ve been a little bit nervous about taking it downtown,” he says. “[But] you don’t get any better sitting at home. You’ve gotta get out there.”
While they’ve been mostly skirting the city, The Aces have played just about everywhere else, from Rehoboth Beach to Baltimore. On the occasions when the band does venture downtown, the venues tend to be smaller bars. Although some of these venues cannot provide the proper lighting or sound that most live acts would require, Nate Myers & The Aces have no qualms about playing in the corner of a dark bar in the middle of the week.
“You’ve gotta keep your ego in check,” he says, “or you get to the point where you expect certain things.”
Myers’ love affair with music began in the ’80s with a type of music his fans might never expect: early hip-hop. But it wasn’t until he got older that the music that surrounded him as a child began to inform Myers’ own writing.
“I wanted to play traditional blues, and I was so concentrated on that that I sort of missed out on a lot,” says Myers. Eventually he realized that, as a musician, he had just as much in common with a hip-hop artist as a blues musician. That realization inspired him to embrace music outside of the blues’ traditional 12-bar formula.
In fact, pick the right night and you can catch The Aces plowing through a jazzed-up cover of House of Pain’s “Jump Around.”
On the whole, Nate Myers & The Aces have a smooth, rich and energetic sound. It’s a classic mixture of blues, roots and jazz music, instantly relatable and bubbling with energy. Listening to Myers’ soulful voice is like sitting in the basement as a child and spinning old records found in a musty corner. You’re not quite sure what you’ve found, but you know it gets you excited, you know you’ve never heard it before and you know it’s something good.
Apart from early ’90s hip-hop masters, some of Myers’ influences include Big Jack Johnson, the Southern Sons, Paul deLay and Johnny Cash. The rest of the band lists John Fogerty, Queen, Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson, B.B. King and Willie Nelson as musical inspirations.
But signed recording artists aren’t the band’s only inspiration.
“We go out to see [local] bands,” says Myers, explaining that watching other bands helps The Aces to work on their own live performance.
“It’s inspirational to see another artist who’s mastered his or her craft performing,” he explains. “We take lessons from everyone we see and hear.”
All of those lessons, he adds, culminate and help him and his band become “better songwriters and better people.”
The band has released five CDs since 2002, including its most recent offering, Persist, in late January. All of the releases are available at any of the band’s shows or on its websites, www.natemyers.com and www.myspace.com/natemyersandtheaces.
At the end of the day, despite their laundry list of influences, Nate Myers & The Aces’ primary goal is to do things their way. While that might mean it takes a little longer to crack the Second Street scene, that’s fine by Myers – not to mention his adoring fans, who have made it abundantly clear that they’ll follow The Aces wherever they go.