For members of the Love.Craft Band, the process of making music isn’t something to fuss over. The Athens, Ga., six-piece grew out of a weekly music class offered by Love.Craft, a nonprofit organization that empowers adults with developmental disabilities through art, music and job-skills training. The informal jamming eventually progressed to a legitimate band with original songs and touring gigs. A debut LP, We Are The LCB, is set for release October 9 via Strolling Bones.
Though four of the group’s six members are adults with developmental disabilities, LCB is far from a conventional music-therapy exercise. Adnan Curry, Jacob Argus, Jamie Huntington and Keelan Bell write, sing and perform alongside mentors Steven Ledbetter and Aslyn Nash.
“Early on, we’d find ways to help them jam to a song they loved, where they might be able to just play a note or two that could work over an entire tune,” says Nash.
It wasn’t long before Nash and Ledbetter were encouraging members to write their own material. “We just kept growing what we were doing from there across this whole spectrum of learning.” says Nash.
A spirited product of that evolution, “Come Dance With Us” is an unbridled blast of old-school soul and ’80s dance pop that wastes little time getting to its point. Like the band itself, the track is less concerned with perfection than participation.
“The upbeat summertime dance vibes are about having a good time every day, no matter what,” says LCB’s Huntington.
We’re proud to premiere the Love.Craft Band’s “Come Dance With Us.”
LCB is also the subject of the five-part documentary series So Good: The Love.Craft Band, which follows the group on its first national tour and goes inside the making of its debut album. Listen Out Loud Media is bringing the series to classrooms and communities around the country.
—Hobart Rowland
