The soul music of 1960s Detroit will come alive next Saturday when Motor City Sounds hits the Piano Bar.
The 10-piece Motown outfit has been a Piano Bar favourite in recent years, with a song list including artists such as Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, The Temptations, Bill Withers and the Jackson 5.
Motor City Sounds hails from regional Victoria, with most of its members based in Ballarat, and has been lighting up venues across Victoria and the country for the past 11 years.
Drummer David Clark said the band had formed almost naturally.
“I teach music at a couple of schools and at one school I was often having a discussion with John, who’s our sax player now, and he kept on saying to me, when are we going to start a Motown band?” Clark said.
“And so we kept sort of talking about this and then at another school I worked at, Ian, our trumpet player, said to me, I’m going to start up a Motown band, do you want to drum for that?
“So two totally separate conversations, and we put the band together from there.”
Clark said the band’s three vocalists and a three-piece horn section provided an experience that was “a little bit special”.
“It’s feel-good music; I think one of the guys at the Piano Bar described our gigs as ‘wholesome’,” he said.
“The music just feels kind of timeless. It just keeps coming back through movies and other things, it just won’t go away, because it’s awesome.”
Motor City Sounds are at the Piano Bar at 2pm on Sunday, September 22.
