These Guys May Be Clueless, But They’re Not Soulless
By Chris Manson February 13, 2002 Issue

As our musical landscape continues to grow, new bands keep popping up. Guitar-driven rockers Clueless formed in June 2002 with Kenny Oliverio (guitar/vocals), Eric “Slinky” Patt (drums/vocals), Corbin Pearcey (percussion/vocals) and Chad Thurman (bass/vocals), and already they appear to have built a loyal following with their vigorous mix of rock, blues, country and self-penned songs.

Their first set at Capo’s on a recent weeknight began with a bluesy original, Red Hot Mama. Oliverio described the song as “a chord progression I grabbed out of a puddle on Bourbon Street.” They slowed the tempo with another original, The Hours—“not to be confused with the book or the movie,” Oliverio said, adding that he’d come up with that title long before the celebrated novel and its screen adaptation. A short legal discussion about the merits of a lawsuit based on titles alone followed before the singer/guitarist took out his lyric “cheat sheet” to sing the classic rock anthem Soulshine. “We just learned that today,” Oliverio told the audience.

Oliverio fueled all of these songs with his out-of-control guitar playing and emotional singing. Patt and Thurman restrained themselves—instead of showing off—they simply provided some good old rock and roll bottom for the wild man.

Patt struck his cowbells, and one audience member feared that Clueless was about to do their version of Loverboy’s Working for the Weekend. Instead, the Capo’s crowd was treated to another spunky original, One Foot. Jailhouse Blues, inspired by “a night in a motel room in Defuniak Springs,” one of the guys said without elaborating.

Clueless offered an exciting instrumental number tentatively titled The Corbin Love Funk. An original ballad, Uncertainty, contained the lyric, “I don’t know about tomorrow”—hopefully, these words satisfied the fellow who kept bugging the guys to play some songs protesting “the war.” Clueless’ first set climaxed with appropriately foreboding guitar effects on David Bowie’s pensive Dead Man Walking.

Clueless play at Capo’s in Santa Rosa Beach Monday and Wednesday nights from 9:30-1:30 and at Snapperhead’s on Thursdays and Saturdays beginning at 9 p.m. On March 23, the band will delight the audience at Gulf Place, and some gigs in Panama City are lined up for spring.

Thurman is from Dyersburg, Tennessee, near Nashville. “I moved away from Music City to play music here!” he said. Thurman lends his stand-up bass talents to Chris Gardner’s jazz duo and enjoys listening to “old school jazz—Thelonious Monk, Charlie Mingus, Miles Davis, all those guys. Sun Ra…”

“The list goes on forever,” Patt commented. The drummer, long ago nicknamed “Slinky” for no discernible reason, has lived here for seven years. A fan of the Meters, Galactic and the Grateful Dead, Patt got his first taste of playing live music while attending college in Michigan.

Patt describes his current band’s sound as a combination of jazz, country, blues and reggae. “Elements of all of those things that we all like to play,” Thurman elaborated.

“Kenny’s the blues guy, Chad’s the jazz guy, I’m the funk guy,” Patt said.

“And I’m sit-in boy,” the bongo-slapping Pearcey explained. “I play with these guys whenever I can.”

In the spirit of musical camaraderie, Thurman and Patt often join Dread Clampitt and Livin’ Large for gigs. They also play with New Orleans’ Big Daddy O and guitarist Jeff Caldwell when they come to town.

Oliverio came from Cincinatti, by way of the Air Force. He was stationed at Eglin, and was looking for something to do when he got out. He cites Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers Band, the Beatles, the Who and ‘60s stuff” in general as his reasons for playing his well-worn Stratocaster. “A lot of the stuff we do, I’ve written over the years. Some of it, we never even discuss, we just play ‘em on stage. We recently started writing songs together,” he said.

When the topic of legendary record producer Phil Spector’s murder arrest came up, Oliverio noted that he hadn’t been following the breaking news story on CNN. “None of us even have TVs!”

“Better him than us,” Thurman observed.

Since these guys definitely know what they’re doing on stage, how did they get their name? “Our first gig was an emergency thrown together thing. Someone in the crowd asked what our name was. We said, ‘We’re clueless.’ And it stuck,” Oliverio said.

“We’re fortunate. We do what we love,” Thurman said. The guys in Clueless are young and hungry and they rock. Don’t be surprised if they end up conquering the world one song at a time. ( Top)

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