The Kopecky Family Band has what some in the merch business call “The Great Unknown Bounce”. Let me explain what this means. First is that
the band is great, and trust me this band easily meets that criteria. The “unknown”
is that because they are a band that is getting popular, they are at a stage
where they are opening for more well known bands. Probably more people are
coming to see the headliners than the support acts. The “bounce” means that
many times they are outselling the headliners at the merch table because they
are so impressed by them. Many people may already have merch for the headliner
and when you hear a band that is so good, you want the merch to remember and
support them. Then you can say when they become a headliner that “you knew them
when” and have the merch to prove it. I recently had the privilege of working
the merch table and the Kopecky's outsold the headliner. I love it when people come
to buy things at the table and you hear “Wow this band is so good, they are
going to be huge.”
The Kopecky Family Band is not a family in the sense of
being related by blood. They consider themselves a family because they work and
tour together and have to support each other. They are based out of Nashville
and met each other while in college at Belmont University in that city. Kelsey
Kopecky and Gabe Simon formed the band back in 2007. The rest of the band consists
of Steven Holmes, David Krohn, Markus Midkiff, and Corey Oxendine. They write
what I would call Indie rock-folk and pop song mix. They have a sonic music palette.
Not only are the songs catchy and stick in your head, but it is all done with
intelligence both musically and lyrically. You will hear the standard bass,
drums, and guitars but it will be interspersed with cello, lap steel, horns and
keyboards. There are places in their live show (which is great!) where they switch instruments, but don’t lose the
flow of building the show. To top it off they have killer male-female harmonies
that will send goose bumps up your arm.
Between 2007-2010 they released two EP’s on their own and
then a full length Kids Raising Kids.
The record label ATO signed the band in
late 2012 and re-released the Kids album
this past April. It has received a lot of great press from blogs, music
magazines, and critics. Here is "Are You Listening" from Kids Raising Kids:
This is a band I believe next year won’t need the Great
Unknown Bounce because they will be the headliners and people will know who
they are. To prove that this is a band on the upswing, the night before I
worked the merch table for them, they made their major television debut on the
Jay Leno show. But until they headline, please make sure you see them so that
you can be the person who can say “ The Kopecky Family Band..oh yeah.. You’re
just hearing about them.. Not to brag but, I knew them way back when.”
