Western Kentucky and southern Illinois musicians have organized a charity covers concert celebrating the music of Nirvana – the iconic 1990s grunge rock band led by Kurt Cobain – to benefit the Paducah Cooperative Ministry.
During the show, three separate bands will perform their own sets of songs by Nirvana with musicians from around the local music scene.
Previous iterations of the group’s charity show have featured the songs of The Beatles, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. Cory Greene – one of the musicians who organized the shows – said the group had previously considered Nirvana, but the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic saw their plans dashed. He said that celebrating the Seattle icons is special to him.
“I was a teenager when they came out. Their effect on popular music was seismic. I don't think there's been a band or musician to really change the entire atmosphere of popular music the same way that Nirvana did because we were coming out of hair metal and just sugary poppy music, and they just brought a darker kind of sound,” Greene said. “There was a lot of interest in the underground after that. The major labels were just snatching up bands left and right that, the week before, they were all living in a group space probably and driving a crappy van around America. Next thing you know, they're on a tour bus. So it changed everything for the better. But I don't think there's really been a band to do that ever since.”
Concert organizer Luke Taylor said he was just a child when Nirvana became popular, and that his discovery of the grunge act’s music was sillier than most.
“I think what got me into Nirvana, I'm sorry to say this, but was Weird Al Yankovic with ‘Smells Like Nirvana,’ and I was like, ‘What is it?’ And my dad showed me the real one,” Taylor said. “So I was like, ‘Oh, okay, this is the real thing and this is amazing.’ And then I kind of went down the rabbit hole a little bit with their stuff.”
Taylor will be playing with Blake Brown, Zack Winding (formerly of Leonard The Band) and Israel Abernathy, who is in Croquet with Taylor.
Greene will play alongside Adam Martin (formerly of Middle Class Trash), Ronnie McCoy (formerly of The Hi-Fi Ninja), and Jon Grace (Dead Nuts). The third band features three members of Seafoam (Aaron Smith, Noah Schneider and Zach Powell) in addition to Cale Dotson (Just South of Antarctica).
Greene said doing these tribute shows has deepened his relationship to the music.
“You come to appreciate their music so much more once you really like to immerse yourself in it, and you start learning,” he said. “You start to recognize how they wrote songs; just patterns in their songwriting and stuff like that. It's amazing for a band you already love to find new things to love about them.”
Proceeds from the concert will go toPaducah Cooperative Ministry, a local nonprofit that works to fight poverty, hunger and homelessness
The concert is set for Saturday, Sept. 19th at Paducah Beer Werks at 8 p.m. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
