FIVE SHOTS OF BOURBON. Left Wing Bourbon (left wing to right wing): Jason Kiesler, Derrick Biederman, Faith Ulwelling, Jacob Ulwelling, and Tim Caswell.

It’s 8:45 at the Red Zone Sports Bar in Lake Hallie. Fifteen minutes to showtime for blues and funk band Left Wing Bourbon, and the band’s nowhere near nervous. They’re mingling, swapping high fives, and trading banter, and you can tell that, although about half the bar looks to be Red Zone regulars, a large portion of the crowd is here just to see them play. The clock hits 9, and drummer Derrick Biederman switches off the TV on the wall behind him. It’s time for the band to go to work.

This isn’t a band that hits soft or slow. Everything about their performance is full. ... These guys are polished, and they feed off each other as you might expect from a group that’s this closely knit.

And go to work they do. This isn’t a band that hits soft or slow. Everything about their performance is full, from lead singer Faith Ulwelling’s vocals right through to Tim Caswell’s keyboard. These guys are polished, and they feed off each other as you might expect from a group that’s this closely knit.

Faith and bassist Jacob Ulwelling are siblings, and they’ve been playing together for years. Four of the band’s five members hail from Durand, and they’ve all been playing together now for more than four years. It definitely shows. A Biederman drum solo will ramp up into a guitar solo by lead guitarist Jason Kiesler and then roll right into some of the strongest and most soulful vocals you’ll hear north of the Mississippi delta, courtesy of Faith, who owns most every song she sings. You will get shivers up your spine. This is a fact.

But Left Wing Bourbon doesn’t just do blues; they play whatever kind of music they, or their crowd, want. “Basically,” says Faith, “we try to pick songs that are awesome. We try to get people to dance and smile.”

 

You gotta have Faith.

And although Red Zone is by far not the best dance venue in the Valley, by the fourth song people in the crowd simply could not help themselves. They were up there on the patch of carpet in front of the band dancing away. The song that probably most excited the bar, and was one of my favorites as well, was LWB’s rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll. Biederman put his work as a former metal drummer to great use, as the drums kept the song energized and moving at an amazing pace, and he drove Faith’s stunning vocals forward. And as the song came down to that last lonely, lonely, lonely time I think half the bar had to be singing along.

It would be a shame if I ended this article before at least plugging Tim Caswell’s adept keyboard, which may as well be a harmonica on the blues songs because he has that much control. Or the fact that the band uses four of its five members as vocalists, yet never really loses a beat. There’s a lot to say about LWB because, as professional musician Catya says, “they’re some of the best around. (Faith’s voice) is fantastic and the rest of ‘em ain’t too slouchy, either.”

It says something, too, that when Faith is on break, Catya can step right in and sound like she’s been a member of the band since its formation. Left Wing Bourbon is a band that plays well on the fly and launches from song to song without a lull. It’s a band that puts on a show full of kick-ass energy, a show that you should definitely check out.