Music & Brews set Saturday

Murphy – This weekend’s Murphy Music & Brews to benefit Shepherd’s Men, a charitable organization providing supplemental care for veterans through the SHARE initiative at Atlanta’s Shepherd Center, is bringing a Saturday packed full of music from four different genre-bending acts.

The second annual event anticipates bringing a larger crowd to Tennessee Street downtown to enjoy local food trucks and regional craft beers, wines and meads along the closed-off block in downtown. The event, which was created by Travis Ellis and Buck Bald Brewing, raised more than $140,000 last year.

The lineup includes Chuck Mead, credited by some as the father of Americana music from his time with cult country band BR-549, taken from a well-known Hee Haw skit; Kevn Kinney of southern rock staple Drivin N Cryin, in his second stint at the music festival; 1990s alternative rock favorites Cracker; and headliners War Hippies, in their second turn at the event.

Get off this, get on with it

In a phone interview with David Lowery, frontman and founder of Cracker, the singer exudes excitement for this first-time collaboration with Shepherd’s Men.

“One of our crew, Scott Munn, brought the organization to our attention, and we were glad to become a part of this event,” he said.

“Certainly, I can relate to what the organization’s doing because I was raised on a military base as my father was a career Air Force NCO and as such I grew up all over the world on bases, so this is something close to me and Scott’s father was retired Army so we tend to be aware of the issues that affect those who serve in the military and that sometimes it’s a rough transition when they get out.”

Best known for 1990s hits “Teen Angst,” “Get Off This” and “Low,” Cracker has been touring throughout the 2000s and defies categorization, embodying the line, “If you want to change the world, then shut your mouth and start to spin it.”

The band has been at the forefront of almost every defined genre starting with Lowery’s time in Camper Van Beethoven, with such cult hits as “Take The Skinheads Bowling” and “Pictures of Matchstick Men.”

“We’ve transitioned a long time. When we first came out, it was kind of the peak of alternative rock and we weren’t ever exactly a fit – some of our songs were though. We played with the Grateful Dead. We had this sort of country Americana side to us as well,” Lowery said.

“By the early 2000s, alternative rock had kind of faded away, and we were already doing something different by then. We were doing more roots kind of music, Americana, rock, country, so we were known to a lot of people from that later work.”

That work includes more than a dozen albums, with the majority of hits being played during Saturday’s show, Lowery said.

“We’ve got 35 years of music, and we’re still a pretty hard-rocking band for our age now, and we hope everyone can close their eyes and imagine just what it was like in the 90s,” he said.

It’s a challenging thing

When recalling his father’s leaving the Air Force, Lowery said it took his father a while to readjust to civilian life.

“It took him a couple of years to get his bearings again. A couple of different jobs and eventually he went back to the Air Force to work as a civilian,” he said.

“Partly because of the camaraderie, the structure, the overarching purpose of what you’re doing and then you take that away and you’re in sort of a more ambiguous environment and you wonder where that structure is and how do I adjust to that.”

While this is Cracker’s first collaboration with Shepherd’s Men, it’s not their first time supporting America’s troops.

“In 2009, we went to Iraq and played patrol bases. These weren’t even USO shows. Sometimes at these tiny little patrol bases maybe the size of a city block. We did about 10 shows there and we did some morale boosting as well playing video games or basketball, letting the troops play our guitars and little things like that,” Lowery said. “When people are in theater, when they’re down range, they need that morale boost.”

Lowery makes it clear that the band is proud to help support the Shepherd’s Men organization because of raising awareness for the cause and to highlight how difficult that transition is for many veterans suffering from PTSD.

“It’s a challenging thing for a lot of people to adjust to a new life once they’ve left the military. And we can also relate to that as musicians, living this life and then once you’re used to that lifestyle and traveling and often when someone leaves a band they can also have a troubled life after that.

“I just hope everyone will say that we can still play and we’re all having a good time to support a good cause. They’re doing something very near and dear to my heart so we’re happy to help out and raise awareness.”

Cracker takes the stage from 6:15-8 p.m. Saturday.

Details: Visit shepherdsmen.com, crackersoul.com and murphymusicandbrews.com.