People often ask me how I came up with the name Motel Funk.
They think we're a funk band and I can understand that, and I am a funky singer who loves me some Chaka Kahn, Marvin Gaye and Maroon Five.
But that's not how it happened:
This band has morphed from what was once a 9 piece band complete with horns and another female vocalist.
The leader of the band was Greg Paul and it was Greg Paul's New Band..even after it was two years old.
Greg had a great vision, we played Originals, Steely Dan, Delbert McClinton, to No Doubt, and beyond. We opened for AWB, Pat Benatar, Leon Russell, and even Little Feat. It was a blast and a lot of work and it was really taking off at the wrong time. Bands were downsizing, and horn sections were on the outs, much less keys, unless you were making no money at all.
So little by little we made changes, we kept the horns as long as we could, Greg left, we got a new guitarist and renamed the band…wait for it…Soul Source. I know. We had a contest and that's what won, you should have seen the other choices.
Moving ahead to becoming a four piece band. We Hung on to some of the same material changed to new genres.
New name, Drivin' Blind., I got the name from the title cut of the first Little Feat album with Shaun Murphy as the lead vocalist.I was in love with that CD. I though the name was cool, most of the club owners didn't get it.
We used to play out of town a lot, one day while checking in to our 1 and 1/2 star hotel, I was with my bass player, he was helping me with my bags.
As we walked down the dimly lit hall I was becoming a bit skeptical about the accommodations. We came to my room and he opened the door. We stood outside and peered in…he looked at me and said. "honey, this room has that..Motel Funk" And the name was born.
That was a pretty memorable gig. Not because I remember much of it, we partied pretty hard, but I'll never forget the day I felt I was walking into a speak easy and performing. Motel Funk.. a place where anything goes…"c'mon in, we'll leave a light on!"