In the groove, but hard to categorize

February 16, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

For just over a year, singer Ryan Houde has been living his dream playing and partying his way across Northeast Ohio with new urban band Groovesmith.

“We’re a funk-groove band with a little bit of a hip-hop twist,” Houde said. “There aren’t too many bands like us, and comparison-wise it’s really hard to say. Some people have said we have a Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt kind of thing, but I’m not sure about that. It’s definitely not cover music and not reggae dub stuff, which we tend to get booked with a lot because there’s not a lot of music like ours out here. I’d say we’re very diverse.”

Influenced by old funk and soul music, and possessing a live organic sound in the style of The Roots, Groovesmith — Houde, Amanda Rose (vocals), Randall Quay (bass), Andrew Patrick (drums), Pomeroyal Fountain (guitar) and David Sorboro (keyboards) — eschews any cover material for the simple reason it wants to avoid any pigeonholing. Instead, the act spent nearly a year honing its original material before venturing out into the clubs.

Now the sextet is finishing up its self-titled debut EP, which it hopes to release soon. The eight-track affair includes the upbeat and Motown-esque “Lovely Loretta” and the harder-edged “Live In Your World.”

The one thing seemingly missing from the band is a brass section, which if added would open up the act to an Earth, Wind & Fire and Parliament-Funkadelic universe. It turns out Houde and company recently decided to get a little horny with its music.

“We are actually working on that right now, and we’re hoping by mid-summer to have horns,” Houde said. “That’s part of the plan. We do fine without it, but I just feel it would fill out our music more. And also it would bring a better live show.”

Houde also noted the live show creates quite the sensual atmosphere, because of singer Rose’s onstage presence and the band’s heavy groove.

“People have referred to it as sexy, and a good portion of the live show you can dance to and vibe to,” Houde said. “There’s a good variety in tempos and mood changes.”

Apparently, Youngstown has warmed up to Groovesmith. A growing audience has been attending their shows in the Mahoning Valley, where the band has played three memorable gigs over the past year.

“It’s one of our favorite cities in the Northeast Ohio area,” Houde said. “I really don’t know why. The best way I can explain it for me is when I talk to the people, I can relate to them. I think it has a lot to do with the fact the people from Youngstown are very hard workers and very hard partiers. That’s something that must be coming across in the music, because that’s my lifestyle as well.”