Corvallis band keeps busy with nonstop valley and coast gigs

By Nancy Raskauskas

The Entertainer

CORVALLIS - Although Parish Gap has been an active mid-valley band for about 30 years, founding members Tom Wright and Bob Rause actually go even further back.

Wright and Rause met in high school in Libertyville, Ill., and started playing in bars when Wright was just 16 and Rause 15 years old.

Wright plays guitar and harmonica. Rause covers keyboards and bass. Both sing.

"Bob and I are like best friend brothers," Tom said. "(We) just have this chemistry going."

The pair has grounded the band's fluctuating lineup over the decades as the main songwriters and with experience earned from countless hours spent on stages around the mid-valley and across the U.S. and Canada.

Drummer Steve Down joined the band about 28 years ago, but recently took a several-year hiatus for family reasons. He is already back into the swing of things after rejoining about five weeks ago.

The band's youngest member and only female, Catherine Wright, is a student at Oregon State University, where she studies English and education. She is also Tom's daughter.

"He tried to get me to start singing when I was 12," she said.

When Catherine was 13 years old, she promised her dad she'd start singing for the band when she was 16, thinking that age seemed a long way off.

When those three years were up, her father wasted no time in reminding her of her long-forgotten promise.

"She was a natural," he said.

Catherine owes her singing abilities to years of vocal work with Heart of the Valley Children's Choir, Crescent Valley choirs and OSU Chamber Choir, voice lessons and, of course, genetics.

"I also started singing at a very young age," Tom said.

Tom Wright noted with a chuckle that the band has had various female singers over the years that "always gave us too much trouble," giving him the idea to raise one himself.

Perhaps the most famous musician on the group's list of past members is Meredith Brooks, who later on in her career earned a No. 2 single with her hit "Bitch." She was in the band for a couple years between the ages of 16-18, while still attending Corvallis High School.

The band plays everything from classic rock to easy listening, jazz to folk and blues to country - covering popular tunes by artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Men at Work, The Doors, Aerosmith, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and Journey.

In a pinch, Parish Gap can play more than six continuous hours of songs, about 70 of which are on their standard playlist.

In addition, they have 12 new songs that they are adding to their song list this fall - all originals.

The band fancies itself a bit of an art rock group, gravitating toward songs that have "huge, mood-evoking presence."

"It kind of implies that our music is going to capture your mind," Down said. "It's about having a journey through song. We've got so many different varieties of music we are playing."

"There is a difference between slick and polished - our music is polished," Wright said.

Parish Gap are regulars at many mid-valley venues, and particularly popular at Merlin's Bar & Grill in Lebanon.

The name Parish Gap is a reference to local geography, as it is the name of a road in the Jefferson/Turner area. In the early years the band was known as The Dreamers.

Parish Gap also plays up and down the central Oregon Coast and has a song called "Newport Town."

"Bob wrote that song for some of the fishermen," Tom Wright said. "We like playing on the Coast where a real variety of ages come out for shows," he added.

The group already has one CD of original music out titled "You and I" and is working on another to be released in the next year.

"Almost every time we've played a new song for the first time, we get people coming up to us and asking who the song is by, not realizing that it is an original," Catherine said.

The group's CD can be purchased at concerts or by contacting Tom Wright.

Rause also runs a recording studio called Frankenstein's Lab.

"We get our most personal satisfaction from playing this music," Tom Wright said. "We all have regular jobs, but we really feel best when we're on stage playing music."

CHECK IT OUT

WHO: Parish Gap

WHAT: Covers and originals

UPCOMING SHOWS:

• 8:30 p.m. Aug. 14, Nana's Irish Pub, Newport.

• 9 p.m. Aug. 15, B.K. Mulligan's Lincoln City.

• 7 p.m. Aug. 21, Rhythm & Brews, Albany. (Acoustic)

• 8 p.m. Aug. 28-29, The Bay Haven, Newport.

• 9 p.m. Sept. 4-5, Merlin's Bar & Grill, Lebanon.

• 9 p.m. Sept. 11, Front Street Bar, Albany.

• 8 p.m. Sept. 12, FireWorks, Corvallis. (Acoustic)

INFO: www.myspace.com/

parishgap or contact Tom Wright at guitarmant2000@

yahoo.com or 829-9740.