-From First Grand Prize Star Search Winner to Island Recording Artist to Front Man For America’s Premiere Party Band

 

I wrote a post a while ago about the Most Influencial Artists Ever Who Sported A Jheri Curl.  Included on the list were the usual suspects - Michael Jackson, Prince, Rick James, Morris Day, and some others.  I also included what I called an obscure choice - Durell Coleman, based on his self-titled 1985 album.

Well, Durell happened to come across the post, and emailed me yesterday!  He said he laughed out loud when he saw his name on the list and thanked me for mentioning the album and linking to his website.  Durell now fronts the Durell Coleman Band, America’s Premiere Party Band.  I was excited to get an email from the man Durell himself - so let me tell you the full story behind how cousin Justin and I came to be fans of Durell Coleman.

When we first got started with selling records, we were far from experts.  Nowadays we’ll only buy collector’s collections by the hundreds or even thousands, but it wasn’t always like that.  We would go to garage sales and take chances on records we thought looked like they could be valuable.  Sometimes we’d get excited about a record and they’d turn out to be duds, and one of us would give the other shit about it. 

One day we were out garage sailing together when I found a still-sealed copy of Durell’s self-titled Island record.  I got my hopes up in thinking it could be worth a lot, and Justin made fun of me.  It turned out it wasn’t - but still -it looked intriguing.  It was still sealed - so we debated on opening it before we finally did.  (Still sealed albums are always more valuable.)  We listened to it, and instantly knew it was a classic, and wouldn’t be sold.  It was like revisiting that modern soul era of the 80s that we grew up with.  It was cheesy, but honest and undeniably catchy.  We knew it was the truth that there was no good argument that this wasn’t great music, even though music snobs across the world would try to deny it.  It’s beyond music snobery - it’s like the kind of music that’s hard to admit that you like it, but you do.  It’s hard to explain, and I will post some audio samples later to show you.  It’s in the same genre as Lee Osler’s Back To Ypsilanti, and Gino Danelli’s Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now/Tigers song.  I play this kind of music for my wife and she laughs and laughs, but she dances!  She feels it!  

So for some reason, we were intrigued by the album and the artist.  Who the hell was Durell Coleman?  It turns out, Durell was the very first grand prize winner of Star Search, and the second overall winner in 1985 (the first winner was Sam Harris).  He went on to record this album, his only one, in 1985 for Island, where it had marginal success.  But where most one hit or one album wonders would stop, call it quits, there was no stopping Durell Coleman.

Durell went on to form the Durell Coleman Band, the self proclaimed America’s Premiere Party Band.  Durell took the concept of a wedding band to another level.  Located in Los Angeles, they’ve emerged into one of the best event bands in the world, rocking out the Golden Globe after party with Prince, and even playing Shaq’s wedding.  What I like so much about the band is their ability to play everything - they can go from to the to .  Check out their full list of songs.

This is what music should be - fun to listen to, fun to dance to: music you can feel.  Durell’s album and The Durell Coleman Band captures all that.  I just liked the story of Durell’s career - he’s exactly the kind of musician we like to celebrate.  Music doesn’t have to be about who’s the coolest or who’s the biggest or who’s the most well-known.  It’s about the spirit of the music - and that’s probably why we relate to Durell.  There’s other record stores out there bigger than us, with more rare and valuable stuff; there’s other music blogs/sites with more polished writers and hipper lay-outs and more traffic.  But there ain’t no stoppin’ Cousins - we represent the truth of the pulse of the music.  We enjoy what we do and we do it the best we can. 

So cheers Durell, keep doing what you do.  Long live the DCB, and long live Cousins Vinyl.  Now go to his site and jam out to the music.  Or better yet, hire him to play your next event - just don’t forget to invite me.