‘Taxi’ doors wide open

PALMER — Thursday night at Klondike Mike’s in Palmer, Great American Taxi celebrated the release of its fourth album, ‘Dr. Feelgood’s Traveling Medicine Show’, opening with a rendition of Bob Dylan’s ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit’, a two-minute, 51-second track on ‘Bringing it All Back Home’ that Great American Taxi, in true jam band fashion, stretched to more than 12 minutes.

They spent the rest of the night playing mostly original cuts that had just about half the population of Palmer tearing up the dance floor.

At the heart of it all and flanking a formidable trio of guitarists Jim Lewin, Arthur Lee Land, and Brian Adams on bass, who happened to be celebrating a birthday that night in Palmer, is Staehly on the keyboards, driving home GAT’s distinctive sound.

Just before the show, I caught up with Staehly, the last of the original, founding members of the band still with the band.

Where did you get the name for the new album?

Staehly: It’s a song (guitarist) Arthur Lee Land wrote on album and it seemed like a fun title to put on the album. Tim Carbone, who’s with a band called Railroad Earth produced the album — he’s coming up for his first visit in August for Salmonfest in Ninilchik — he was on board with the title, too.

What Pandora station might a Great American Taxi song come up on?

I think as far as classic bands go, you’d probably run into us on Little Feet or The Eagles, Graham Parsons — kind of that country rock stuff. That’s kind of the foundation of this band.

Where did you get the name for the band?

I was playing a duo gig with Vince Hermon, also a founder of the band — he plays with Leftover Salmon now — we were playing a Mardi Gras gig and right before band played our first show for a Rainforest Action benefit in Vail, Vince says something like, ‘Friends describe me as a great American taxi a coming down the hill on skis, and I said, ‘wait, What’d did you say?’

We were looking for a name for this band that was supposed to be a one-off, with intention of only playing that one show, but here it is 12 years later and 800 or a thousand shows later and here we are.

How is the new album different than your first three?

We’ve definitely explored some new sonic territory, using some technology and sounds that are new to this band; newer sound creations due to technology. We incorporated some of that?

Like auto tune microphones?

No auto tune mics, just some spacier synth sounds, some atmospheric stuff we’ve never tried before. It sounds like Great American Taxi, but there’s new dimensions to it.

What’s it like to be the only remaining member of a band that’s been around so long?

The sound of the band has changed, of course. It’s always been a band that allows everybody to be themselves; no preconceived notions of what band should be, just roll with that. I guess I’m still crazy to keep pushing this band around the country… I think there’ve been like 20 people in the band and seven or eight songwriters. But there’s a common thread through it all that keeps it rolling along.

What’s up next for Great American Taxi?

We just started playing some shows with our buddy Todd Snider, a great songwriter out of Nashville. We’ll be touring with him some this summer. We’ve recorded a few songs in studio, which may or may not get released. We’ll be touring in fall, and I don’t know if we’ll get back to studio. I think we’ll work this record for a while and see what happens.

What’s the one thing GAT hasn’t done that’s on your wish list?

I’d like to see this band play Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It’s the mother church of all roots music and I think it’s a milestone for this band to achieve and get to do.