If you are unfamiliar with the musical blessing of Lettuce, you absolutely need to take some time out and see them during their Mt. Crushmore Tour to witness a stage full of the funkiest cats in the scene.
Breaking the band down you’ve got Adam ‘Shmeeans’ Smirnoff on guitar, Adam Deitch on the drums, Erick ‘Jesus’ Coomes on the bass, Ryan Zoidis on sax, Eric Krasno on guitar, Neal Evans on the keys, Eric Benny Bloom on the trumpet, and Nigel Hall joining in on vocals. The band originated thanks to a summer program for at Berklee School of Music in Boston in 1992 when several of the guys were in high school. Now over 20 years later, the band has released four studio albums, multiple EPs, and has played numerous tours and festival circuits, and even just released a documentary. They have also curated and produced their own festival, Fool’s Paradise.
The members’ personal resumes are extremely impressive. Aside from Lettuce, each member has put in incredible work elsewhere throughout their musical careers. There, of course, is no greater success than that they achieve together with Lettuce. The amount of time and effort each of these artists put into, not only Lettuce but playing music everywhere they can, shows that they truly do it for their passion for music.
Adam Deitch is also a member of the trip-hop electronica duo band, Break Science; has been a drummer for Pretty Lights; co-founded Royal Family Records and was also a Grammy nominee for writing and producing efforts on one of Ledisi‘s albums.
Adam Smirnoff has had a long career in music, but now concentrates most of his energy on side projects with other members of the band such as Break Science live band, Nigel Hall live band, and several tribute projects.
Eric Benny Bloom joins in with Soulive on the trumpet and has a compelling list of past sit-ins from Umphrey’s Mcgee and Slightly Stoopid to Solange Knowles and Method Man. He is also a part of the Shady Horns and the Pretty Lights Live band. Lettuce’s sax player Ryan Zoidis also shares his talents with the funk rock band Rustic Overtones.
Erik Jesus Coomes has created his own production company, The Fyre Dept. and studied under renowned artists such as John Patitucci and Kanye West.
Nigel Hall comes from his own project, The Nigel Hall Band to throw vocals on some of Lettuce’s funky tracks.
These artists are without a doubt blessed by the funk gods and no matter what endeavors they take you can always find them as a part of Lettuce. They are currently on tour to support their latest album, Mt. Crushmore, find tickets here.
Photo: Patrick Hughes / Faces of Festivals
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