Guilty Pleasures is an acoustic band from the musical heart of North Carolina, steeped in our State’s strong musical tradition but not afraid to venture into uncharted territory. Band members John McNeal (guitar) Greg Cordell (mandolin, fiddle), Nat Smith (bass) and Meredith Nye (fiddle) have played everything from country to funk to punk to jazz (which perhaps explains how they can pull off segueing from an 18th century ballad into a tune from Disney’s “The Jungle Book”) before returning to their musical roots.
Guilty Pleasures has been playing the Orange/Chatham County scene since the late ‘90′s, and they make occasional sojourns to points westward (Asheville, Blowing Rock, Weaverville). The band also plays rehearsal dinners, corporate functions and other events at Fearrington Village in Chatham County on a regular basis, and a recent highlight was playing the Festival for the Eno River.
The band’s sound is centered in bluegrass and old-time music, but a typical Guilty Pleasures set touches all genres of Americana. They regularly mix in songs by Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Elvis and George Gershwin. Dancing is encouraged, and dancers can select from the breakneck pace of Bill Monroe to the sorrowful lamentations of Hank Williams to the out-and-out weirdness of “The Cuckoo Bird.”
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