Interview with Americana Band Ludlow Creek

MuzicNotez: First off, it’s an honor to be doing this interview with you, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us. Introduce yourselves, what are your names and rolls in the band?

Ludlow Creek: Hi, we’re Ludlow Creek, based in Southwestern Ohio, around the Dayton/Cincinnati/Columbus area. There are 5 of us in the band – Allen Seals – Guitar, Mandolin & Vocals, Dave Benson – Guitar & Vocals, Jeffrey Friend – Drums & Vocals, Michelle Scarpelli – Keyboards & Vocals and Tom Scarpelli – Bass & Vocals.

How did you meet and form up? How long have you been together?

Ludlow Creek: It was a multi-year process. We had all been in various bands throughout the years, and around 2005 or so, Allen, Tom and Michelle met up at a music gathering/party. They started working on music together first for fun, then years later when their drummer John (Tom’s brother) couldn’t continue playing regularly due to other commitments, a friend recommend Jeff. After a while of performing together just a couple of times a year at social events, Jeff asked if we wanted to “take it on the road” and start performing regularly. We all thought, why not. We had a few rehearsals and then by a chance meeting in late 2012, Tom met Dave and eventually asked him to come to a rehearsal – and magic ensued. We performed out regularly mainly playing covers starting in 2013, and by late 2014 we started writing our own material. We thought about making the switch to focusing on primarily original material in 2019, and in 2022 we decided to “go for it” and have been focusing on original material and releasing albums ever since.

How did you come up with the name Ludlow Creek?

Ludlow Creek: When we decided to focus primarily on original material, we felt we needed a name that represented how we all came together – and that was at our rehearsal space in late 2013. That’s the same location where we still rehearse and create music today. Well, running behind our rehearsal space is a creek… yes, you guessed it – named Ludlow creek.

When doing live shows, does the band have any pre-show rituals? How do you prepare for a live show?

Ludlow Creek: We’ve found that our best shows start with remembering to huddle up and say a prayer of thanks – thanking the Lord for the many blessings bestowed on us – mainly for our friendship and the abilities given to us. We prepare for the show by looking at a core set of tunes we are performing at the time, thinking about the venue or event we will be performing at, and then mixing in various songs that we feel will work well at that venue or event. We will re-arrange the song ordering from show to show to try to present a concert experience for the given event/venue’s audience that we feel will fit the best.

You have a new single that drops March 8th called ‘Mercy’. We had a listen and it’s amazing! What inspired this track? What’s it mean to you?

Ludlow Creek: A lot of our songs have messages/life lessons weaved into them. Mercy is a story about a guy chasing after a knockout beauty – getting caught up and blinded by the emotion and “chemistry” of first sight, but not really knowing the person or having anything in common… he tries to move heaven and earth for her, but eventually loses her. He tries to replace her with someone else “looking for angels in a wishing well”, but then he keeps trying to get her back – and she wants nothing to do with him. He finally gets it while he’s “viewing heaven from the corner of hell” and realizes he has to move on from a life he’s no longer part of. So the message to you young guys & gals out there – keep your lust in check and your lives in balance – choose your life partner wisely!

That track is a prelude to the upcoming album later this month. What can you tell us about that album? What can we expect from it?

Ludlow Creek: We are very excited about the upcoming album – we feel it is our best work to date. It’s our third and we decided to self-title it “Ludlow Creek”. As a sneak peek as to what to expect on the album, besides “Mercy”, take a listen to “Catacombs” – released in October of 2023, and “Rock for a Heart” – released in January of this year. We feel the upcoming “Ludlow Creek” album shows who we are and what are influences are – Blues, Roots Rock, and Americana combined to produce a solid well produced Rock ‘n Roll album with variety akin to our forefathers in classic rock!

How do you feel your music has evolved over the years? How is this new album going to be different from previous releases?

Ludlow Creek: As mentioned throughout the interview, our music continues to evolve the more we create music together. It embodies the progression we’ve made in moving from individuals writing “complete” songs, to the 5 of us writing together. The main difference in this album over previous albums is that the tunes are in general more mid to up tempo.

What else are you working on? What can we expect to see and hear from you in the future?

Ludlow Creek: We’re working on some lyric videos and shorts and we’re hoping to release a few live performance videos of some tracks as well. We’re also in the early stages of talking about a music video for one of the songs on the upcoming album. And we’ve already started work on our 4th album – we have quite a few demos we’ve captured during recent creation sessions that we’re really excited about. We hope to actually perform some of them in the coming months.

Anything else you wish to say about yourself or your music? Any message for your fans?

Ludlow Creek: We’ve been busy in the studio with some great new music and video projects that we can’t wait to share with our loyal fans! Spread the word, we’ve got some exciting new tunes and we’re looking forward to getting back out and performing for you!

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