A full house showed up to The Lakely on Friday night to watch The Double Stops.
The Double Stops are an Eau Claire guitar-vocal duo. Dustin DeGolier plays electric and Emily Watkins is on acoustic and vocals. They have the kind of steady, relaxing style that is commonly associated with lounge music.
What sets The Double Stops apart from other bands is their eclecticism. Their setlist is a blend of 1920s jazz, guitar-oriented pop, classic rock and ‘90s alternative with some current pop songs and original tunes thrown in. A The Double Stops show might be better named as “One Hundred Years of Music.”
Both Watkins and DeGolier have taken formal music lessons for most of their lives but said they learned most of what they know from playing in various cover bands. Watkins attributes the broad range of styles to their musical education.
“We both have kind of a background of learning guitar around jazz specifically,” Watkins said. “And I think a lot of that is based around learning standards from a book. Through people that I’ve played with and Dustin also, I feel like we’re kind of building a new standards book.”
While The Double Stop covers many different genres, their playing style is primarily based around vocal jazz.
“If you go back to the ‘30s, ‘40s, even into the ‘50s and ‘60s, [..] the jazz musicians were covering the pop music of the day,” DeGolier said. “I don’t know when those two worlds broke apart. I kinda like that fusing them back together.”
They covered songs from artists such as Duke Ellington, Blind Melon, The Beatles, Corrine Bailey Rae and Chappel Roan. “Black Coffee”, an original composition, was also performed.
The Lakely is a cocktail lounge and music venue attached to the Oxbow Hotel. They serve original and classic cocktails as well as wine and tap beer.
The ambience is a mix of neon lighting and candlelight decorated with firewood and cut flowers which makes it the perfect setting for The Double Stops jazzy sound. Lakey is an important location for the group, as this was where they first formed two years ago.
“I was playing at The Lakely one night and Emily showed up as a spectator,” DeGolier said. “Emily sat in and sang, and I was blown away. And I think that was one of our first connections.”
They became fast friends. However, it wasn’t their first instinct to start a band.
“Yeah. I definitely remember that showing up there, and I asked [him] for guitar lessons after,” Watkins said.
DeGolier and Walkins had known each other previously from having mutual friends in the local music scene. They’ve both recorded for other groups but haven’t released any of their own music yet.
According to Watkins, The Double Stops are looking to record more original songs and incorporate them into their setlists. But it’s unlikely they’ll ever lose their appreciation for the standards, old and new.
“We’ve been promising a Christmas album for over a year,” DeGolier said.
Holmes can be reached at Holmesc4277@uwec.edu.
