One of Fort Worth’s most long-tenured bands will be performing its last show tomorrow night at Arts Goggle. Reggae-rockers Sally Majestic’s first show was in Oct. 2001 at an out-of-the-way pizza joint in Denton. Now 13 years and eight band members later the band has decided to part ways, although bassist/co-frontman P.J. Fry said he is leaving the door cracked open for a reunion.
“I wouldn’t rule out seeing it pop back up in a year,” he said. “Me and [guitarist]Scott Vernon are going to keep going, but we’re not going to continue on as Sally.”
The band began to fall apart for all of the usual reasons: scheduling conflicts, personality conflicts, and personal turmoil.
Amid the normal band drama, the band had two major set-backs: the four-piece lost its guitarist, John Stevens, and its practice space at the Where House, in rapid succession. Apparently the owner of the space wanted to live in the tiny room where Sally held its practices, so they found themselves homeless, so to speak.
Drummer Tim Cowdin didn’t want to take the time and go through the effort of replacing Stevens, so he decided to walk away from the band.
“Me and Scott wanted to keep things rolling,” said Fry. “But Tim didn’t want to go back to just being a three piece. Then he was worried about the time it would take to break someone else in.
“So I was over it,” he continued. “I wasn’t going to try and convince a grown man to do something he doesn’t want to do.”
The timing of the breakup is especially surprising, since the guys just recorded a 14-song album with Benjamin Napier at Green Audio Productions. Fry said he still plans to put the album out by the end of the summer, and didn’t dismiss the idea of reuniting for a CD release party.
The album, he said, is a departure from the band’s reggae/funk sound.
“We put a lot more into this album in terms of production value,” he said. “The songs are not traditional Sally songs. There are songs that people will think are a little out of character for us — harder stuff, leaning more towards straight forward rock.”
Sally Majestic’s swan song will be at 9 p.m. tomorrow (Sat, May 18) at SiNaCa Studios at 1013 West Magnolia Ave.
