By Zandra Wolfgram
Local music lovers are in for the royal treatment this week.
Duchess, the high-energy classic rock cover band hailing from Niceville, takes the stage on Thursday, April 29 for the second installment of the Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation’s Concerts in the Village series.
Duchess is the only local band in the spring/summer concert line-up and this five-member band is literally, amped up to perform.
“We hope everyone comes out to hear us because it is a beautiful venue, the music will be delivered at a high level, it will be a fun, entertainment show that won’t slow down!” says guitarist Chuck Tidwell.
Duchess has been performing together since 2019, but the band’s story goes back even farther. All the band members are “praise and worship” musicians who perform in their respective churches. Doug Bowers (keys, guitar, and backing vocals) and Tidwell (acoustic/electric guitars)—both decades-long music veterans, started playing together along the Emerald Coast in the mid-2000s. The duo released two classic rock and blues-inspired albums as “The Walk.” During the recording sessions for their second album, they brought in singer Lauren Duke who wowed them with her powerhouse vocals. Fast forward a couple years and Duke was invited to front the band (something she had never done before). Nate Kuwitski is on bass and veteran Tony Gorrell on drums and back-up vocals.
Last year, the band competed against 29 other local artists over a two-month period in a bracket-style competition for the United Way Emerald Coast’s virtual singing competition fundraiser, Rock United. Duchess was crowned the reigning champion.
We caught up with Tidwell, while he was catching The Velcro Pygmies at Nick’s in Freeport and spoke with him shortly after the concert. Here are a few notes from that conversation:
MKAF: It’s great that you support other bands. How did you come to join a band?
CT: Of course! I studied finance at University of North Alabama, but I was a professional musician for many years before I began working in the aerospace and defense business in 1996. I had to move to the backburner a little bit, but I am a musician first.
MKAF: Did you grow up around music?
CT: I grew up around Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the recording capital of the South and got exposed to some exceptional musicians all through my formative years. I was in the Chaney Gang then and we held down the biggest house gig in Muscle Shoals for about 11 years. We did shows with all kinds of acts.
MKAF: What do you love about music?
CT: I love it when it’s played correctly. Music is a conversation that you have with your bandmates with other people listening in.
MKAF: Why do I sense there is a story with the band’s name?
CT: There is. We were joking around thinking of what to call the band and throwing around some crazy ideas, and Lauren said, Well, I am married to a duke. To that, I said, Well, that makes you a Duchess, so we’re Duchess, aren’t we? It’s like of like how Queen is not The Queen, we’re just Duchess, like Aerosmith.
MKAF: Tell us a little about your bandmates.
CT: Lauren Duke is a fantastic singer. She immediately became “one of the boys” and really brings a lot. Doug Bowers is a progressive rock recording artist. He’s recorded a ton and is huge in Europe and Russia. He’s the technical wizard. Nate Kuwitski on bass is a former marine and just a great guy. Tony Gorrell is a natural musician with a wicked sense of humor.
MKAF: You are a truly local band, aren’t you?
CT: Yes, we only play locally. We don’t want to be on touring on a bus sleeping in hotel rooms. Everyone in the band is a professional musician, but we’re really a hobby band. We really get a kick out of watching each other play on stage and really feed off each other. It’s fun. We try to stay true to the music we’re playing by using the original arrangements—these great songs are great for a reason, right?
MKAF: How do you choose what songs to cover?
CT: First, we start off with the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s for the most part, that’s our genre. We have a female vocal lead, but she can take on the fellas … she loves Freddie Mercury with Queen and Steve Tyler with Aerosmith. She’s able to move seamlessly in and out of those different characters and do justice to the original record.
MKAF: Is there one song that sums up the band?
CT: There are a lot of songs that expose a lot of different sides to the band, but if we had to pick one piece of music to play it would probably be our Queen medley. It’s operatic, it has melodic vocals, but still has heavy guitars and keys.
MKAF Concerts in the Village are free to MKAF members. For more information on the many MKAF Membership levels and all the concert details, visit MKAF.org.
