Back in December of 2006 a friend of mine who works at the Community Mercantile in Lawrence found me wandering around by the mixed nuts.

 

“Hey Doug,” she said.  “The staff was talking about having a Valentine’s Day ballroom dance here at the store.  We thought it would be neat to have some of your friends from KU Ballroom Dance and DanceSport come over.  It’ll be just like Dancing with The Stars!”

 

“Sounds like fun,” I said, surveying our would-be dance floor between the tomatoes and Turkish dates.  “You can count me in.  But what do you want to do for music?”

 

“Well, we’ve got a harpist and a bass player for you guys,” she said. “That should work, don’t you think?”

 

“Hmm...,” I said.  “I’ll tell you what.  Let me take care of the band and dancers.  I think I can pull together something really cool for you.”

Since Lawrence is still a small town -- every musician seems to know ever other musician personally -- I was able to put together a very good group quickly.  The band had such a great time playing, and the dancers liked having a live band so much, I decided to start looking around for other venues for us to play on a regular basis.  

 

When the owner of the lovely Camelot Ballroom offered to let us have the building once every month on a Saturday night for a mere pittance, we had our home.  Today we’re more established on the Lawrence scene, have spawned a number of regulars who follow us everywhere, and have a much more developed sound than we did back at our first dance at the Merc.  We pride ourselves on playing as many styles as we can at every gig (e.g., you won’t hear many bands follow a ragtime tune with a polka and then with some sultry, Cuban rumba). And while some of our original musicians have come and gone, in many ways I still think we’re the Merc’s Valentine’s Day Dance Band.  Even now I sometimes like to imagine dancers in fancy dresses and tuxedos looping in and out between the tables of onions, potatoes, and tomatoes.

 

- Doug