Mic Harrison and the High Score celebrate ten years of working mans rock
Longtime Knoxville music scene staple Mic Harrison was Americana before Americana was cool.
That’s because Harrison, a stocky fellow in his mid-40s with old-school black-rimmed specs and a frowsy mop of perpetually hat-molded black hair, came by the trappings of Americana honestly. The thrift-store shirts and John Deere caps, the love of classic country music and cheap American beer—none of those things are hipster affectations. Rather, they are simply the indigenous lifestyle choices of an authentic good ol’ boy who came to Knoxville nearly 20 years ago from storied little backwater of Skullbone, Tennessee.
Mic Harrison and the High Score will play Knoxville’s Scruffy City Hall Friday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. in celebration of 10 years together, and of Harrison’s two-decade career as a local music icon.
It would be tempting to call Harrison the quintessential journeyman, a first-rate second banana. His Knoxville odyssey has been marked by Johnny-come-lately stints in two of the city’s best-loved rock bands, the indie-power-pop quartet Superdrag, and hard-drinking proto-Americana outfit the V-roys. Harrison replaced bedrock members of both units, including mysterious, mercurial V-roys guitar wizard and co-founder John Paul Keith.
And in doing so, he stood next to two men hailed as minor songwriting geniuses in their own right in Superdrag’s John Davis and the V-roys’ Scott Miller.
But the truth is that one has to look beyond Harrison’s unassuming demeanor and workmanlike approach to life and music, and recognize the impressive depth of his talents. In point of fact, when Harrison was a member of the V-roys—his longest-running musical project prior to the High Score—it was the combustible mix of Miller’s wordy, highly personal songwriting and Harrison’s tuneful, bash-it-out blue-collar approach that elevated the band to the level of greatness it achieved in the latter half of the 1990s.
But in 2003, after two years and one very strong album with Superdrag, Mic Harrison decided to set out under his own name. In doing so, he called on his old friends in the High Score, a three-year-old local rock unit, the members of which had played with Harrison in previous, short-lived Knoxville groups.
The result was 2004’s Pallbearer’s Shoes, a sturdy solo recording that made a small splash on the Americana album charts, and set in motion Harrison’s ongoing relationship with the High Score.
“I’ve thought about it a lot lately,” says Harrison, a meaty paw affixed firmly to a can of beer, relaxing at the home of drummer Brad Henderson in East Knox County. “I’ve been with the High Score for longer than I was in Superdrag and the V-roys combined. At this point, really, I’m married to these guys.”
It’s been a productive partnership, one that has produced four full-length records and a 45-rpm single with Con Hunley—or as Henderson likes to call the 45, “our half-P.”
To be sure, there has been some shuffling of band members since Day One. High Score singer-guitarist Robbie Trosper joined Harrison from the get-go, having shared a stage with him in the ‘90s Knoxville act the Faults; Henderson came close on his heels.
Bassist Vance Hillard followed in 2006, while acoustic guitarist Chad Pelton entered the picture in 2011.
“I’d been loving Trosper for years,” Harrison says. “He introduced me to Brad and Vance, and now I couldn’t imagine playing music with anybody else.”
But the thing that unites Harrison and the High Score-ists—and it’s also the factor that has preserved the essential character of the band, despite a couple of line-up changes—is the fact that all five current members are of a piece—musically, culturally, personally.
Few bands work harder during daylight hours, just so they can do what they love come nights and weekends. Harrison works 50-plus-hour weeks as proprietor of his own lawn service; Hillard and Henderson work at a hardware store and farm supplies dealer, respectively; Trosper owns a liquor store.
“We have some goals as far as touring is concerned, about what cities we want to be able to play,” says Harrison. “But our main goal has always been to make good music, and to enjoy being with the guys you play with. If it’s work, then you need to go do something else.”
They’ve shared some epic adventures—and misadventures—landmark moments such as playing the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival with Chattanooga country music artist (and Johnny Knoxville cousin) Roger Alan Wade, a show that culminated with a powerful, unrehearsed reading of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
The band has opened for ZZ Top on a couple of occasions; played and recorded with one-time Knoxville country star Con Hunley. “Playing with Con was great, just because he is so ‘pro,’” Harrison says.
And everyone in the High Score is quick to weigh in on a memorable—for mostly the wrong reasons—2011 road jaunt through New York City and Washington, D.C., a trip during which the band lost a car and handfuls of cash, slogged through record rainfall on Highway 95, but still managed to log one of the best shows in MHATHS history.
“The van broke down in Radford, Virginia, on the way to Richmond,” Hillard remembers. “After a day in the shop, Mic came in and said ‘I’ve got bad news; they took the radiator out, and the bottom fell out of the van.’
“So we rented another van—and now we’re out $1,500 without even playing a note—and pushed on to D.C., and another show in New York. It rained the whole way, some of the worst rains they’d ever had. We got there 30 minutes before the gig.”
“We loaded in, and then we kicked ass,” Harrison says. “One of our best shows. So about two hours of that whole trip were really awesome, and the rest was about the most suckingest trip I’ve ever been on.”
But even after 10 years together, Harrison believes that he and his ‘mates have yet to realize their fullest potential. He calls their latest full-length effort, Still Wanna Fight on the band’s own Real Much Records imprint, “a great record; maybe we didn’t peak on it, but we were sure at the top of our game.
“I guaran-damn-tee this band has gotten better with every record,” Harrison continues. “There have been nuggets on every one of our records, but I’d say we started to hit our stride on The Great Commotion [2010]. That’s where we gelled. That what really made me say, ‘I’ve got an awesome band here; I’d better write some better songs.’”
Harrison says he hopes recording for album number five-and-a-half will commence in early 2015, depending on whether fates and finances align. “I’m loving coming to the band with songs right now,” he says.
“I used to just bring stuff in and say, ‘Here’s what it is.’ Now I can come in with something just as rough as a cob, and we all work on it. And when it comes out of the mill on the other side, I can listen to it and say, ‘Damn, now that’s a real good song.’”
