At Work: Eggy
“It’s mind-blowing— only a year or two ago, I was walking around shows and festivals as an attendee, and nobody knew who I was,” Eggy drummer Alex Bailey says. “This summer, playing Peach Fest, Werk Out and all these other festivals, people were coming up to us and telling us how much they loved our music and how much we’ve been a part of their journey during the last couple of years.”
As he discusses his group’s recent rise on the national jamband circuit, especially during the pandemic, Bailey and the rest of Eggy—guitarist/ vocalist Jake Brownstein, keyboardist Dani Battat and bassist Mike Goodman—are sitting for a Zoom interview at their shared home base in New Haven, Conn. It’s been just over a year since the ensemble played their largest area show, an opening set for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong at New Haven’s Westville Music Bowl.
It had been a slow but steady rise to that point. Brownstein, Battat and Goodman grew up together, sharing not only a technical understanding of music but also the ambition to create it. After Bailey, a Chicago native and East Coast live music diehard, joined the band, the group began to gel. “It started from talking at the campsite about our hopes and dreams—how badly we wanted to be on the other side of that fence, performing for all those people,” Brownstein says with a smile. “We’d go see a Phish show—I remember, after one of those amazing shows, looking at each other and going, ‘We’re going to do this one day. We’re going to be in a band together and do it for real.’ And it’s so special that we’re able to do that now.”
Since their Westville set, Eggy have found their space on the other side of that proverbial fence. They toured with Spafford during the fall of 2021 and, the following season, traversed the country with Dopapod. Despite making a name for themselves outside the Northeast, Eggy are quick to honor their own community, mentioning venues like New York’s Wetlands and Port Chester, N.Y.’s The Capitol Theatre and praising hometown heroes like Tim Palmieri, who Goodman calls “the father of this era of Connecticut jamband virtuoso musicians.”
Brownstein adds, “I remember going to Gathering of the Vibes, which was a festival in Connecticut. We were watching Lettuce’s late-night set, and Eli [Winderman] showed up and stood in front of us. And we’re like, ‘Holy shit! That’s Eli from Dopapod!’”
“And now Eli is hopping in the van with us—just hanging out,” Goodman explains.
During their extensive touring, Eggy made an effort not to repeat songs, tackled tracks by the likes of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Big Thief, Dawes and The Shins, and churned out the two-sided cassette Nashville Tapes with the help of Matt Ruffino at Nashville, Tenn.’s 1979 Studio. As they continue to polish their already choice multi-part harmonies, they scored a gig at Levon Helm’s famed Woodstock, N.Y.-area Barn, where they welcomed Rusted Root frontman Michael Glabicki and Goose drummer Ben Atkind for sit-ins. “It’s been a dream of ours to play there—it has such historic energy,” Brownstein says. “Levon and The Band are such an influence on us that getting a chance to play there is really a dream come true.”
