Any band that has managed to stay together for 20 years is worthy of a commendation. In the music world, 20 years might as well be 200 years, especially considering that so many musical luminaries died before their 27th birthday.

So as the local cover band the Boogiemen celebrate two decades together, it’s worth looking back at this group of musicians who have kept the hits coming despite changing musical tastes. Lead singer Scott Schmidt said the core of the Boogiemen stretches back to the 1980s to an earlier band.

The Boogiemen at Jazz Fest. (Photo Courtesy of Scott Schmidt)

“The Boogiemen originated from a band called Rumboogie,” Schmidt said. “We had myself, two guys in the band now, Mark Mullins from Bonerama, John Gros from Papa Grows Funk, and a bunch of other guys who were really good who went on to other things while we were playing as Rumboogie.”

Mark Mullins describes Rumboogie as a “psychedelic horn/rock band.” Guitar player Dave Ferrato had formed the group with the intention of adding horns to rock songs that didn’t already have horn parts, he said. To accomplish what was at the time an unorthodox idea, he recruited Todd Gray on trumpet, Mullins on trombone, and Kent Karcher on tenor sax.

Mullins said he had been playing mostly Dixieland jazz at that point, so learning the Edgar Winters song “I’ve got news for you” was quite a change of pace.

“I’m not kidding when I say that for me, the experience of playing this song was like the opening scene in Back to the Future when Marty McFly plays a chord on the guitar and is literally blown off his feet,” he said. “It was life changing in many ways.”

Schmidt said that core idea of playing popular songs in a somewhat unconventional way lives on in the Boogiemen to this day, 20 years after Rumboogie split up, even as popular musical tastes have evolved in ways no one could have predicted.

“We play everything from New Orleans jazz to Justin Timberlake now,” Schmidt said. “We play weddings, we play conventions, we play festivals, we play clubs. At each one of those places, we play different music. If we play a festival, you’re not going to hear the latest dance hits.”

The Boogiemen play the Bacchus ball. (Photo Courtesy of Scott Schmidt)

When the Boogiemen played Jazz Fest, Schmidt said each member of the nine piece band showcased his best musical ability. On any given night, some of that ability will be on display as existing songs are combined in interesting ways.

“We’ll play a whole piece of music that we’ve just created,” he said. “The horns will write a horns only chart that is completely different from the existing song, so we’ll add a bit of originality that way.”

Mullins said he learned how to arrange music playing with Rumboogie, sometimes on the fly.

“We’d be loading up the gear and Dave Ferrato’s calling out horn licks to me as I’m scribbling them down on a sheet of music paper so the horns can play the song that night at the show,” Mullins said. “I learned a lot about how to arrange for horns. I still use that today.”

Schmidt said the Boogiemen plan on playing for as long as the crowds keep dancing, even as the average age of the band members inches closer and closer to 50.

“It’s been 20 years, and hopefully we’ve got a few more left in us,” he said. “You love playing music and you love to entertain, so you have to keep going. God gave me a talent to sing, and I’m blessed to play with a group of good musicians, so we’re going to use the talent and see what we can do.”