In only two years, local rock band Hightide Blues has made their mark on the music scene with their Americana/roots style of rock that lends itself to the sounds of bands like the Black Crowes and Ben Harper. In these two short years, the guys have gone from playing local bars to playing in front of thousands at Bonnaroo, one of the biggest music festivals of the year.

Some might call it fate how this band came together. A few years ago, Paul McDonald’s car happened to break down in front of Jonathan Pears’s house here in Auburn. McDonald also happened to have his guitar with him in his car.

“It was cold outside, and we had people over,” Pears said. “He just brought his guitar up and we started jamming.”

McDonald had been performing an acoustic show at the local bars and invited Pears, who also played guitar, to join him.

“I had an acoustic gig that Thursday and I was like, ‘Man, you wanna jam? You’re a whole lot better than the other guys,’ ” McDonald said with a laugh.
About a month later the guys named themselves Hightide Blues, named after a bar in Destin, and starting performing acoustic shows.

Then the other band members just kinda fell into place. McDonald is the lead singer/guitarist, Pears plays the electric guitar, djembe lap steel and harmonica, and drummer Scotty Rollins and bassist Cragon Sims complete the rest of the band. Rollins approached the guys at a local battle of the bands where he was playing with Strangelove Ocean and asked if they were looking for a drummer, while Sims only recently joined the band as their fourth bassist.

Once the band began writing original tunes, everything changed.

“We would write songs and play them and they would go over well,” McDonald said. “People were starting to sing along to our songs and would ask who sang it. It went from there and we started wanting to evolve more into an original band.”

The band released their first EP, “Tired of Leavin’ ” in 2007. As they toured, their sound began to evolve and they were soon ready to record another album.

Their latest EP, “Love Come Easy,” was just released Saturday, June 21, at a CD release party at SkyBar.

“We’ve evolved so much,” McDonald said. “The songwriting, the musicianship, everything has changed. The thing that’s cool about this new record is that we had time to do these songs out on the road. We road tested them and if they went over well and the crowd liked it we went with it.”

The guys have dubbed their sound roots rock, and have now formed until full-time musicians. Half of the band still lives in Auburn, but are in the process of relocating to Atlanta, where their management is located.

The band has stepped up their touring and the band’s manager, Bowe O’Brien, said he believes the band’s work ethic has helped them along the way.

“Aside from their original sound, one thing that differentiates them is that they work harder than any other band I know,” O’Brien said. “They play a lot of shows. They played 150-plus shows last year and I think that has a lot to do with how their sound has evolved.”

The guys also practice every day they aren’t on the road.
“We’re on the road about four times a week and will come back and practice every day,” Pears said.

The guys believe that if that hard work has paid off with anything, it has to be with their recent performance at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival two weekends ago.
Atlanta radio station DAVE FM held a band talent search that they dubbed “SEARCH-A-ROO,” and the winner would win a spot at Bonnaroo.

Hightide Blues had just finished recording “Love Come Easy” when they found out about the contest and sent in a burnt CD of the album. More than 300 bands entered the contest and the station selected the top 25 and sent those to the Bonnaroo promoters who picked the top four, which Hightide Blues was a part of. Then it was up to the fans.

“Us and another band got in the top two based on Internet voting and we played a live show in Atlanta at SummerFest and the winner of the live show got to play Bonnaroo,” McDonald said.

The guys won the fans over and got the chance they had dreamt of. The guys attended the festival every year and had hoped to one day have the chance to perform.
“We were so fired up about going because playing Bonnaroo was one of our main goals,” McDonald said.

The band said their fans have been so supportive and that they are grateful that they helped them snag their chance at Bonnaroo.

“I was really happy that they got that Bonnaroo spot,” said Weston Hill, an Auburn fan of the band and lead singer/guitarist of local band October Jenkins. “The are a really tight band and they have good stage presence. I think they have a cool sound and they are really fun to watch because they dance around, that makes for a good show.”

Among the headliners at Bonnaroo included Metallica, Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson, Widespread Panic and Kayne West.

Hightide Blues performed on the Sonic Stage on Saturday, June 14, at 12 p.m.
“It was very, very cool,” McDonald said. “We were this little band from Auburn that no one had heard of. There were a few folks out there from Auburn rockin’ hard that knew all of the words, but at first there were probably only a few hundred watching. By the end of the set people from all over were coming up asking for autographs.”

The guys said they were a little star struck hanging around musicians like Bela Fleck and My Morning Jacket. They said they thought it was also cool to see stars like the Olsen twins too, but didn’t feel like fans as much as musicians.

“We got the artist packages and were treated just like people would treat Jack Johnson,” McDonald said. “Everyone was so chill because you’re not treated like a fan, you’re treated like a musician. We felt like rock stars for the weekend.”

The band said that performing at Bonnaroo has taken them another step in their career.
“It’s definitely another step for us,” Pears said.
McDonald added that people now take the band more seriously.
“It’s kinda brought us up to a new level,” he said. “Now people from all over have heard of us.”
Although the band is now experiencing fame outside of Auburn, they said that they will always return to Auburn, the place they started.

“We still claim Auburn as our home,” McDonald said.

“Auburn is where we started,” Pears added. “A lot of these bar owners have given us a chance and us coming back here is kinda like saying thanks.”

O’Brien added that the band will return to Auburn for a lot of the home football games in the fall.
The next step for the band is to find a record label. They are still unsigned and believe a prominent record label would help them get more of their music out there.
“We’re talking to record labels now,” O’Brien said.

“They’re probably the only unsigned band to play Bonnaroo and have only been playing together for two years. Having a label behind the band would really help get their music out there.”

Hightide Blues is currently touring the southeast, will hit the midwest in late July, then the east coast in the fall. “Love Come Easy” is available on their Web site, hightideblues.com, iTunes, Hastings and at The Guitar Shoppe.

Hightide Blues is currently touring the southeast, will hit the midwest in late July, then the east coast in the fall.
“Love Come Easy” is available on their Web site, hightideblues.com, iTunes, Hastings and The Guitar Shoppe.

Check out this video of Hightide Blues’ Bonnaroo performance: