Buzzbox

If a tree falls and no one is around, does it make a noise? If basketball fans employ the mute function on their televisions while watching Bill Walton call a game, are they still annoyed? When a local bar band calls it quits after nearly a decade, is it an occasion to mourn or to rejoice? Timeless questions all, and there isn’t really a good answer for any of them, especially for fans and members of The Back Alley Band, which has been playing its brand of “roadhouse funk” since 1991.

“It’s just time for a break,” says founding member Andy Quick about his decision to hang up the harp. Certainly no one deserves a break more than this group, which has tread water in Kansas City’s shallow music pool, playing parties and bars just for the chance to entertain and even changing its tune to meet the demands of its crowd.

“We started out as a straightforward blues band, and over the years we’ve turned more into an R&B band,” says Quick, keenly aware of the fine line that separates these genres and their fans. “But those changes came because basically people want to hear something they’ll recognize, and no one recognizes the old blues stuff. We’re getting older, and the crowds in the clubs stay in a certain age range.”

But don’t feel too bad for Quick and the rest of The Back Alley Band — they haven’t exactly been put out to pasture yet. All of the other members of the group, save Quick and drummer Pete Jacobs, plan to satiate the muse by forming or playing in other Kansas City bands, and even Quick and Jacobs could be back if the time is right and, as Quick says, “it stops being work and becomes fun again.” Until then, there’s time for one last hurrah before they head out to the alley and back to their day jobs for good.