After several years of paying their dues on the college circuit, Oxford-based rock quartet Ebenezer Goodman have released a collection of original songs.

The album, which can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/ebenezer-goodman/albums, features nine songs.

The roots of Ebenezer Goodman were planted in Meridian about nine years ago, when friends Andy Shine and Avery Goodman bonded over a shared love of classic rock.

“We started off playing some Pink Floyd, some Led Zeppelin,” Shine, now a senior at The University of Mississippi, recalls. “We wrote a few originals then, but none have stood the test of time.”

Shine and Goodman played a few small gigs in Meridian with Goodman’s brother and dad backing them – “just messing around – we played a house party or two, no real venues,” Shine recalls. But it wasn’t until his freshman year at Ole Miss, when Shine met Caleb Carroll, another pre-med biology major, that the band began to gel.

“We met our freshman year at a biology event, before school started,” Shine recalls. “We started talking about guitars…then started hanging out and playing together.”

The next year when Goodman came to Oxford, he caught up with Shine and Carroll. Drummer John Brahan of Hattiesburg rounded out the quartet. They got their first gig when Brahan volunteered them to play a benefit show.

“John’s from Hattiesburg and part of Rebelthon, a student-run philanthropy for Batson’s Childrens Hospital,” Shine recalls. “He was the event coordinator. Someone asked him about entertainment, and John raised his hand and said ‘I have a band, and we can play for free.’ So we got together in the Sigma Chi basement and started playing cover songs to play at fundraisers. That’s really how we got our start – taking all these shows for free. That’s really how we got our name out.”

In the beginning, the band’s repertoire focused on cover music.

“We did everything from Led Zeppelin I from 1969 to brand new Kings of Leon (songs), “ Shine said. “(Lynyrd) Skynyrd…we covered anything..the Strokes, Alabama Shakes, Bruno Mars… it was basically, ‘I know this song, we should play it.’ We weren’t bound by anything.”

Eventually, the band – who had agreed on the moniker Ebenezer Goodman – started writing their own material, slowly adding those songs to their typical sets of cover material. The original material started to please crowds at their shows, Shine said.

“That’s more enjoyable to play songs we had written, rather than play somebody else’s songs,” Shine said.

Those tunes are featured in the new collection, which opens with “Hold True”, a slow rocker that starts with harmony guitars before kicking into a Southern rock groove reminiscent of My Morning Jacket.

Another highlight of the album is “Chasing Hurricanes,” a melodic uptempo tune penned by Carroll. “That’s really more or less about going back to a relationship when it’s kind of toxic,” Shine said. “Everybody’s been there, where it’s hard to get away from it, but there you are, still chasing it.”

Another song, “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” dates back to Shine’s and Goodman’s high school years. It features a rhythmic drum part and looping bass line which builds into a memorable give-and-take vocal line in the verses.

Shine said the band working on getting the music licensed so it can be distributed on iTunes and Spotify.

“We’re trying to work out a way where we’ll own the music,” he said.

Looking ahead, Shine, Carroll and Brahan plan to graduate from Ole Miss soon, but that won’t stop the band from soldiering on, Shine said.

“I didn’t get into medical school this year,” he said with a laugh. “Now, there’s nothing more that I would like to do than be a doctor, but, at the same time, I absolutely love playing music, so whatever happens, happens. I’m enjoying it and taking life as it hits me.”

More information

https://soundcloud.com/ebenezer-goodman/albums

https://www.facebook.com/ebenezergoodman.band/

https://www.eastcoastentertainment.com/artist/ebenezer-goodman