Saturday, October 1, Quincy Mumford’s first solo tour made a stop at the Eagle’s Landing. The CAB event attracted about forty-five people and began with Ana Reynolds’s stellar opening feature, including four acoustic cover songs from Peter Gabriel to City High and Joe Purdy.

Following Reynolds’s previous performance this year at the Acoustic Café, she performed other fantastic acoustic cover songs such as her cover of “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio. After she completed her set, Mumford walked on stage and opened immediately with one of his love songs from Speak, “Madeline.”

“Madeline” set a tone for what everyone was to expect as the next couple songs all focused with love and other emotions but in varying ways from the relaxed “Madeline” to the more upbeat “Sunshine.” He also showcased a new song he had written just that week entitled “Starving Artist” with a good deal of reggae influence.

After the first four songs, he gave the crowd a choice of cover songs to choose and “Big Papa” by Notorious B.I.G. was the hands-down choice as only one hand was raised for the first choice of “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. Quincy had the crowd active during the “Big Papa” cover as many people helped by singing and raising their hands for the song. After his nine-song set was completed, Mumford thanked everyone and stepped down from the stage to a line of new fans waiting to sign the mailing list or get a demo of his new CD.

Quincy and his band The Reason Why, from Allenhurst, New Jersey, have been procuring music for over three years, ever since Quincy’s high school days. His studio work can only be described as a blend between John Mayer and Bruno Mars-type acoustic work mixed with the upbeat funk sound of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Aeroplane.”

Much of the past three albums, entitled Quincy Mumford, South Edgemere and Speak, are focused on the acoustic work mixed with Mumford’s soft and calming singing but lately Mumford has been more influenced by reggae and funk music to write his lyrics and tracks for the songs on Speak. This includes the song “Sunshine” which also has a video released for it in stop-motion similar to Tool’s videos from the 90’s and early 2000’s. This video was produced and directed by Mumford’s brother, who is a film major, and Mumford is very thankful to have a brother who can help him out to create videos such as that of “Sunshine.”

However, Mumford wishes to integrate his live versions of songs into his CD’s as he believes his band is much better live, where you can feel the energy, rather than in the studio. The re-release of his latest album “Speak” includes a few live versions of previously released songs that show exactly what Mumford means when he describes the energy that is felt live.

He wants to someday release a live album, hopefully next year, which showcases this energy more than just a few bonus songs on a re-release. Mumford is also the artist for the album covers and also runs a clothing company entitled “Lifted Apparel” which features similar artwork on the clothing. The artwork for “Speak” is particularly cleaver as you can find a reference to all ten original songs on the front of the album in a Where’s Waldo kind of fashion.

Quincy Mumford and The Reason Why have been all over the East Coast playing with bands such as Rusted Root and Damian Marley as well as performing at the “Gathering of the Vibes” festival. Mumford has voiced his wish to get out of the United States and tour in countries such as Japan, Brazil and all over the European continent.

Earlier this year, while visiting Sweden, Mumford played a couple acoustic shows by himself and also had a radio interview that shaped some fans out of northern Europe. Mumford and The Reason Why are planning on going back over to Sweden around Christmas and perform a couple of shows as a full band and solidify a fan base there.

Quincy remains optimistic about the life of a musical artist. He also offers hope for others who may wish to enter a similar life.

“If you wanna do it you gotta stick to it and put all your energy into it.”