By Paul Knettel

The driving blues-rock sound of Crossroads reverberated throughout a house on Campus Court on Monday in a nearly perfect rendition of Cream’s powerhouse original.

The band, a group of ACU students, is new to the Abilene scene – really new. The group started practicing together just last week. The as-yet unnamed band consists of Tyler Lewis on vocals, Mason Shirley on lead guitar, his brother, Morgan Shirley, on rhythm guitar, Tim Thyne on bass and Michael McCully on drums.

This new band, which contains former members of the locally popular Rockin’ Extensions, is sticking strictly to covers of classic rock songs, something they do exceptionally well. The group has had very little practice, but already they are playing cohesively, producing accurate and energetic versions of timeless songs from classic rock greats, such as Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Rush.

The Rockin’ Extensions disbanded recently, after lead singer Andrew Duge graduated, but the remaining band members had every intention of continuing to play. They invited Lewis over to jam with them in an informal audition. Lewis was chosen to be the lead singer of the new band, which is sure to put on top-notch shows in the Abilene area this semester.

The group has a full, vibrant sound and each member displays great mastery of his instrument. Members learned individual parts over the summer so the group could hit the ground running and put everything together effectively.

Although many of the songs contain complicated and technically challenging music, the band members have learned their parts well and sound convincing and confident together.