Diverse Band Performing In Sharon Living Room

A band performing in a Sharon living room Saturday night will feel at home.

Occidental Gypsy’s membership is diverse, like Sharon: brothers Brett and Jeff Feldman, the lead and bass guitarists, respectively; Scott Kulman, the band's Berklee-trained singer as well as rhythm guitarist; and Julgi Kang, a Berklee student on full scholarship from Korea, who joins the band with her impressive violin skills.  

The Rhode Island-based band will perform the latest Sharon House Concert from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday at 37 Livingston Road.

Tickets are $20, which all goes to the artists.

“We love playing in people's living rooms,” Brett Feldman says. 

“It's more intimate, more personal and fun!"

The self-described "neo-gypsy band" is indeed an eclectic bunch.

Brett Feldman says he has been playing guitar for 25 years. When he moved from his native New York to Rhode Island, a mere 10 minutes from his brother Jeff's house, he persuaded Jeff to learn how to play bass guitar.

"It was a prerequisite," explains Brett, who couldn't bear to live so close to his brother without also recruiting him into his jam sessions. They have been playing together professionally for over 10 years.

Along the way, the duo added Kulman and Kang. 

This February concert marks the band’s first tour since wrapping up their year-long CD recording in 2010, entitled "Over Here.” 

The influences on that CD are multiple.

And Brett Feldman says it was pivotal to him to record an album in which every track had it's own defining feature, making each song a unique experience.  

Indeed, the only cover song on the album is given a refreshing makeover.  The band rediscovered Michael Jackson's hit "Thriller" and gave it a gypsy twist.

Another song, “Panamanian Express,” is equally refreshing.  

It was influenced by a trip that Brett, Jeff and Scott took last year. All three are Jewish, and sought to take a trip to Israel.  Along the way, however, the infamous volcanic eruption in Switzerland occurred, leaving the trio in a plane, circling the world to avoid the volcanic ash cloud.  As luck would have it, they landed in Panama, where they stayed for a week and developed a love of Panamanian music, which they took to the recording studio.