New Jersey Stage 2017: Issue 9 | Page 144

your system and motivates you to listen to thing in adulthood. Growing up in these environ- ments that then led some of us down a harder punk rock and metal path later in life is probably a big sound difference from other roots rock bands. We all played in other bands with a harder sound at one point or another which we never lost. We also don’t generally play traditional songs a lot of people have heard of, such as ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ or ‘Tell Me Ma.’ We lean toward more obscure tunes that speak more to us as individu- als then what everyone else ends up learning. That being said, our name is about the ‘everyday per- son.’ We are ‘the commoners,’ the ‘regular folks’ or ‘the masses.’ Each one of these turn of phrase evokes a different imagery, but they’re all synonymous with one another, the same way our songs may not be what everyone knows, but every- one can get behind. All the stories we tell are ones that everyone can relate to. Watch Mass Folk Commons perform “The Butterfly Set” NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 9 INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 144