Real music, no pretense. Soul, smoke, and second verses.
Somewhere between the last jukebox ballad and your uncle’s vinyl collection lives the Steve Melcher Trio — a Nampa-born outfit that plays like they’ve been quietly ghostwriting your emotional landscape for years.

Steve Melcher (vocals, acoustic, Telecaster) sings like he’s got a one-way ticket to closure — his tone warm, weathered, and just dangerous enough to make you stay for one more round. He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t strut. He just tells it — in covers you forgot you loved and originals you swear you’ve heard in a dream.

Lee Rice (trumpet, cajón) is part jazz, part desert mystic. He’ll split the silence with a muted horn line so clean it feels like a secret. When he’s not lighting the air on fire with brass, he’s back on the box, keeping time like a heartbeat in a dim-lit room.

And Kevin Butler (bass) doesn’t say much. But the low end speaks for him — steady, soulful, always moving the story forward. He’s the kind of bassist who could hold the groove with one finger and still hit you in the chest.

Their setlist? “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Spooky,” “Baby Hold On,” “Goodtime Charlie’s Got the Blues” — that kind of late-night nostalgia that slips into your bloodstream before the second verse hits.

They’re not trying to be famous. They’re trying to make the room feel better. And most nights, they do.

You don’t clap at the end of their set — you exhale.