Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff writer
Trop rock sounds will be heard coming from the Yam Theater tonight. If you’re not sure what that is, Dave Burks, the lead singer of the Jus 4 Fun Band and the Yam Theater’s featured artist this month, said “not a lot of people have heard of our genre.”
Burks and his crew play rock and roll with influences from country, reggae and other island genres. The Jus 4 Fun band has been together for seven years and most band members are stationed out of Albuquerque.
Burks has been working in Portales for the past three years as a superintendent with Bradbury Stamm Construction. He has been part of the renovation of Eastern New Mexico University’s Music building as well as the Jack Williamson Liberal Arts building. He also worked on Lockwood Elementary in Clovis.
Jus 4 Fun plays an almost completely original set list.
“Seventy-five percent of our set list for (today) is original tunes written over the past year and a half,” said Burks.
Jus 4 Fun was nominated in 2012 for trop rock CD of the year, recognized by the Trop Rock Music Association, as well as song of the year with their song “Beaches of Old Mexico.”
Jimmy Buffet was a pioneer in the trop rock genre. Kenny Chesney and the Zac Brown Band have also been known to touch upon the trop rock genre.
The band is preparing to go back into the studio to record their next CD sometime this summer.
Kevin Robbins, the morning DJ on 105.9 KSEL, will be playing with Burks today.
“A lot of the time the band members cannot make it everywhere. We can have as few as two members or as many as six or seven,” said Burks.
Jus 4 Fun also plays once a month for veterans and has traveled the southwest playing concerts in places such as Mexico, Albu-querque, and Amarillo.
The proceeds from tonight’s concert will be used toward the Portales MainStreet Program’s designated projects aligning with the revitalization and rejuvenation of downtown Portales, according to MainStreet Director Debralynn Soza.
Next month’s featured artist in the series will be the Curry County Outlaws.
