Steven Wilson was the Beatles guy in school - that was just his thing. Mary Babb’s love for singing began with her mother and she became known as her school’s singer. That’s how the music found them.
From there, the musicians found one another. At Mount St. Joseph Academy it happened through band class. After several iterations, MSJ’s rock band, Mr. P and the Green Wave, continues to rock on.
Mary and Steven, along with Avery Thurston, Grant Thurston, Payton Thurston, and Music Teacher Tom Peppard, make up the band.
Every member of the band plays a key role, some more than one: Mary is the lead vocalist, with Steven and Avery sometimes taking the lead, and all members contributing on backup; Avery is primarily the rhythm guitarist and sometimes plays lead guitar; Grant plays bass guitar; Payton plays drums and does vocals; Steven is lead guitarist and sometimes plays rhythm; Steven and Payton also play harmonica; and Mr. Peppard plays keyboard and offers moral support.
“Payton is the drummer, but he’s also a great singer,” Mary said.
The band is focused on the sort of classic rock hits that everyone knows. The current repertoire includes “Sweet Child o' Mine,” “Don't Stop Believin',” “You Give Love a Bad Name,” and “Summer of ‘69.”
Mary said they have worked on a lot of new songs this year. There’s always more in the works. “Come Together” is starting to come together pretty well,” Steven said.
They are also working on original songs and plan to put together an album.
The group has their own process for selecting songs. First and foremost, Mary says, the song has to be clean.
“We choose pretty clean songs to begin with. Anything else isn’t happening at MSJ,” Mary said.
Steven also spoke to the process: “We just throw out some of our favorite songs and then if everyone is like ‘yeah that sounds cool, let’s give it a shot.’ It either makes it or it doesn’t.”
The band has had quite a few performances over the years, including appearing at the Brandon Carnival two years in a row, all of the MSJ concerts, and playing a recent MSJ Open House.
“November was a big month for us. We had three shows, headlined the coffee house and played at Castleton,” Mary said.
Mr. P and the Green Wave will perform together for the last time before four of its members graduate. Mary Babb, Steven Wilson, Avery Thurston, Grant Thurston, Payton Thurston, Emily Rappeno, Thomas Peppard, and Stephen Piwowarski will play a complete set list, including some of their originals and covers of your favorite classic rock songs. The concert will be performed MTV Unplugged style.
The FREE show is at 6 p.m. Sunday, May 5, 2019, at the Shoestring Theatre at Mount St. Joseph Academy, located at 127 Convent Ave.
“Growing up on classic rock - that’s how I was shaped into a musician. I grew up listening to the Beatles, Tom Petty, George Harrison. Every guitarist has that one or two guitarists that they look up to, and they were it for me. They were my inspiration,” Steven said.