Independent Weekly
College reunion
Dillon Fence regroups for a tour and more
B Y   R I C K   C O R N E L L
Dillon Fence was formed by college kids for college kids. Greg Humphreys and Chris Goode played in a band together as students in the same Winston-Salem high school that graduated members of the dB's and Let's Active, but the pair didn't get serious about writing and performing original music until they hit college in the mid '80s--Humphreys at UNC-Chapel Hill and the bass-playing Goode at Wake Forest. At UNC, Humphreys met guitarist Kent Alphin, solidifying three-quarters of what would become the long-standing Dillon Fence line-up (drummer Scott Carle didn't sign on until a couple of years later).
July 28, 2004
M U S I C   F E A T U R E
Mixing pure pop songs with soul- and funk-kissed numbers that might have fallen off a Housemartins' record or perhaps served as follow-ups to General Public's "Tenderness," the quartet created a college-band template for the many like-minded groups that made themselves comfortable in Dillon Fence's wake. The pioneers take the arrows, so the saying goes. Or, given the music-world translation, those who come next get the record sales.
Dillon Fence called it a day in the middle of the '90s, with its members going on to form such bands as Collapsis, Granger and Hobex. (That last outfit, fronted by Humphreys and driven by his soulful pipes, has turned out to be the most enduring by-product.) In 2000, Humphreys, Goode, Alphin and Carle reunited for a tour that proved both enjoyable and successful. Four years later they're at it again, only this time the tour will be setting the stage for the late-summer release of Best +, a 25-song collection featuring 18 remastered, band-picked favorites plus seven new cuts recorded at Humphreys' Asheville studio. The record, a double-CD being put out by MoRisen Records, will be available in early September.