King Calaway, a US country band with a local touch, to perform in Gibraltar Calling

Caption: L-R: Caleb Miller, Chris Deaton, Simon Dumas, Jordan Harvey, Chad Michael Jervis, and Austin Luther.

King Calaway, an American band featuring local musician Simon Dumas, will be performing at this year’s Gibraltar Calling Music Festival.

The band will perform on the second day of the Festival on September 8 and over the past few months King Calaway have made waves with their country-pop sound.

The six piece band recently opened for multi-platinum artist Garth Brookes to an audience of 70,000 at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

King Calaway has also made appearances at US radio shows, released an EP and a music video, as well as performing at the ‘home of country music’ in Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry.

Before coming together in 2018 band mates Caleb Miller, Chris Deaton, Simon Dumas, Jordan Harvey, Chad Michael Jervis and Austin Luther all pursued their own solo careers, racking up a long list of milestones, including CMA Awards performances, international tours, session gigs, and BBC TV appearances.

“A multi-national super group of harmony-singing, instrument-playing musicians, the band makes anthemic country music for the modern world,” said Festival organisers in a statement.

“There's no lead singer here. No singular star. Instead, Jordan, Chad and Simon all share frontman duties, backed by thick, multi-part harmonies from Chris, Caleb and Austin. The result is a layered vocal sound that nods to the band's influences, including the Eagles, Keith Urban, and Ed Sheeran.”

The band is working alongside award-winning video director and music industry executive Robert Deaton, who is also band member Chris Deaton’s father.

Grammy nominated American singer-songwriter and producer Ross Copperman penned several of the band's songs and forms the creative visionary production team for King Calaway.

Born and raised in Gibraltar, Simon Dumas is one of King Calaway's three frontmen, as well as the band's pianist.

He has spent much of his life onstage, starring in a school musical as a child before landing a spot in a Gibraltar-based choir that competed internationally.

Later, while earning his degree at the Royal Northern College of Music in England, he sharpened his song writing chops as the frontman of Frontiers, a group that also featured his two older brothers.

He moved to America during his final year of college to study at USC and joined King Calaway less than a month after he finished, foregoing an opportunity to become a Catholic missionary.

Mr Dumas is well-known locally, having performed before at the Gibraltar Music Festival.