The 151-year-old Jack Douglass Saloon in Columbia has a reputation for musical sophistication. Saloonkeeper Mike Keen, who’s no slouch on the piano himself, takes pride in booking acts that compliment the venue’s status as living history.

And for four years, the saloon’s biggest draw has been the Americana trio Thick Soup.

Guitarists Brian DeMassey and Ian Boyd and upright bassist Greg Torres have made a name for themselves in the hills of Tuolumne County, but 209 flatlanders soon won’t have to do any mountaineering to catch a live show from the group.

At 9 p.m. Oct. 17 they’ll perform at the Lodi Beer Company, 105 S. School St., Lodi, while at 8 p.m. Oct. 18 they’ll make their third appearance at the Blackwater Cafe, 912 N. Yosemite St., Stockton. The Lodi show is free; there’s a $5 cover for the Stockton show, where Thick Soup will share stage time with local rock-roots act The Magnolia District.

There aren’t many frills at a Thick Soup show. Though DeMassey, 25, and Boyd, 24, are both multi-instrumentalists, they usually take only their guitars on the road, and Torres, 35, is strictly a bass player.

But the simplicity is deceptive. Thick Soup claims to have never played the same set twice. It is equally likely to play an extended Dylan cover after segueing from an original composition as it is of stumping the crowd with a ten-minute Thelonious Monk medley.

That kind of range reflects the band's influences.

“I bring a blues-rock feel and drive to the band; Brian has always been influenced in bluegrass, jam, and folk music; and Greg has always been influenced by jazz and hard rock,” explains Boyd, who says most audiences simply dub them a bluegrass band. “We all brought these influences to the band, and perform a variety of genres.”

The band had its genesis as a guitar duo haunting the saloons and coffee houses of the Tuolumne hills, with the bulk of their live sets containing Grateful Dead and Dylan numbers peppered with some blue-tinted originals.

When Torres joined in 2005, he brought a bebop jazz sensibility and knowledge of music theory that DeMassey says brought the band’s sound to the next level. Add in DeMassey’s songwriting and arranging skills with Boyd’s library of blues licks, and the recipe is complete.

“That’s the beauty of the band,” DeMassey says. “Even if we don’t make it, I feel lucky just to be paired up with such great f---ing players. The parts aren’t greater than the sum.”

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