Adventure Dirt Team plays Sept. 4 at Tumbleweed in Richland

The Powers family had an epic jam session at their Pasco home a few years back.

They’d just moved in, and “we decided we were going to do a retreat day ... we were going to have a whole day of music,” Nina Powers recalled. “We were having a great time.”

But one of their new neighbors wasn’t exactly thrilled. He thought the music was too loud.

It might have been.

But it was most likely something else too: Really good.

Several members of the Powers clan are part of Adventure Dirt Team — an indie rock band that’s building buzz and a following in the Tri-Cities and beyond.

The group is set to perform Sept. 4 during the Tumbleweed Music Festival in Richland.

Nina, the matriarch, plays violin, along with kids James, 25, on the cajón box drum; Monica, 24, on piano, Annie, 22, on glockenspiel, and Chris, 20, on guitar.

Everybody sings, and the result is a lovely, layered, rocking good time.

One family friend described the band’s sound as a hybrid of Dave Matthews Band and Vampire Weekend, and that seems pretty apt.

“We kind of do a mish-mash of the things we like,” James said.

Nina holds a master’s degree in musical performance and is a violinist with the Mid-Columbia Symphony. She started playing piano at age 5 and violin at age 7, and she knew she wanted her kids — she and husband Brett have seven altogether — to have music in their lives.

Performing with them now is fun and rewarding, she said.

“It’s been really cool. I’m really glad they’ve taken what I tried to instill and made it theirs,” she said.

Adventure Dirt Team has covers in its repertoire, with tunes by Dave Matthews Band and Niki and the Dove among the crowd favorites.

But the group also shines on its original songs. Take Hjem Ijen, which means “back home” in Norwegian.

The tune, using the metaphor of a relationship, is about finding where you belong.

“Lately I’ve been incomplete, sleeping only where two rivers meet. And I think I’ve figured out why. It’s time for me to go, time for me to say goodbye,” the song goes, with the voices, the instruments building toward the chorus:

“And I will go, through the rain and through the snow to hjem ijen,” it goes. “Just to find your eyes. And if I find them I will lie in them.”

Chris is the main songwriter for the group. On the tune Coumb, his science background comes through.

He’s studying physics, and he took inspiration from Newton’s Law of Cooling.

“I see my mistakes, they were ready-made. Heat’s supposed to fade. It’s supposed to fade,” the song goes. “Master of mistakes, I think textbooks say, ‘Heat is just a phase. Cold will soon replace.’ ”

While not all members of the Powers family currently take the stage with Adventure Dirt Team — a name that comes from a family vacation excursion — they’re all musical.

Dad Brett and youngest child, Michael, 15, both play bass. Eric, 19, plays trumpet and sometimes sings with the group. Martin, 16, is learning cello. He was on hand when the band spoke with the Herald, and he said he hopes to become skilled enough on the instrument to join in soon.

Adventure Dirt Team was scheduled to spend some time in the studio this week, and the hope is to release an EP soon.

This next year will be one of transition for the band.

James is moving out of state for a school program, Annie and Chris both are headed to Central Washington University in Ellensburg and Monica just got married.

But they hope to still play some gigs, with the idea of a Northwest tour floating around for next summer.

And they’ll use the year to write more songs.

They love playing together, they said. There’s a shorthand, a connection that comes with their familial bond.

And there’s momentum, too, as their profile grows.

“We’re still very much wanting to doing our best to keep it moving forward,” James said.

To stay up to date on the band, go to www.adventuredirtteam.com or follow the group on Facebook under Adventure Dirt Team.

This story was originally published August 26, 2015 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Adventure Dirt Team plays Sept. 4 at Tumbleweed in Richland."