When Jonas Goldstein (91M 99MR) saw the distinctive strut of Nick Stevens (89L) walking past the Emory University School of Law in 1987, he was struck by serendipity. Goldstein jerked his steering wheel to the side and hopped the curb, jumping out of his car to reunite with his former Duke University (N.C.) jazz ensemble member — and the guitarist of a rival student music group. On the side of Clifton Road, the pair came to a quick decision: They had to start a band.
Stevens soon recruited his classmate, the long-haired Kevin Green (89L), to play the drums. Through mutual friends, Green found Devon Engel (88C), pitcher for the Emory baseball team and lauded bass player. With all the members assembled, the four-piece rock ‘n’ roll band set out to play their first gig at the law school. However, the quartet had a serious problem: They had no name.
The four men struggled for hours to make the pivotal decision until Stevens sliced the tension with a joke that stuck. He looked around the room and saw “several dudes.” The next day, the band took the stage under that same qualifier: Several Dudes.
From that night on, Several Dudes sank their teeth into the Emory music scene, playing venues across campus, including McDonough Field. Comprising members from colleges across the University, Several Dudes bridged the gap between various coalitions of the Emory community. Through word of mouth, flyers and staple guns, the band drew a large audience wherever they played. In the thick crowd with sloshing cups, students of all years and schools mixed and mingled.
“The University actually should have been paying us,” Goldstein said. “It was great because these groups of people who would not normally interact [were].”
In addition to playing over 100 shows, including the medical school’s Cadaver Ball and senior banquet, Several Dudes embedded themselves into the greater Atlanta area. According to Engel, the band played every stage they could find — from bars in Little Five Points to Center Stage Theater in Atlanta. Often, the band would finish a show at 12:30 a.m. and Goldstein would trade his guitar for scrubs, leaving the stage to take the “graveyard shift” at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Between 1992 and 2015, Several Dudes went on hiatus as the members dispersed across the United States — from Georgia to North Carolina to Arizona. Around 2010, Goldstein tracked down the group’s cassettes on eBay and began to remaster the tracks. Through diligent research, he learned how to salvage disintegrating tapes, fixing degraded glue by baking the tapes at 175 degrees for eight hours. Over hundreds of hours of work, Goldstein fell back in love with their old music, listening to the songs that he and Stevens wrote at the Waffle House on Cheshire Bridge Road late at night.
While in medical school, Goldstein realized the particular importance of songwriting as a creative outlet — and he did not want to play in another cover band.
“They want to take people who have all these varied interests and are all creative and all these other things and then admit them to med school and tell them that they can’t do them anymore,” Goldstein said.
During his extensive remastering project, Goldstein dreamed of getting the band back together, but soon after, serendipity struck him again. While out with his cousins at a bar in Asheville, N.C., Goldstein spotted Stevens across the room.
“I yelled across the room, ‘Nick Stevens,’” Goldstein said. “And we decided, ‘We got to do this,’ and he was all in.”
In May 2014, Goldstein set out to publish the remastered tapes on streaming platforms and celebrate with a benefit concert. During the band’s first five years, from 1987 to 1992, Several Dudes saw a revolving door of talented musicians, such as bassist David Pretlow (92C), who joined after Engel graduated; saxophonist Andy Greider; and established Atlanta musician Barry Richman.
Ten years ago, when Goldstein sounded the reunion alarm, players from Colorado, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida and Georgia all answered the call to return. In 2015, the band released “ReAnimation” (2015) and played in Little Five Points.
Green flew in from Canada the morning of the reunion concert and went straight from the airport runway to the drum set, striking the drumheads and cymbals for the first time that night on stage with no prior rehearsal. Engel met a couple of the musicians during the live set. Yet, despite minimal practice, they “locked in and grooved.”
“It was amazing,” Engel said. “I’ve played thousands of gigs, probably, in my life, and just the feeling on the stage that night was electric.”
Following this show, the group decided to continue playing together every other year in a different city. But in 2018, tragedy struck. Several Dudes lost Stevens in a cycling accident, quieting the pulse of the band.
“That was pretty much the end, we thought,” Engel said.
Despite Stevens’ tragic passing, Several Dudes kept playing to honor Stevens and keep his “spirit alive” by writing new music. The band possessed more than just memories; they had the melodies and lyrics their brother left behind. The group got back together in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave Several Dudes time away from their professional lives for remote music-making.
“Something that started off as being inspired to honor Nick totally became something that was incredibly fun for us,” Engel said. “Which is very appropriate … because he was always a guy that made everybody feel good about themselves and feel better.”
In 2022, Several Dudes released an album called “Our Brother Nick” (2022). The title track incorporates an opening riff that Stevens created alongside Goldstein and Engel just three weeks before he passed. Atop an energetic ’80s rock groove, the group sings, “With arms wide open / Let’s raise a toast to a moment of memory.”
In addition to paying homage to their friend, “Our Brother Nick” offers a sunlit portrait of Atlanta. The opening track, “Dawn of the Dudes” (2022), finds Stevens lounging in Piedmont Park, cruising in a Cadillac down Ponce de Leon Avenue and strolling through Little Five Points.
The vestiges of life in the Southern metro press against the pulsing rhythm, reflecting profound gratitude for the city of their youth. These warm days hold a special place for the band: Their first song played on the radio was “Southern Afternoons” (2015).
“I don't think we could have done this band anywhere else,” Goldstein said.
On Oct. 25, Several Dudes will perform in the Homecoming and Family Weekend at Emory. As with all funds the group makes from music, they will direct all proceeds from this performance to their cycling safety and advocacy fund.
“Coming back to campus and playing is going to be like visiting your childhood bedroom,” Green said. “Familiar but surreal.”
Almost 40 years later, the band will assemble yet again to serenade the red roofs and towering pines on the steps of Goodrich C. White Hall — where Engel said he “spent a lot of time sleeping.” Although missing Stevens, Several Dudes relish in their homecoming.
Catherine Goodman (26C) is the Managing Editor of Arts & Life and Editorial Board. She is a double major in English and Art History. She plans to pursue arts and culture journalism, with a special interest in criticism and feature writing. When she isn't listening to music or writing her column, you can find her baking specialty cakes or playing with her dog, Apollo.
