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This year’s headliners for Jump, Jive and JamFest have a sound and approach that looks like it fits perfectly with the kind of rocking, rollicking good times at Texarkana’s annual downtown spring festival.

The Spin Doctors will be in town to perform Saturday, May 17, with locals Pilotdrift as the opening act.

The Spin Doctors scored big hits in the 1990s with such songs as “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong,” “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues,” and “Two Princes.” They also got a taste of playing big, outdoor concerts back in those days at the H.O.R.D.E. festival and then at Woodstock ’94 and the Glastonbury Festival.

Their debut full-length studio album, “Pocket Full of Kryptonite,” was released in 1991, eventually garnering much commercial and critical acclaim.

Later during the ‘90s, sales for their follow-up albums sagged and the band members underwent a series of personnel changes and disbanded, only to rise up in 2001 with their original lineup back together.

The band views its latest release, 2005’s “Nice Talking to Me,” as a mature accomplishment that adds to the Spin Doctors roster of recorded works.

In some way, said Spin Doctors drummer Aaron Comess during a phone call from their home base in New York City, it’s as if they’ve come full circle.

“It’s a good place for us because in some ways we feel like we’re back to our roots,” said Comess, noting how much the band likes playing together.

“It feels really pure again,” he said.

Comess said the Spin Doctors aim to play both new stuff (“It’s a great record,” he said) and older material. As of this upcoming fall, they’ll have been together 20 years and “the band sounds better than ever now,” he said.

They got their start playing clubs in the bright lights of New York City.

“We’ve always had a real chemistry from the beginning,” said Comess, noting their new music fits well with the other songs they’ve recorded.

He said they’ve taken a natural approach to their evolution as musicians. In addition to the Spin Doctors, the members have had side projects, including Chris Barron’s work with Jon Popper of Blues Traveler, who headlined last year’s Jump, Jive and JamFest.

“We’ve always come from a real natural, organic place in our music,” said Comess, who originally hails from Dallas, Texas.

The retooled Spin Doctors have been no strangers to the festival circuit in recent years.

“We do a lot of those kind of things during the summer, getting outdoors and getting in front of people,” said Comess.

And he and his fellow Spin Doctors are anticipating another fun round of good, outdoorsy jam music when they hit Texarkana’s Scott Joplin Stage downtown for Jump, Jive and JamFest.

“Come out and expect a great show,” said Comess. “We’re psyched to come down and play, and it’s going to be a good night.”

Nita Fran Hutcheson, the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council’s director of marketing and development, said the Spin Doctors are a great festival band.

“They’re in the same genre as Blues Traveler is in. They’re fun,” said Hutcheson. “People will really like them. They’re a smokin’ band.”

She said at this year’s Jump, Jive and JamFest, wine coolers and beer will be available for purchase for the headlining show Saturday night. Pilotdrift will kick things off around 7 p.m. with the Spin Doctors taking the stage around 8:30 p.m. or 9 p.m.

However, no coolers will be allowed at the festival, said Hutcheson.

“Buying an evening ticket also gets you into the daytime free,” she said.

The daytime action for Jump, Jive and JamFest will include plenty of arts, food and musical entertainment.



(Tickets for the Spin Doctors and Pilotdrift are $25. Call the Perot Theatre at 903-792-4992 or visit www.jumpjivejamfest.org for reservations and tickets. For more information on the Spin Doctors, check out www.spindoctors.com.)