It’s not as if they don’t have enough to do – teaching four courses per semester, grading essays and tests, advising students, serving on committees, attending conferences, staying current in their fields, and writing articles and books. And did I mention that among them they have six kids (with one on the way), ranging in age from two to 19? Nonetheless, eight months ago, four professors in the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts united to form Virtue Trap, a rock’n’roll-cum-blues band that has begun gigging along the Grand Strand.

The band’s unofficial leader is Steve Nagle, a senior professor who possesses an international reputation in linguistics. Nagle, a fellow at Nene College in England and a chronic traveller on behalf of Coastal Carolina University – is he in Poland, Vermont, Austria or India this week? – has been playing rock’n’roll music for decades, having fronted local bands like the legendary Pockets. When Nagle picks up his neon-pink Kramer guitar, audiences forget instantly about the formidable credentials that have earned him repute well beyond the Pee Dee. Featuring a brash, raunchy brand of hard-core power-pop with roots in psychedelic proto-metal bands like Mountain and Cream, Nagle plays with an intensity that borders on the feral. (Listen, for example, to his version of “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks or to his howling solo on “Time Won’t Let Me” by the Outsiders – blistering stuff.) At the same time, he displays affection for the contemporary arena rock of, say, Jon Bon Jovi, who, like Nagle, hails from New Jersey. Steve Nagle: equal parts guitar and language master.

In his 10th year at Coastal, Brian Nance, VT’s other guitarist and composer (between them, Nagle and Nance have written enough tunes to record an all-originals disc), is an expert in 17th-century intellectual history. Whereas Nagle’s songs express self-deprecation (“Stupid When It Comes to Love”), social commentary (“People Are Funny”), and nostalgia (“When We Were Young”), Nance sticks mostly to “relationships” in tunes that are driven by both complex chord changes and massive hooks. The melodies of “Why You Have to Go” and “Where the Cold Wind Blows” are matched by lyrics that would earn A’s in the School of Heartbreak. But his talent for the sweeping melody aside, Nance is also a proficient bluesman, belting out his pain when covering classics by Muddy Waters, Tracy Chapman, and Nance’s two beloved Kings, Freddie and B.B. Nance’s devotion to the blues betokens another major influence, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. “Yeah, I’m a Texan, too,” this six-foot-three, former defensive end says, “which means I pack a Stratocaster.” Nance offsets his warm Fender-based sound with an acoustic guitar on which he composes blue ballads and interprets the music of Van Morrison, another hero. A founding member of Chapel Hill’s Geeks Bearing Gifts, who never recorded, Nance hopes that Virtue Trap will spend time in the studio. “With a horn section,” he muses, “definitely with horns.”

Nance and Nagle would still be fantasizing about being in a band were it not for the fortuitous appearance of Professor Daniel Ennis, hired two years ago to teach courses in 17th- and 18th-century British literature. Truth to tell, Ennis, a native of Boston, is a master of many domains, having demonstrated, for instance, his expertise in webpage design (see virtuetrap.com, something he knocked off in an hour or two) and the production of avant-garde theatrics. Knowing that Ennis had served time in graduate school playing harmonica and guitar and writing country-mock lyrics for the band Paschal (which has released the CD’s Feel the Love and The Second Coming), Nagle, Nance and drummer Steve Hamelman recruited their new colleague to play bass guitar. That Ennis, who worships in the church of Springsteen and who has been known to consume platters of Meat Loaf, had never touched a bass guitar didn’t matter. Everyone believed that this brilliant but modest young scholar could summon the energy and the know-how to succeed, and he proved them right. Practicing scales for half-a-year helped Ennis, now sporting a bassist’s calluses on all ten fingers, to find the groove as half of Virtue Trap’s rhythm section.

The other half of that groove is supplied by Hamelman, the man from Maine. If Ennis, as the group’s youngest member, is VT’s postmodern ironist, then Hamelman, a student of colonial American literature and pop culture (the aesthetics of rock, naturally), is its ’60s visionary – even though, as he’s quick to point out, he has never tasted a mind-altering or mood-swinging substance. “Hey, that would make a great name for the band!” he exclaims. “The Mood Swingers!” Although Hamelman named Virtue Trap, he’s always on the lookout for new monikers. “Initially I wanted ‘Pardon Our Appearance,’ but it wouldn’t fit on the bass drum head,” he quips. (Changing subjects, he adds, “I’ve been waiting years for Nagle and Nance to realize we’re aging by the semester and that nothing will ever surpass rock’n’roll in the bliss department. Thank goodness for Dan Ennis and the hiring committee that snagged him.”) Though well-versed in ’60s rock (e.g., the Beatles, Buffalo Springfield, Love, the Velvet Underground), Hamelman, who says he’s been playing “forever,” studies it all, checking out everyone from Elvis to Eminem, Buddy Holly to Beck Hansen. He also likes classical music and jazz.

The boys – er, men – in Virtue Trap have no illusions about sacrificing their souls to rock’n’roll on a full-time basis. Still, they’re pleased to report that they’ve been able to eke out time in their busy schedules to tune up, rehearse a chart fresh off Nagle’s or Nance’s fretboard, book some shows, and play them as if someone’s life depended on it. They plan to perform three to five times each month, enough to stay trim and hot, not enough to burn out prematurely. Undoubtedly, playing rock’n’roll, along with daddying and other extracurricular activities, will keep these four professors young in body and spirit, which in turn will add zest to their performances in the classroom, which is where, for them, passion counts the most.

For tour dates and more information on Virtue Trap, visit: www.virtuetrap.com