Home
Town of Telluride approves Phish for August shows
The Mayor and his Town Council amended resolution 11-420 (no joke) and unanimously approved the Phish shows, effectively clearing the way for the town to extend an invitation for the band to play two shows in Telluride on August 9th & 10th.
Per the meeting, the tentative showtime is 6 pm with a curfew of 11 pm, and the band would have to pay $100 for every minute they go over. Pretty sure they can afford it. Plus 1,500 tickets would be made available for locals to see the show. Head over to Phish.net for ZZYZX’s play-by-play notes on the Town Council meeting.
Now, the big question remains: will the band accept the invitation?
And perhaps even more importantly, with a rumored 70% of lodging already sold out and 1,500 tickets per night going to local residents, how hard is gonna be to score tickets if they do accept?
Phish in Telluride!!!!!
Phish is on the Telluride Town Park calendar for Monday and Tuesday August 9 and 10. I guess the only hurdle left is striking a deal with the concert promotors AEG Live, but other than that… everything looks good for celebrating Jerry Gs Bday in beautiful Town Park.
Article is here
One Hurdle cleared for Telluride Phish shows
Phish has cleared their first major hurdle in an attempt to play a run of show’s in Telluride Town Park this August. See the article here.
North Mississippi All Stars
NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALL STARS
“Spreading the world boogie”
Written by Mark Brut
Ask someone who the busiest people in rock and roll are and one name usually comes to mind, Warren Haynes. But maybe people need to start including the members of the North Mississippi All Stars in the conversation.
Brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson grew up in Hernando, Mississippi under the tutelage of their father, the late Jim Dickinson, a widely renowned musician and producer, who famously played piano on the Rolling Stones “Wild Horses” and has played with, mentored, and produced countless musicians of all genres. Exposed at an early age to an incredible musical education of delta blues and Memphis soul, Luther and Cody formed the North Mississippi All Stars with bassist Chris Chew in 1996.
I interviewed Luther Dickinson for this article by phone as he drove through New Orleans. Luther was more than happy to speak with me about any topic I brought up and is clearly energized.
To understand the scope of what the members of the North Mississippi All Stars are doing, consider this. In the past 3 years alone, the North Mississippi All Stars released a studio record, “Hernando”, a live record and DVD, “Do It Like We Used To”, and several additional live releases. In addition to their own tours, they have backed John Hiatt, Charlie Musselwhite and Mavis Staples and toured as The Word with John Medeski and Robert Randolph. Luther Dickinson has contributed to two separate Black Crowes albums, joined full time as their lead guitarist and toured nationally. He also has toured and recorded with his side project, the South Memphis String Band. Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew have fully realized their side project, Hill Country Revue, releasing a studio album and touring behind it. All of is why an article about the North Mississippi All Stars needs to be about a lot of other things as well.
In 2005, after a hiatus, The Black Crowes decided to reform with what was perhaps their best lineup, including guitarist Marc Ford, which had previously split up in 1998. They toured heavily for almost 2 years before the lineup again unraveled without a single studio song being released.
Following the same, it wasn’t completely unexpected when the Black Crowes approached Luther Dickinson in 2007. Luther states that he and the Crowes definitely knew of each other when they came calling. “We were friends separately. Chris (Robinson) started coming out to sit in with us starting with the Bonnaroo Hill Country Revue show in 2004, and then Rich (Robinson) and I exchanged phone numbers and he started inviting me out, so we did a few things together. Rich then called me up to play on “Warpaint” and we just kept going from there.”
With Luther in the fold, The Black Crowes have now released 2 outstanding studio albums, 2007’s “Warpaint” and 2009’s absolute gem double CD “Before the Frost…Until the Freeze”, which was recorded basically live in front of a lucky audience of fans at Levon Helm’s barn in upstate New York. The addition of Luther Dickinson on guitar and keyboardist Adam McDougal has sparked the band in an extremely positive way, both live and in the songwriting process, to where the band by many accounts is sounding as good as they ever have. 2009 was certainly a banner year for the Black Crowes on many levels. Luther concurs, stating “all my expectations have been exceeded. It’s all coming together and we’re having a blast.”
I asked Luther how difficult the decision was to join the Crowes in relation to the North Mississippi All Stars. Luther said he quickly enlisted the advice of some other rock veterans with similar track records of taking on a lot of projects at once. “It was a tough decision, and I must say that Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes helped me out and gave me a lot of good advice on how to handle it. I think in a lot of ways it ended up being healthy for us to step back and do our own thing. It allowed Cody to focus on Hill Country Revue and do his own thing, which I know is very satisfying to him”.
In a situation that could have potentially caused friction between brothers Luther and Cody, it seems to have made them stronger, and that is a credit to their individual personalities and upbringing. In an article before his passing with Swampland, Jim Dickinson stated about the situation “Cody’s response to the Crowes situation—I gotta say—I’m really proud of.” I asked Luther about the way his brother handled the same and the quote from his father and he said, “surely man, he really stepped up to the plate. I’m so proud of him, and that makes me feel better about (joining the Crowes).”
During Luther’s recent long stint touring with the Black Crowes, the remainder of the North Mississippi All Stars, drummer Cody Dickinson and bassist Chris Chew, charged forward with their side project, Hill Country Revue. This band was born from the 2004 ensemble of the same name that tore up the Bonnaroo music festival. That recording has since been released as a live record.
Hill Country Revue now includes Cody Dickinson, Chris Chew and Kirk Smithhart, Ed “Hot” Cleveland and Daniel Coburn. Much of the material for this project was written by Garry Burnside, who Luther describes as “the Willie Dixon of the North Mississippi Scene…such a great songwriter.” In 2009, Hill Country Revue released their debut record “Make a Move” and toured extensively behind the same. Luther also stated that he and Cody have been recently assisting Chris Chew in completing his first solo release.
Luther is quick to acknowledge that this is a very fertile time for all involved. “We’re just at this awesome stage where everyone is working on new records. That’s the fun part of the cycle It’s great, you know, writing the songs, making demos, then you make a record, then you tour, then you have it under your belt and it gets released and then you tour that and then before you know it you start working on new songs again. It’s a great thing.”
The All Stars also recently completed a series of shows as The Word, which features the three members augmented by John Medeski on organ and Robert Randolph on pedal steel. The recent run of shows included New Years Eve in New York City and a slot on the recent Jam Cruise.
Another All Stars spin off, the South Memphis String Band, featuring Luther Dickinson, Jimbo Mathus and Alvin Youngblood Hart, will release their first record on January 19, 2010. This is a project that Luther is particularly excited about as well. The South Memphis project came about from another side project, the New Moon Jellyroll Freedom Riders, which stemmed from a tour in which the All Stars backed Charlie Musselwhite and Mavis Staples. Luther states “after that tour, Charlie came down to the studio and we recorded with Musselwhite, Jimbo, Alvin, the All Stars and my Dad. We did a handful of acoustic jug band songs in that session and that is how the South Memphis String Band was formed. Jimbo and Alvin had never really played that much together and they had a great chemistry and thought “hey, let’s keep this going.” It’s funny we had 2 songs on MySpace and one photograph and our agent booked a whole tour off of that.” The trio toured briefly last year and will be doing additional dates this March and April behind the project.
Two additional records are in the can from the South Memphis String Band association as well, the aforementioned New Moon Jellyroll Freedom Riders, which record, which Dickinson describes as “just a hard core old fashioned blues record”, and Loose Shoes, which Luther calls “the South Memphis String Band’s garage band alter ego”, adding “That’s just too nasty for public consumption as of yet.” (laughs)
And so, with all of these side projects on the horizon and as the Black Crowes take an extended break for the first time in a while, the focus shifts back once again to what started this all…the North Mississippi All Stars. The All Stars will reconvene for their first national tour in a year, the aptly named “Let It Roll” tour, which will take the band through 24 dates between January 27, 2010 and March 6, 2010, including 4 Colorado dates.
Luther said the time away has only made the members of the All Stars appreciate it more. “We all appreciate when we get to do this and that’s such a cool thing. We toured for so much for so many years, to a fault where it eventually hurt us. But the coolest thing is it’s like riding a bicycle. We just get together and fall back into it.”
Luther also is quick to credit the long time fan base that allows the North Mississippi All Stars the luxury of “falling back into it.” “God bless ‘em man”, he laughs.
Even with the onslaught of music and creativity coming from the All Stars members in 2009, the biggest event that occurred without question was the passing of Jim Dickinson, the father of Luther and Cody, legendary producer and icon of the North Mississippi and Memphis music communities for decades.
I spoke with Luther at length about his father, and asked him what the most important element that he taught Cody and him throughout their careers and also growing up in Mississippi. Luther stated “he always said “play every note like it was your last, because one of them will be. His last show was a super high profile gig playing with Elvis Costello and he had a blast. He’ll always be with us man.”
I asked Luther about a quote I read from his father in the Swampland article in which he said “it came real easy for Cody. Luther went out and got everything he had. He worked for it and learned it. Cody, he’s still a natural on pretty much any instrument he puts in his hands. But the thing that sets Luther apart—I wish I could say I taught it to him—but Otha Turner taught it to him. You can teach a monkey to play the notes—believe me—many monkeys are out there playing, but feeling the note is something different and you have to learn—it doesn’t make sense—but you have to learn to feel what you play” Luther agreed, stating “it’s true man. Cody is definitely a natural. I wasn’t a natural and had to work pretty hard for it, but my thing was that I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And there between the two of us it all came together.”
I asked Luther to name his favorite projects his father ever worked on, either playing or producing, and he hesitated before stating “he had a rhythm section called the Dixie Flyers. They were a 5 piece band and with Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd they made like 14 records or something like that. I’ve been listening to all those and that is just the height of the southern rhythm section thing. You know you had the Muscle Shoals guys and the whole Stax thing and that’s just how they made records. You had these groups that didn’t necessarily tour but just worked with different artists in the studio. Duane Allman was on the scene, he was running around playing on all these records in his spare time. I’ve been listening to a lot of these records, the Sam the Sham record, Jerry Jeff Walker “Bein’ Free.” There’s a great Ronnie Hawkins record. There’s an Aretha Franklin record. They were just a great band with a great bass player and a great guitar player, my Dad’s best friend, Charlie Freeman. And that’s what I’ve been really getting into lately.”
While father Jim always was available for guidance, he often let Luther and Cody learn on their own. “We were always talking and scheming, and at times we’d get into something that he didn’t understand or approve of. He always told us what he thought, but he would always let us make our own mistakes or find our own way.”
In a fitting and unplanned tribute to their father, Luther arranged a collection of friends of their father at the families Zebra Ranch recording studio in the days following his death and recorded a series of gospel songs in his honor. The subsequent record, “Sons of Mudboy” has been released by Memphis International records. The name derives from a band that Jim Dickinson fronted and recorded with, Mudboy and the Neutrons.
“Acoustic guitar has always been my first love, and I always knew that at a certain point I wanted to do an acoustic record. While Dad was sick last summer I was working up a lot of gospel. I booked this session to do a solo acoustic guitar gospel recording, and then Dad passed. Dad’s ceremony was set for Tuesday and the session was booked for Wednesday, and it dawned on me at the ceremony that Dad didn’t want a funeral but he loved recording sessions, so why don’t I invite everyone to the session tomorrow? So afterwards I called everybody and they just showed up the next day. The first part of the afternoon I recorded 6 or 7 songs by myself and for the rest of the day we just took turns backing each other up and recorded these gospel songs. I wasn’t planning on making a record, I was just doing it. And you know, it was a celebration of Dad’s life”
Luther also feels blessed to have received such a natural and deep music education from being around his father and the upbringing him and Cody received in North Mississippi. Like Derek Trucks being around the Allman Brothers scene, Luther and Cody both have the musical environment they grew up with engrained in them. Luther states, “yeah, we’re total products of our musical community. It’s not just the North Mississippi community, it’s the Memphis community too…all my Dad’s friends, the bohemian guys that were with him at the folk festivals in the sixties. We got to play with Fred Mcdowell, Furry Lewis, Bukka White and all those cats. Those guys were our teachers and a lot of their children are musicians. And you know there all those great rock and roll guys like Billy Lee Riley, Jerry Lee Lewis and his guitar player Roland James, and Willie Mitchell who just passed away. It’s just crazy. And Dad was always a big part of the Memphis music scene and they always embraced us and encouraged us. And (being around all of these people) that just blew my mind. I thought the blues was a thing of the past and then all of a sudden I was eye to eye with it. I would open my eyes and there were these ridiculous juke joints and Otha Turner and R.L. Burnside and it was like “oh my God.” It changed my life.
As the All Stars have now reformed, I asked Luther about the band’s future recording plans. Luther said “I have been writing music for the next All Stars release and have a pretty cool production concept I’m working on for it too. I’ve got kind of a new direction I’m working on and I’ve got a lot of music and want to be real selective about it. If it comes together like I see it, it’s going to be real interesting.”
The All Stars’ last studio release, 2008’s “Hernando”, was a real return to the band’s stripped down 3-piece blues roots, but also showcases the bands unrelenting willingness to incorporate a huge variety of other influences to the bands sound, from hip hop to ZZ Top.
Luther also spoke glowingly about the band’s live career retrospective released early in 2009, “Do It like We Used To.” “It took me 3 years to put that son of a bitch together and I’m real proud of it. It’s my favorite thing we have ever done.” The band has also begun releasing selective live shows in their entirety for download only from the band’s website.
Luther also had high praise for the Colorado music scene. “I wish we could play more Colorado shows. It’s the one place we play where we could play a week or more if we wanted. The people out there are always a great crowd and love to go out and party and have a good time. It’s a great scene. We actually just released a live show from the Fox in Boulder (“Boulderado”, available for download on the band’s site.) We’ve got a lot of great friends there and have had some of our best times in Colorado. I love it.”
With all of the change that has gone on within the All Stars camp, I asked Luther how his relationship with Cody has changed over the years. Luther stated “it’s funny because we are totally opposites on like aesthetics and production and things like that. Cody is completely modern and loves pop music and rap music and modern production and I just get more and more old fashioned- and backwards. (laughs) I think we complement each other well. The only difference is we don’t live together anymore. Sometimes we would just stay up all night and talk things through and hash it out, and we still do that on the phone or on the road. And you know it’s funny, we don’t get to be together as much and play together as much, but in a way I think that now that we’re grown and we’re all doing all these separate things, it’s a different type of power where we’re both out doing different things at the same time. We’re never as strong as we were when we we’re together, but we’re still out there spreading the world boogie.”
So as the widening net of influence and music is being cast by the members of the North Mississippi All Stars, Luther and Cody Dickinson have certainly cemented their stature in the music community as some of the most talented, prolific and hardest working musicians on the circuit. Their imminent tour will bring them to Colorado for 4 shows, including opening for Gov’t Mule at the Fillmore in Denver on Saturday, February 13. You can be certain they will be “spreading the world boogie.”
YarmonyGrass- Ready to Ramble on River Again….
Yup!! The festival that spawned the legendary Floating Stage is set for another summer beneath Yarmony Mountain at Rancho Del Rio on the Colorado River.
Railroad Earth (two nights)
Kyle Hollingsworth with DJ Logic, Liza Oxnard, & members of the Motet
EOTO
Bill Nershi & Scott Law with Tao Rodriguez-Seeger
The Contribution
Head for the Hills
Elephant Revival
Honkytonk Homeslice
Please keep in mind that due to the intimate nature of the site there will be less than a thousand tickets sold. For more info, please visit http://www.yarmonygrass.com.
Tickets on sale March 30 at 10am MST.
Tickets start at $119 for the weekend and include camping, late-night music and workshops!
Thurs 2/25: Emmitt-Nershi and Zepparella in Vail tonight
It should be a fun night in Vail as two national touring acts come into town. In the village, Emmitt-Nershi Band play at Samana. With years of collective experience under their belts, Drew Emmitt and Bill Nershi exemplify the forward-thinking modern bluegrass musician. As linchpins of two legendary jam-bands –Drew with Leftover Salmon, Bill with the String Cheese Incident–both men have done the stadium-filling, high-profile rock ‘n’ roll thing to perfection. Along the way, however, they’ve honed their songwriting and playing chops and studied the bluegrass, rock and jazz masters they admire. Above all, Drew and Bill have shared a commitment to keeping music human-scaled and honest. Those qualities are found in abundance on their latest and greatest collaboration, New Country Blues–11 tunes made in Newgrass heaven. I’m sure there will be a Nersh led group hug or two throughout the evening.
Then, just down the street at Sandbar is Zepparella, four women intent on bringing the passion, the beauty, the aggression, the musicality of Led Zeppelin alive.
Zepparella delivers an explosive, emotional musical journey at every event. They take on the challenge of balancing their devotion to playing the songs as close to the original as possible, while taking advantage of their own musical communication and carrying the audience away on the ride.
The combination of personalities in Zepparella is something extraordinary. From the first time on stage there was such a strong musical connection that to the girls it felt like a homecoming. And in a musical career, that kind of connection may be the most elusive gift of all.
Wed 3/3: Great American Taxi
In support of their new CD Reckless Habits, Vince Herman’s Great American Taxi takes the stage at Samana Lounge in Vail tonight. Taxi, who you may also know from trying to complete the rock and roll crossword puzzle in the latest print issue of Mousike, brings their uninhibited sound which can be described as a swinging concoction of swampy blues, progressive bluegrass, funky New Orleans strut, Southern boogie, honky tonk country, gospel, and good ol’ fashioned rock ’n’ roll. Great American Taxi was born when singer, guitarist, and mandolin player Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon joined keyboard player and singer Chad Staehly for a superstar jam to benefit the Rainforest Action Group in Boulder, in March of 2005. “We put together a dream band of the best local musicians for a one-off gig,” Herman recalls. “It worked so well we had to do it again, and again, and again.” Great American Taxi quickly evolved into one of the best country-, rock-, and bluegrass- influenced jam bands in the land, masterfully blending acoustic and electric instruments into music they call “Americana Without Borders.” Great American Taxi has been equated with roots rockers like the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Grateful Dead, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, The Byrds, and Little Feat. Herman finds the comparisons flattering. “We’re definitely connected to all the acts in the country/rock spectrum, as well as the spirit of Gram Parsons and Woody Guthrie,” he says. “We want to address the issues appropriate to our times, while making music that gets people up and moving.” They’ve made their reputation as an exciting live band, willing to invite the audience on stage for impromptu jams and sing-alongs. “When strangers join in to sing and play, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Herman grins. “It keeps you on your toes musically and brings out feelings of camaraderie and community.” That loose, anything-can-happen feel is the hallmark of Reckless Habits, Great American Taxi’s second album. The band — Herman, Staehly, Jim Lewin on electric guitar and vocals, Edwin Hurwitz on bass, and drummer Chris Sheldon — spent a couple of weeks at Backbone Studio in Loveland, Co, with producer Tim Carbone (from Railroad Earth) working together to bring the feel of an on-stage performance to the recording process. “We did the tracks live, playing together,” Herman says. “We like to make real music, as opposed to executing parts.” “The band is a true democracy,” Chad Staehly adds. “We tinkered with the tunes on the road, with everybody having input. In the studio, Tim would suggest ideas to make them sound bigger and brighter.” Carbone brought in the Black Swan Singers — Sheryl Renee, CoCo Brown, and Shelly Lindsey — to add gospel flavored backing vocals and the Peak to Freak Horns — Justin Jones, sax; Nathan Peoples, sax; Dan Sears, trumpet; Dave Stamps, trombone — for some New Orleans-style brass accents as well as pedal steel player Barry Sless (David Nelson Band, Moonalice) and banjo player Matt Flinner. The 13 tracks on Reckless Habits gleefully stretch the boundaries of American roots music with a nod to both tradition and the future. The title track, Staehly’s salute to Gram Parsons, is a good example, a song that’s as country as it is rock. It’s a rousing honky tonk tune, with Carbone’s fiddle and Sless’s pedal steel kicking up the sawdust on a Saturday night dance floor. The titles of several Parsons songs appear in the lyrics, and there’s a definite Cosmic Cowboy vibe to the band’s expansive playing. Staehly’s “American Beauty” tips its hat to the Grateful Dead and features an extended jam by the ensemble with Sless shining on pedal steel; Herman’s acoustic and the subtle twang of Jim Lewin on electric add intertwining guitar parts. Herman’s “Cold Lonely Town” is a slow R&B tune that describes life during the long Colorado winters. The Black Swan Singers add smoky doo-wop asides and CoCo Brown’s thrilling gospel-inflected melismas to Herman’s poignant vocal. Producer Tim Carbone described its swampy, laid-back vibe as “‘A Day in the Life’ meets Gram Parsons in the high desert.” The Taxi show off their devil-may-care side on several tunes. “One of These Days” is a bluesy country-rock salute to New Orleans driven by Chris Sheldon’s second line backbeat, the Mardi Gras bounce of the Peak to Freak Horns and strong solos from Lewin’s slide guitar and Staehly’s piano. “Good Night to Boogie” is a countrified boogie-woogie number that lives up to its name with a forceful rock backbone and sizzling Hammond B3 work from Staehly, while “Fuzzy Little Hippie Girl” is a sly, lusty rocker with swooning pedal steel and a bouncy country-rock rhythm. “Smiling Hippie Joe Smith wrote that song for us,” Herman says. “We wanted to pay homage to the hippie country girls on the festival circuit that make the world go round.” Other standouts include the overtly political “New Millennium Blues,” with Staehly’s electric piano and the sprightly tempo adding some sunshine to the song’s tale of hard luck and hard times; the obligatory bluegrass jams “Unpromised Land” and Bill Monroe’s “Big Sandy River,” showcasing Carbone’s fiddling, Matt Flinner’s banjo, and excellent ensemble work; and a New Orleans-meets-ragtime take on John Hartford’s (“Just When You Think It Can’t) Get No Better (Then It Does)” featuring the Peak to Freak Horns. “We go into the studio to make music, not records,” Herman explains. “We all love to improvise, but this band’s not about solos. It’s about playing together and letting the music take over.” Reckless Habits captures the rowdy exuberance of Great American Taxi’s live shows with a timeless rock feel that music lovers of all ages can relate to. They fuse strong, focused songwriting with the freewheeling jam band vibe that’s made them a major draw on the festival circuit. The album will be marketed in a die cut package designed by artist Greg Carr, who designed Steve Martin’s The Crow. “Greg has a picture of nuns smoking on the cover, wearing their Reckless Habits,” Herman explains. “We want to give people something unique, so they won’t just burn it and pass it on.” The band’s cryptic name refers to Herman’s unique skiing style. “A friend of mine once said I came downhill looking like a great American taxi — a large lumbering object that’s totally out of control and coming downhill towards you moving faster and faster. It seemed to fit the band’s MO, so we adopted it.” Vince Herman grew up in Pittsburgh, the youngest of seven children in a music loving family. He played piano, guitar, and mandolin growing up, soaking up Motown, rock, bluegrass, and the polka music played by neighborhood wedding bands. As a high school freshman, he attended the Smoky City Folk Festival and was seduced by the social scene and the off-stage free-form jams. He studied acting at the University of West Virginia and moved to Colorado to finish his degree, but dropped out after meeting Drew Emmitt. He joined him in the Left Hand String Band, one of the first groups in the progressive bluegrass movement of the ’80s. His next aggregation was a Cajun jug band called the Salmonheads. When the two merged, they jokingly combined names, and as Leftover Salmon, a country/ bluegrass/Cajun outfit, became one of the best-known jam bands in the country. When banjo player Mark Vann died of cancer in 2002, Leftover Salmon lost momentum. Herman had a few rough years and survived a broken neck before joining keyboard player Chad Staehly to create Great American Taxi with guitarist Jeff Hamer, bassist Brian Schey and drummer Jake Coffin. After a few departures Taxi has settled into their latest incarnation with Lewin on guitar, Sheldon on drums, bassist Brian Adams and occasionally Barry Sless on pedal steel. They’re marking their Fifth Anniversary as a unit with the release of Reckless Habits. Herman, Staehly, and their Great American Taxi cohorts will be doing what they do best to support the record, touring heavily and getting ready for the beginning of the Spring Festival season. “We’ve been doing gigs with (singer/songwriter) Todd Snider,” Herman says. “He’s a great cat to play with and he hasn’t done a lot of improv, so it’s a joy to play with him. It opens up a new world for him and gives us some new songs to play. We believe in the blue-collar work ethic, improving our music by playing live shows and bringing people into the present moment with our lyrics and instruments. That’s what we love to do and we’ll keep on doing it as long as we can.”
Tues 3/2: Grayson Capps and The Bridge
Grayson Capps at Agave, The Bridge at Three20South – more info on each below…
Grayson Capps and The Stumpknockers are touring in support of their new album Rott ‘N’ Roll, a title that originated with Grayson Capps’ fans in New Orleans as an explanation of his music. Prostitutes, alcoholics, vagrants and drifters often inhabit the southern troubadour’s songs, while his live performances are ignited by sanctified Southern soul, howling back-country stomp and raucous roadhouse blues. Slowly, but surely, the phrase spread from one city to the next as the definition of the Grayson Capps experience. For Grayson himself, Rott ‘N’ Roll has come to represent the state of mind needed to play uncompromising roots music as a means for survival in the Dirty South; the yin and yang between the debauchery of life on the road and the come down upon returning home.. Yet, as Grayson makes clear on “Back To The Country,” the album’s opening track, when Rott ‘N’ Roll is the credo, even the serenity of home means, “eating cornbread and raising hell.”
The Bridge is a unique rock band whose music combines elements of blues and roots, spiced with funk and soul. They have recently become known coast-to-coast, and even in Europe, for their gritty and grand live performances and poignantly hand crafted albums. Following in the tradition of classic / southern roots rock, and flavoring their sound with Americana sensibilities, the band has built their own niche between the jam, country, and bluegrass genres.
The band’s roots date back to 2001, when guitarist & vocalist Cris Jacobs reunited, post college, with high school friend Kenny Liner (who’d recently returned from living in Hawaii and learning the mandolin). They found an immediate chemistry playing music together, and would go onto create The Bridge by osmosis. They played countless regional shows, working on each other’s material, experimenting with bands members and ultimately woodshedding the band until it locked into focus. Jacobs and Liner solidified the The Bridge’s core line-up with the addition of saxophonist Patrick Rainey, bassist Dave Markowitz and drummer Mike Gambone.
Philadelphia based keyboardist Mark Brown began doing shows with the band in 2008, and by the end of that year he had also become a full time member of the band, rounding out their sound with organ and piano
Roller Derby Girl will give you a SXSW shout-out for $100
INDIE-ROCK PIONEERS CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN TO FUND SXSW TRIP BY LETTING FANS SPONSOR SONGS AT THEIR SHOWS!
DAVID LOWERY LEADS BOTH CRACKER & CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN FOR THREE SXSW SHOWCASES IN AUSTIN
The more things change, the more they stay the same… well, perhaps at least for CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN, the pioneering Santa Cruz-based band that helped usher in indie-rock over a quarter-century ago. Although the band doesn’t currently have a label, they’re incorporating an inventive, if not absurd, way of funding their trip to perform at this year’s SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX.
In a nutshell, CVB are selling fans the right to sponsor songs during their two SXSW performances for $100 each. In exchange, a Santa Cruz Roller Derby Girl will skate across the stage carrying a placard with the respective fan’s name (or business name) on it.
For more info or to purchase a song sponsorship, click here.
Lubriphonic starts 2 week tour tonight
Chicago based Lubriphonic begins their two week tour tonight in Aspen. Below is a reprint of the Lubriphonic article from the latest print issue of Mousike…
A look at what would happen if James Brown and Led Zeppelin had children
By Todd Altschuler
Get ready to dance your ass off this March when a funky rock and blues band called Lubriphonic embarks on two week tour of Colorado. And dance you will, because Lubriphonic is one of those bands that makes an entire room get down hard. I’ll bet they could even make Reverend Shaw Moore tap a foot. Hailing from Chicago and featuring a group of musicians that reads like a who’s who in the The Second City’s venerable blues scene, this band is not to be missed.
The two week tour is made up of 10 stops mostly in mountain towns (including a free outdoor show in Winter Park) and it’s set up so that you’ll be able to catch at least one show somewhere within a reasonable driving distance. For the icing on the cake, and proof that this band is gaining serious momentum, the March 12 show in Denver will feature Lubriphonic as the opening act for none other than Maceo Parker, leader of the James Brown horn section.
This will be their first extended statewide tour of Colorado and they will be playing a few towns for the first time. But while Lubriphonic has played a handful of shows in Colorado during their first few together, the many Chicagoland transplants living in the mountains may better remember them from regular gigs at The Checkerboard Lounge or as the opening band to major acts like Buddy Guy and Derek Trucks. Paul Doppelt, Lubriphonic’s Manager, is hoping that a recent successful studio album and lots of great publicity on a national level will help sell tickets to the Colorado shows, a state where Lubriphonic loves to play, but has met with varied levels of success. I couldn’t agree more with Doppelt when he says “it’s time for this band to be heard!”
The first time I heard Lubriphonic was from my tent in Telluride’s Town Park just outside the gates of the Blues and Brews Festival. It was around noon and I was relaxing to the rhythmic sound of raindrops on the canvas overhead while The Lee Boys played their set in the distance. With the majestic views of the newly snow-covered mountains in plain site through the screen door, I opted to remain in the tent for a bit longer to maintain my dry status.
About 30 minutes into a cool book about a guy on Dead Tour in the 80’s, a new band took the stage and you could just tell they were something special. From ½ mile away, it sounded as if the festival promoters decided to wow the crowd by flying Galactic in for a surprise appearance. I threw aside the book, grabbed my rain gear and headed off to the stage. Every step of the way, the music got more clear and you could tell that the band was going off. Not only were they just as funky as anyone else on the touring circuit, but they had one hell of a unique style… infusing searing rock and roll licks and a decidedly bluesy disposition into their act.
As I approached stage right, frontman and Lead Guitarist Giles Corey was belting out the lyrics to one of Lubriphonic’s originals, this one being some sort of apropos song about rain falling. I was immediately impressed with his soulful voice and loving the fact that the members of the horn section (made up of a saxophone, trumpet and trombone) were swaying back and forth in unison while waiting for their turns to shine. Then there were the thousands of festivarians, many of whom were seeing the band for the first time, also dancing in unison and hooting and hollering as the sweet sounds of Lubriphonic enveloped the field. I joined the crowd, dancing wildly, undeterred by mud puddles and rain drops. A song or two later, they entered into a funky jam that gave me a glimpse into how this wonderful band works. It goes like this… all six members are both rhythmic geniuses and master lead soloists. They improvise their way through jams, each one taking a solo then inviting the others to show us what they’ve got. And let me tell you… they are all fantastic musicians, each one deserved of a full article.
I was lucky enough to catch up with Corey just after their New Year’s run and he shed some additional light on that day in Telluride. “We were only supposed to play a late night set at the festival, something we’re much more accustomed to. I guess one of the bands had some visa issues though so they asked us if we’d go up there and play an afternoon gig too. Being 1 o’clock in the afternoon, we thought we’d play to a couple hundred people, but we got on stage and there were thousands of people having a great time.”
Corey uses that story as a launching point to describe why Lubriphonic loves playing Colorado and why it just feels different from playing elsewhere. “The people in Colorado are really into music and you can feel it… that’s a state where we can play three hours of original music and the crowd loves it.” I don’t want to alienate the band from any music scenes by naming specific cities, but he did mention that most crowds around the country mainly get into cover songs and don’t have the same energy as Colorado. “And we play off our audience” he says “so that’s why you get our best shows.”
Corey’s life as a musician can be traced back to childhood when he went to a B.B. King concert in New Haven, Connecticut right near his boyhood home. “That’s when I knew that I wanted to play guitar!” Corey stated. Somewhere along the way, he learned how to play that guitar and has since shared the stage with some pretty big names like Bo Diddely, Buddy Miles and Otis Rush, who Corey names as one of his biggest influences. Not only did he learn how to play the guitar well, but Corey is also the lyricist and one of the most spirited frontmen to arrive on the scene in quite sometime. He reminds me of a latter day version of Grateful Dead’s Pigpen, with an outpouring of emotion and a knack for improvising lyrics to go with the flow and engage the crowd. Corey’s enthusiastic stage antics also add a ton of energy to the situation, with him often jumping up and down or bouncing around the stage.
Talking about Corey’s stage antics offers up a good time to get a very important message from him out to Mousike’s readers. “Last winter, we played a few shows in Colorado and I had a broken leg. I had to sit in a chair the whole time and I want to let your readers know that it took away from what we do.”
Not that I could ever picture this band putting on a poor live performance, but if you saw one of those shows, Corey promises that, even if you liked it last time, it will be even better this time. “So if sitting in a chair takes something away, what exactly does Lubriphonic do?” I asked.
“First and foremost, we’re a dance party,” says Corey. “We’d love it if you checked out our lyrics and took it a little deeper… but first and foremost, we’re a dance party.”
That works for me, but you would think that Corey would want everyone to listen to Lubriphonic’s lyrics being that he wrote the lion’s share of them for the band’s critically acclaimed 2008 CD Soul Solution as well as their soon to be released follow up effort. And although I’m much more familiar with their live material at this point, I have been listening to their studio efforts too. Amazingly enough. the music works just as well as a recorded piece, something very rare for a band with such energetic live performances.
Corey, who helped found the band with drummer and longtime friend, Rick King, credits his bandmates with the current success of Lubriphonic. “It’s a band of very accomplished musicians and we all love playing together… that’s why it works so well.”
So whether your taste leans more toward Motown, classic rock, the blues or even rap, you will find an impressive element of it in Lubriphonic. I asked to Corey sum up the band’s sound and, after a couple of seconds of deep thought, he said “we’re a combo of Led Zeppelin and James Brown.” Damn, I’ve always wanted to see them all on stage together!
There is a free MP3 download available at MousikeMagazine.com/Lubriphonic
Lubriphonic Tour:
Recent Comments