Music: Soulhat - Live At The Black Cat
For all you Austinites and those lucky enough to have spent time in the heaven that is central Texas in the early 90's, Dualtone is releasing a live record from the seminal band, Soulhat that was recorded over two nights in August of '91 at Austin's now defunct Black Cat Lounge. Here's the story from Dualtone:
Soulhat’s Live at the Black Cat is more than just a delightful and revelatory retrospective look at a then young band coming into its own. It’s also a musical journey back to another time and place. Soulhat had been formed a year before by guitarist/singer Kevin McKinney, guitarist Bill Cassis and bassist Brian Walsh, who had been college friends at Southwestern University in Georgetown just north of Austin. They added drummer Ian Bailey, and by the time of these recordings had been joined on percussion by Barry “Frosty” Smith, something of a rock drumming legend from his work with Lee Michaels, Sly & The Family Stone, Steve Miller, Rare Earth and Parliament-Funkadelic. One can’t underestimate the effect of the locale on this music. The Black Cat was a ramshackle, no frills dive music bar with minimal to no cover charge, cheap beer and free hot dogs where the bands were required to play for the better part of four hours by its proprietor, the eccentric Paul Sessums, who Cassis now recalls as something of a savant when it came to presenting live musical entertainment. After playing the club for the better part of the previous year, Soulhat was packing the joint with a mixture of college students, neo-hippies, bikers and music fans of all stripes (including then future Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong). Sixth Street wasn’t yet the bustling nightlife district it became, and even among the handful of music clubs there at the time, The Black Cat was notable for its utterly unpretentious good time vibe. That same feeling can be heard in the music. To wit, Soulhat’s music was then and still remains unclassifiable, fashioned from a broad mix of various styles of rock with splashes of blues, soul and funk as well as touches of everything from reggae to country — like the best rock’n’roll, inclusive and free of musical boundaries. — Rob Patterson
Album hits the streets December 8. For more info on Soulhat log on to http://www.soulhat.net/ or http://www.myspace.com/soulhat
Although it's not on this album, here's my favorite.
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Music: South Memphis String Band
Ya'll ain't gonna wanna miss this! South Memphis String Band kicks off their tour next week (4/23) in Dallas. If ya ain't already heard, this is Jimbo Mathus (Squirrel Nut Zippers), Alvin Youngblood Hart (Grammy-winning bluesman) and Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars). It's their first tour and they're truckin' through the south and the eastern U.S. for about a month. Don't sleep on this! It's a rare opportunity to see three amazin' talents like these fellas together. They'll be performin' acoustic sets of good ol' Mississippi foot stompin' music. Check the dates and hear a couple of their songs here.
Here's the low-down from their myspace:
The three friends, bound by Memphis and North Mississippi roots, will tour ahead of recording their debut album later this year. So far only two songs have been unveiled, both at the trio’s MySpace page myspace.com/southmemphisstringband. So the April and May dates will be an opportunity for fans to get in on the ground floor. Although they’d known each other for years, the trio’s musical spirit gelled last year when they recorded a yet-unreleased album with Luther’s father, legendary producer Jim Dickinson, called New Moon Jellyroll Freedom Rockers. The South Memphis String Band was greatly influenced by the Mississippi Sheiks, Gus Cannon & the Memphis Jug Band and other string bands and jug bands of their ilk, as well as Mississippi Delta and Hill Country blues. They will travel with a passel of guitars, mandolins, banjos, lap steel guitars and harmonicas.
Luther Dickinson is lead guitarist and vocalist for the North Mississippi Allstars as well as lead guitarist for the Black Crowes. The son of producer Jim Dickinson was born and raised in West Tennessee, where he played concerts and gained recording experience with his father and brother, Cody. The family moved to the hills of North Mississippi in 1985. Luther befriended the musical families of Otha Turner, R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. They were the inspiration for Luther and Cody to form the North Mississippi Allstars in ‘96. The Allstars have been nominated for three Grammy Awards in the Best Contemporary Blues category. Luther produced two Otha Turner albums: Everybody Hollerin' Goat and From Senegal To Senatobia. Luther was recently featured in Rolling Stone as one of the “New Guitar Gods.” He has recorded with the Replacements, Mojo Nixon, Toy Caldwell, Billy Lee Riley, John Medeski and Robert Randolph (as The Word), John Hiatt and Jon Spencer, in addition to Turner, Burnside and the elder Dickinson.
Though born in Oakland, California, Alvin “Youngblood” Hart had family connections in Carroll County, Miss., and spent time there in his childhood, hearing his relatives’ stories of Charlie Patton. Influenced by the country blues, Hart is known as one of the world's foremost practitioners of that genre. He’s also a faithful torchbearer for the ‘60s and ‘70s guitar rock of his youth, as well as Western Swing and vintage country. His music has been compared to that of artists ranging from Leadbelly and Spade Cooley to Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. Hart plays acoustic and electric guitar as well as banjo and sometimes the mandolin. Bluesman Taj Mahal once said of him, “The boy has got thunder in his hands.” In 2003, Hart's album Down in the Alley was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. In ‘05, Hart received a Grammy Award for his contribution to Beautiful Dreamer — The Songs of Stephen Foster. He was featured in the Wim Wenders film The Soul of a Man, which was part of Martin Scorsese’s 2003 PBS series “The Blues,” and also appeared in the documentary Last of the Mississippi Jukes.
Guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and producer Jimbo Mathus grew up in Clarksdale, Miss. He first caught the public’s ear in the 1990s with the hyper-ragtime vaudeville act the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Since then, he has released many recordings of his own in a style he describes as Mississippi Music. “Basically,” Mathus says, “I combine the myriad styles of deep roots music in a type of alchemy. Blues, country, gospel and soul all go into the equation equally.” His last outing, Knockdown South, was released on his own label and received much critical acclaim, including the No. 2 spot on Honest Tune magazine’s Best of 2005 list. He runs the Delta Recording Service, a studio based in Clarksdale, and is sought out by many artists seeking the old-school style of recording. One such artist was Elvis Costello, who recorded his Grammy nominated “Monkey to Man” single in Mathus’ studio in 2005. He has produced two blues CDs that were nominated for Blues Music Awards in 2006, Duwane Burnside’s Under Pressure and Big George Brock’s Club Caravan. Additionally, he contributed vocals on the North Mississippi Allstars’ 2006 Grammy-nominated Electric Blues Watermelon. Mathus sums it up: “I break down walls and stereotypes with my music. I confuse people. I use Mississippi music, which is renegade music at heart, as my inspiration and motivation. I use it as a tool to reach people, to express my own feelings and continue to express those that came before me. I keep the old stories alive while they help keep me alive.”
Mathus says, “Luther, Youngblood Hart and myself have been musical co- conspirators for over a decade. It is only fitting that we should come together with acoustic instruments and perform Mississippi music.”
We'll be checkin' out the Austin show on the 24th, so come on out and bear witness to this musical force of nature.
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Music: Roadhouse Sun
We just got our hands on the new Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses album. Thank ya kindly John! We been through 3 copies of Mescalito here - folks kept "borrowin" 'em and "forgettin" to return 'em.
So when Roadhouse Sun arrived, the wrastlin' match was on. Texas death match. Barb wire and thumbtacks. Bein' that Ray Ray has perfected the sleeper hold. He got first dibs. But he put it on here in the studio for the rest of us "suckas."
When the soft openin' of Day Is Done gave way to Bingham's throaty howlin' of "I was born a bad man's son" over one helluva riff, we were all grinnin', happy to be back in the badlands. Bingham's gravelly West Texas drawl is like that rusted old tin sittin' on top of a roadside barbecue shack, seasoned just right from decades of smoke and sun. And this album is the soundtrack to that badass road movie that's been kickin' around in your head for years, but you just haven't written the script for yet. Git on it!
Out June 2. Buy it brothas & sistas!
Here's what they're sayin':
This Texas troubadour can bring to mind a gravelly-voiced version of another: Ryan Adams. But there are also traces of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan along this rootsy road.
-PEOPLE (3-Star Review)
Bingham’s captivating songwriting easily matches the mark set by 2007’s highly-touted Mescalito.
-American Songwriter (4-Star review of "Roadhouse Sun")
The year’s best Americana record so far is Ryan Bingham’s upcoming Roadhouse Sun.
-Popmatters
Ryan Bingham is the real deal. His sophomore release, Roadhouse Sun, moves from powerhouse country-rock to politically-inspired folk to piano-fueled barrelhouse blues to psychedelic exploration.
-Relix
And here's where you can catch 'em live:
JUNE 2009 - TOUR DATES
Jun 2 Terlingua, TX Starlight Theater
Jun 3 Lubbock, TX Cactus Theater Courtyard
Jun 4 Austin, TX Texas Union Ballroom
Jun 5 Dallas, TX House of Blues
Jun 6 Conroe, TX Crighton Theatre
Jun 8 Baton Rouge, LA Chelsea's
Jun 12 New Braunfels, TX Gruene Hall
Jun 21 Pryor, OK Pryor Creek Music Festival
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Music: Southern Fried Freight Train Fulla Boogie
Meant to post this yesterday but it took an extra day to recover. Lil' too much bourbon, not enough ice. We were blessed to catch a couple of the finest bands in the land on Friday night when North Mississippi Allstars and Hill Country Revue rolled through town. Modern Mississippi Hill Country 'lectric blues and rock & roll. If you haven't seen these ol' boys play live, you just ain't lived. Hill Country Revue started the show with Cody Dickinson - brother of Luther, son of Jim, and drummer for North Mississippi Allstars - slingin' an electrified washboard 'round his neck hooked up to some effects pedals. He proceeded to scratch out some wicked sonic vibrations like a whiskey-bent hillbilly Hendrix. With Chris "Big" Chew and Ed "Hot" Cleveland layin' down the funky gut-thumpin' foundation, the dual guitars of Kirk Smithhart and Cody Dickinson - yep, he does it all - soared in and out and settled into a head-noddin', ass-movin' groove that had the capacity crowd shakin' what their mama's gave 'em. Singer Daniel Coburn lit in with a sweet southern drawl, understated and perfectly fit to tie up the whole bundle. The Allman-esque jam "You Can Make It" had the hippies spinnin' and the rednecks grinnin' and the dirty, low-end crawl of "Lets Talk About Me And You" had everyone in a trance-like sway. Big brother Luther helped the boys out on a few songs showin' why he is one of the best guitarists walkin' this earth and why the Black Crowes are no dummies.
Then came time for North Mississippi Allstars to do their thing: whippin' everybody in the whole damn joint into a booty shakin' frenzy. There are few bands that can get a crowd movin' like these boys do. They don't just know their history, they own it and are doin' something brand new with it. Luther's slide is masterful. He makes the guitar smile and weep and sing. Magic freakin' fingers and a soul full of groove. While Chris "Big" Chew and Cody Dickinson supremely serve as the locomotive powering this southern fried freight train full of boogie. From start to finish, their set is a party - a southern summer porch gatherin' of friends, kickin' out hot, sweaty, foot-stompin' jams. There wasn't a person standin' still. Towards the end of their set the fellas from Hill Country Revue came back out to jam with everybody smilin', noddin' and having a good time. And Luther pulled out a homemade cigar box guitar with two strings and made that baby howl. That's right, a ceeeegar box! Here's a tease that my brother took. As I walked out of the venue, my face hurt. And I realized I had just smiled constantly for four hours, just from watchin' these boys play. Man. It's that kinda groove. It'll put a little warm southern sunshine in your soul and some shake in that ass.
Do yourself a favor and catch 'em when they come your way. You will be so glad you did. Here are their tour dates: NMA Hill Country Revue
And check out their pages: NMA Hill Country Revue
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Music: EP TCB - Polk Salad Annie
The King doin' his thing. Singin' Tony Joe White's Polk Salad Annie. Check the dance moves. Love it when he gets the cheat sheet. Or maybe it's a groupie's digits? ELVIS LIVES.
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