I offer a couple of quite different, relatively new items. I have earlier recounted and extolled the musical virtues of Parker Millsap on this board. Well, this one (with Gillian Welch), from last year, is quite nice:
Wilderness Within You (feat. Gillian Welch)
And this, from a couple of years ago - the unusual instrumental worth checking out, imo:
Tyler Childers - Jubilee (Hallelujah Version (Audio))
Hard-to-define infectious groove....
Great stuff from Parker Milsap. I've long been a fan of Gillian Welch, although I was more accustomed to her playing with David Rawlings. Welch is another musician with a cameo in O Brother Where Art Thou and yet another of my favorite musicians who attended Berklee College of Music.
Nice track from Childers! He is a bit of an odd one, but he makes great music.
Saw Trombone Shorty. Two hours of high energy funk with a sprinkling of New Orleans jazz.
The opener was interesting: Tank and the Bangas. They've been around for awhile now, but not on my radar. They were a fantastic lead vocalist, accompanying vocalist, awesome drummer, bassist, guitar, keyboards, and sax/flute guy. All top notch musicians (no need to question -- these folks were playing live). Imagine the lyrical stylings of India Arie sung with the energy of Queen Latifa backed by new age jazz. Quite the show.
(I didn't look very hard, but I can't find any videos of theirs that actually capture their energy. Most of the vids from late night are much more accessible.)
I actually liked Welch better before she joined up with Rawlings - altho I don't dislike their stuff together, either. I've seen her solo, and with him. Good either way. Some (musician) friends of mine were also in that movie (some credited and some not), and have told me some hilarious stories about working with the Coen brothers on that project.
Curiously..............a few days ago, the name "Tank and the Bangas" popped into my brainbone out of nowhere, and I was idly wondering what happened to them - but not enough to try and find out. I remember them from the Austin City Limits appearance (and I assume you scoped that out), and they also got a fair amount of pub there for awhile. Altho they're certainly earnest and talented musicians, she/they just didn't appeal to me - and I actually found their (moderate) acclaim curious. (Yet they got enough play that it could be another case of 'it' being my fault, not theirs?) BUT..................I'm very aware that there's this whole "industry" around reporting on music - and so there's a rush to be someone who breaks news, etc. IMO too many 'reporters' chasing too few worthwhile artists' stories. I sorta look on the phenomenon as a curiosity of human preoccupation with "the next new thing", regardless of its merits. And yeah, I guess that's a moderately cynical take. But (again IMO) I just think the "one hit wonders" of decades past were of a higher quality, and in many cases "have stood the test of time" (which is of course a nebulous and unscientific way of analyzing things). I could take that deeper, but not really important enough in this context, I don't guess.
And while this is the perfect thread in which to throw these viewpoints out there..................I know that you, Buzz, for example, are at least quite discerning and capable of doing your own evaluations without influence from whatever media sources exist. That you take the trouble (often extensive) to see so many acts live gives you solid standing to pronounce valid opinions and evaluations. So, as noted earlier, while I certainly don't like all the choices you've brought to this thread, I can appreciate the ones that I do -- that I'd likely have never known of otherwise. (And know that due to time considerations, there are many more in this very thread that await my exploration.) :)
Trombone Shorty started playing Jazzfests when he was just a child, so it's quite possible I saw him then, amongst the varied conglomerations of performers of N.O. funk, but wouldn't likely have been aware of it - so even if I did, that shouldn't count. LOL.
I often text my "musicologist" friend when I am waiting for a show to start. I send him a pic of the empty stage, and he will often guess correctly the show I am about to see. He recognized the stage a looked up the show, but he had never heard of Tank and the Bangas and was unfamiliar with their genre. That was an absolute first for me for a performance at this famous venue -- he usually knows off-hand the recording labels for the opening acts and often has been part of putting on shows for them. For him to draw a blank was surprising, but it made more sense when we talked the next day. Their popularity was, as TN descibes, a "pop" phenom, making a huge splash on TikTok and appearances on Good Morning America, half-time of the NBA All Star game, etc. A different orbit than he and I travel.
I found a 5-minute snippet of their performance at Austin City Limits. It was exactly the sort of performance they put on a few days ago. She has a couple new musicians but has maintained her drummer, keys, and bassist. Her approach to the vocals has stayed the same.
I was certainly transfixed by T and the Bs, but I doubt I would go out of my way to see them again. Some of the funk superfans in the audience adored her, making the appropriate interactions with her throughout. I never cease to be amazed by this town -- a huge, enthusiastic, tuned-in audience will show up for every performance regardless of the style of music in front of them.
Feels weird for me to be posting yet more stuff in this thread, but here goes........ with two obliquely-related selections......
First........least impressive, but weirdly mysterious....is a guy named Jason Lytle, who used to front a band called Grandaddy. He's a very introspective guy, and it takes listening to several of his efforts to get somewhat of a bead on him. He's been *very* prolific, so there's a lot out there of him to explore. Here's two, the first as part of Grandaddy:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nPDxEIyOySk&t=9s&pp=2AEJkAIB
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M0yMQCcU6NY&t=3s&pp=2AEDkAIB
Then........this really nice effort by Pernice Brothers (with Neko Case), which I really like:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NRW2LK33YVY&t=172s&pp=2AGsAZACAQ%3D%3D
Lytle and Brothers are sorta linked by their love of serious wilderness cycling - altho perhaps not together; not sure.
IMO both suffer from what I'll term "gratuitous lushness". Lytle especially quite to a fault, and too "pop-y" for my general tastes, but there's clearly talent there.
Apologies in advance if either of these artists has been brought forth herein.....
No idea if any of your tunes were posted before; good music can bear repeating
All three links were quite nice, and a good way to start the morning. I am a bit familiar with the artists, and I would happily attend a concert by both. The Pernice Brothers' selection was very similar in style to Neko Case's sound in her tour last year.
Gillian and David are gonna be in nearby Asheville tomorrow night, and Bonnie R. in 2 weeks.
Asheville is quite the magnet for quality shows. Are you going?
Naw. Seen 'em enough. I mean.......if the tickets were free or *dirt* cheap, I'd consider it - more for Bonnie, over Gillian and David. I'm at that point in my live music 'career' where it's harder and harder to impress me enough to really get enthused. Shadowgrass absolutely did that for me last summer, tho. And there's so much excellent music around here that's often free (or nearly so). And I'm still *uber*-cautious about indoor things like those events will be, for COVID (etc.) reasons.
After decades of truly bad timing, I will be seeing Susan Tedeschi perform. She has a band that follows her around, but I doubt anybody knows about them. ;)
I was scouring the 'net for information about how long ago it was when I attempted to buy a ticket to see her, and it must be around 20 years ago -- about the time she performed on Austin City Limits. (Man, the Austin skyline has changed!) Just a bit over a month from now, I finally get my opportunity. Hopefully, her side musicians don't drag her down too much.
Yeah, she sure has some riff-raff hangers-on. Good luck with *that*. She's been around long enough now that she's only barely to be considered "new music", but I think that's still accurate, altho BrewCrew wouldn't think so - if by chance he even knows her music.
Not really relatedly..........but your mention of Austin is prompting me to throw out another (severe) pet peeve of mine - and that is "what has become of ACL?!?" I know they made the decision to "change with the times".............but a cornerstone piece of, and window into, precious and important Americana music was lost. ACL was, for decades......THE place to see (other than live, obviously) the long parade of gifted Texas (and other, but here I'm lauding most notably Texas) singer-songwriters - who a lot of America didn't know about until they got 'bigger'. I hate to criticize other artists, many of whom are actually 'serious', but ACL has gone at least a large part of the way down the tubes that SNL mastered. You brought up Tank and the Bangas recently, and I mentioned their performance on that show, which was 'ok', but not my cup of tea. But things have gotten MUCH worse - IMO, of course. I can stomach **maybe** 1/3 of the performers thereon, whereas it used to be something like 80% or so. It's truly a loss. But at least I'm thankful I got to enjoy it's "glory years", and the artists of said years.
I'm not opposed to ACL giving exposure to artists from other genres, and it's even a healthy action, **IF** they're truly serious musicians and quality acts. But, to my ears and eyes, they mostly fail that test. AND.........if they're gonna do that, it should be *a completely separate show*. Sure............PBS wouldn't go for that, we suspect. But they've exchanged the most valuable stuff for the shiny new toys. Not all the 'new' stuff is inferior, let me state - but so much of it is. And I can assure you that Townes, Guy, Nancy, and all their fellow laureates wouldn't have stood for it. Willie's likely just circumspect about it all, as is his bent.
Ok - off my soapbox - for now at least. Gotta go chase some more kids off my lawn........
[P.S. - Ray Benson and his Asleep at the Wheel folks were here just last night - at a great venue, and I actually considered it. Altho originally from Paw Paw (you can look it up) and Philly, they're for all intents and purposes considered an Austin act/tradition.]
Can't tell you about the change in focus of ACL, but I know what you mean. Quite recently, they have gone through a real change -- major shift. They seem to be shifting corporate, and I can't figure it out. I love that theater. It is so great, but they have closed the doors to a lot of good artists (early career, but rising stars) and moved them to their outdoor venue. St Vincent, Tedeschi Trucks, and others. Bizarre. And, I noticed the appearance of corporate sponsorship here and there. (puke) Austin is currently swimming in a sea of tech money. The changes may reflect that(??). I will be seeing Lucy Dacus and Japanese Breakfast at ACL, but not sure how they swung that venue.
Some of the younger, country-leaning types are going straight to the basketball arena. Triple the size, and more $$$. So, it may not be all on ACL.
(I have a kid in Philly -- terrific music scene!)
EDIT: One my tidbit: Tedeschi is yet another product of Berklee College of Music. She created a scholarship there, and the first recipient was Adrienne Lenker (creative force and lead vocalist for Big Thief).
You *do* know, I suspect, that Berklee has their own multi-channel streaming internet radio, right? Currently on hiatus, tho. Don't know the story on that - or even if it's still on ongoing thing.
Well........I was just indulging in a bit (*quite* a bit, actually) of vicarious mouthwatering as I perused the delectable on-offer menu items of the upcoming Jazzfest..........and here jumps up Tank and the Bangas again. Kinda weird how they just keep cropping up...
And no, don't think I remember ever having the praline beignets. Sadly. A stomach is only so big.
As a footnote........I saw elsewhere that Carlos was rushed to a hospital somewhere earlier tonight. Don't know any details; may not be a big deal 🤷♂️.
https://apnews.com/article/jazz-fest-new-orleans-louisiana-crawfish-63dead4997d0503d1c57cd05f87d8016
Addendum: two separate issues for Carlos:
Sounds like Carlos has more than mild symptoms and a positive test. Hopefully he's back at it soon.
Japanese Breakfast (Michelle Zauner) opened her tour last night. It was a great show.
The opener was Ginger Root, a trio of Cameron Lew (who probably is the only true member of the group) on an array of keyboards, Matt Carney on drums, and Dylan Hovis on bass. Carney and Holvis are really excellent at their craft. Their sound is amped up electronic rock -- not quite experimental but certainly not mainstream. They are high energy and can really play a tune. They had two screens on stage and a live cameraman whose shots were closeup and often distorted views of strings, keys, drums, etc. It was a bit distracting, but not bad. No question that these guys were playing live.
Zauner has decided to kick up her stage presence a notch. A bit more dancing, a stage set including a huge oyster shell in which she would sometimes sing and dance about. She has joined the growing legion of artists who are convinced that white-hot, 1000W LED lights shining directly into the eyes of the crowd is something every audience craves. Gratefully, they only did that about 20% of the time.
They are still working out the kinks of their show. A microphone collapsed when Michelle was sitting in her oyster getting ready to sing, and one of the stage workers had to dash out and put it back together. Just prior to her third song, she was engaging the audience, telling us how she loved theater and .... the keyboard dude inadvertently fired up the loops for the next song. He couldn't seem to reset, so they just launched into the music. (I've seen amps explode on three occasions. The pros soldier on).
I loved the show. It was a nice mix of songs from her latest album -- Melancholy Brunettes (and sad women) -- and crowd favorites from her previous releases. They are a solid band with a big sound, but they can dial it back for the quieter stuff. The crowd went particularly bananas when the stage crew setting up for the encore and brought out her gong (featured in "Paprika").
I'm With Her will be performing live tonight on Jimmy Kimmel, perhaps debuting their newest song.
And here is their performance: I'm With Her, "Wild and Clear and Blue"
It will be a few months before they roll through here, but I'm looking forward to the show.
Post concert, Tesechi-Trucks: Susan was all I'd hoped for with a strong voice, powerful lyrics, and a great stage presence. I didn't know she was so accomplished on the guitar. She was central for four of the first five songs, with one of the backup singers taking the lead on a really nice, slower tune.
And then it got wonderful. The brass section (trombone, trumpet, sax) took over with some amazing avante gard jazz. The sax was featured, but the Miles-like trumpet was sooooo good. After five minutes of that, they exited the stage as Derek, the bassist, two drummers, and keyboard continued the exploration of the musical space. Trucks started out nicely with high skills. We could tell something was coming because the bassist and "lead" percussionist began to focus on Derek. He changed time signatures to not-quite-normal, like a 9/8 or something too difficult for me to count. A couple of minutes later, he shifted again, even more complex. (He was now in Dave Holland territory). The bassist was grinning ear-to-ear as were the drummers. I was so pleased by this I thought I'd float away. The jackass behind me who'd been yapping all night, announced loudly, "this is where I get bored". He wasn't alone -- a large percentage of the Allman Bros bros were wondering what happened to their southern rock. It was 24 minutes of bliss for me.
The band all gathered back on stage for more of what we expected. (Derek went behind the drum kits and spent five minutes toweling off).
I must say that Trucks is more of a virtuoso than I ever realized. The only jazz/experimental performer I have seen live who engaged me this thoroughly was Pat Metheny.
Yeah dude, I put jazz on the jukebox of my favorite bar and chill, but damn! It's like, way too many dislikes of the genre by its patronage.
(Lucy Dacus was discussed somewhere upthread, and again on the Generational Aspects of Music thread.)
I had been given a heads up about the current Dacus tour as being top notch. It didn't disappoint. I saw Lucy in a small venue a couple of years ago with about 600 other fans. It was nice, demonstrating her ability to tour live with a solid stage presence.
Last night was a much different. She was performing in an outdoor venue with a capacity of about 3000 seated attendees. Her staging was professional with a perfect accent of beautiful, projected still images. The camera work for projecting the band on large screens on either side of the stage was smooth and high quality. And Lucy has evolved into a charismatic performer who engages the audience between songs and captivates with her silky, haunting voice.
Dacus is a member of Boy Genius (along with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker), and it seems their latest tour transformed Lucy.
The audience was amazing -- appropriately enthusiastic and loud but quiet for the softer ballads. (They also sang every word of the opener's songs, which impressed me. I am a Katie Gavin fan, but that was crazy.)
Lucy performed the following for the first time in ages, for Mothers Day: My Mother and I. It was so much better live last night than on the album.
Here's a sample of Katie Gavin's latest: Sketches