Rhiannon Giddens released a solo collection of songs in 2015, Tomorrow Is My Turn, but the design was never to part from the Carolina Chocolate Drops. As one of the band’s three original members, she celebrated a Grammy Award in 2010 for Best Traditional Folk Album (Genuine Negro Jig), and while the marquee this year has only displayed her name, she has been backed by the same band. And they’ve continued playing many of those tunes. Continue reading
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Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme are back together. While Eagles of Death Metal has always featured a rotating cast of characters, it’s always been led by Hughes and almost always complemented by Homme, who moonlights as the frontman for Queens of the Stone Age. Zipper Down is the band’s first new record in seven years and it’s the first to include Homme since 2006. It’ll be out on October 2. Continue reading
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It’s been just over a year since final founding GWAR member Dave Brockie found dead of a heroin overdose in his Richmond, Virginia apartment. For nearly 30 years as the “personal slave” (the band’s coded way of acknowledging their outlandish alter egos) to Oderus Urungus, Brockie was also the lead vocalist.
As Michael Bishop broaches the topic of Brockie’s death, if for only a moment, he steps out of the character of new lead vocalist Blothar and hints at the uncertainty that his band faced. But only a moment; it isn’t completed with sincerity. Continue reading
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The founders of the Aquarium Rescue Unit are among the forefathers of the Southern jam scene that arose from the 1990s. The Atlanta-bred band, led by the self-styled Colonel Bruce Hampton, bridged a generational divide between fellow statesmen the Allman Brothers Band and acts like Virginia-based Dave Matthews Band that would spend the next two decades filling arenas and headlining festivals.
Bassist Oteil Burbridge has served as the strongest link between those generations, having not only been a member of Aquarium Rescue Unit, but having also performed with incarnations of Allman Brothers Band in recent years. Continue reading
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The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME: In-Store performance and signing at Pegasus Records
On Saturday, July 18, I was joined by Jay Burgess of The Pollies, Russell Mefford of Fiddleworms and Hannah Aldridge for a discussion and performance to celebrate the release of “The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME.” Each had a big hand in the book’s story, and each was gracious enough to join me for the chat. Hear the audio from the event below:
#TBT The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME, IV
“The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME” isn’t the same telling of the FAME story you know. Rather, this story is about the impact Florence Alabama Music Enterprises, the recording studio and publishing company, had on the community that surrounded it and how it changed the next fifty years of music in Muscle Shoals. I couldn’t make all of the photos that I had at my disposal work in the book, and over the next couple of weeks, I’ll try to provide a little more context for this story with some of the photos that I couldn’t use.
It’s been some journey, but technically, you can now purchase the book at Alabama Booksmith. I even stopped by last week and signed a few, in the event that someone can’t wait until Monday. By all means, go. Buy. But three. They make great gifts.
Bloodkin are Athens, Georgia legends, in a town known for an overwhelming scene that has given R.E.M., B-52’s, Drive-By Truckers and Widespread Panic to the world. The latter recorded several of Bloodkin’s records, including mammoth hits like “Can’t Get High.” Bloodkin’s highs and lows have been well documented; struggles with loss and addiction have made their survival difficult, but Danny Hutchens and Eric Carter are still together after “The Long Hustle.”
Hutchens spoke to Weld about his relationship with Widespread Panic, overcoming those hurdles life has thrown and Athens.
Filed under Music.
The Shooters
“The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME” isn’t the same telling of the FAME story you know. Rather, this story is about the impact Florence Alabama Music Enterprises, the recording studio and publishing company, had on the community that surrounded it and how it changed the next fifty years of music in Muscle Shoals. I couldn’t make all of the photos that I had at my disposal work in the book, and over the next couple of weeks, I’ll try to provide a little more context for this story with some of the photos that I couldn’t use.
The Shooters were a country songwriting supergroup, bridging the period most known for sessions through the glory days of Muscle Shoals songwriting to the current live scene which has evolved in the last decade. Walt Aldridge, Gary Baker, Barry Billings, Chalmers Davis and Mike Dillon – the first two wrote a pile of country hits you’re unaware that you know, while Billings mentored kids like Chris Tompkins, Shonna Tucker, Bo Bice and Jason Isbell at La Fonda’s Mexican Restaurant on Highway 72. During a dark period when the Shoals doesn’t receive a lot of credit for the music it was creating, The Shooters gave the community life.
I’ll be signing copies of “The Muscle Shoals Legacy of FAME” at Alabama Booksmith on June 29. They will have an exclusive hardcover edition of the book for sale, which you can reserve here. You can also preorder on Amazon here. I have also created a Spotify playlist that offers a little more context for the time period the book covers. Subscribe to it here.
The Best of Bonnaroo 2015.
It’s impossible to see everything at Bonnaroo. Further, it’s impossible to see everything that you want to see at Bonnaroo. The lineup is expansive and the grounds are sprawling. At some point in my five years of attending the festival, I realized that, and I made peace with selecting performances that I couldn’t often see, smaller stages and with absorbing more complete representations of a performance, rather than bouncing around, stage to stage, and catching 15 minutes of many different acts.
So I didn’t watch Alabama Shakes. Or My Morning Jacket. Because I have gotten and will likely get plenty of Alabama Shakes and My Morning Jacket. Both just released terrific new records that I love, but there were opportunities to see new and interesting things while their sets were going on, and I took advantage.
It’s objective, and no two experiences at this or any other festival can be the same. I repeat that every year, but there are music “critics” out there that seem to believe that their opinion is subjective and authoritative, so I feel like I have to keep repeating myself. I think I have pretty good taste, and if I have given you a track record to back that up, maybe you’ll continue to agree with my opinions and trust that my taste won’t steer yours wrong.
Blake Ells 