In preparation for my friends 30th birthday this weekend (we’re renting Wrestlemania @ our local bar) I was cleaning off the camera. I realized I’ve taken a lot of pictures from shows but never managed to post ‘em. So here they are.
Pine Box Boys from Dave’s Aqua Lounge
Nervous Turkey from Skippers Smokehouse
Mofro from Skippers Smokehouse
Lucero - Old Sad Songs (seemed topical…one of the best 1 minute songs ever)
There is no excuse for staying in the house this weekend people. There is just too damn much going on in our fine city this weekend and the weather is, all things considered, gonna be pretty mild. So, let’s get down to the haps…
Thursday Night
Some of the people involved with Reax have started booking shows on Thursday nights at Push Ultra Lounge in Downtown St. Pete. This Thursday night Summerbirds in the Cellar are gracing us with their presence. I’ve written about both of their cds here and here. Doors are at 8:00 and the cover is 6 dollars for singles and 10 dollars for couples. I’ve seen these guys live once before and it was tremendous.
Summerbirds in the Cellar - Wicked World (Move Softly)
Friday Night
It’s the return of one of the best shows I saw last year and the Florigasm will be returning sans the opressive summer heat. Nervous Turkey will be pulling the opening duties for JJ Grey and Mofro once again @ Skipper’s Smokehouse in a two night stand. I listed this one on Friday night because that is the night I plan to go but they will be performing both Friday and Saturday nights. This will be as much event as it is show and you should try everything in your power to see these guys one or both of the nights.
Nervous Turkey - Strang
JJ Grey and Mofro - Florida
Saturday Night
ninebullets.net faves Lucero are making their triumphant return to Saint Petersburg. Oh yeah, all the cool kids will be at The State Theater. There are shows where you just know that heavy heavy intoxication will accompany to and through the show. This is one such occasion. I have cleared my Sunday schedule. Everything is set to tear shit up on a Saturday night. Come and join us. These two songs should set the scene:
Lucero - Old Sad Songs
Lucero - I’ll Just Fall
Sunday Night
detox.
In Florida August nights are hot and I don’t mean wear a pair of shorts hot. I’m talking wear as little clothes as possible and you’re still gonna sweat hot. It’s a fact that we’ve come to live with. Rain offers no solace, instead it adds to the stifling humidity. This is Florida and these are our August nights. The Mofro boys come from Jacksonville and they know this. This particular Friday night was not an unfamiliar site for Floridians. Afternoon thunderstorms turned into night mug. We had a hurricane out in the Caribbean projected to come just close enough to the Gulf to allow the weathermen to practice their hunkerdown speeches and Mofro playing under the ol’ Oak trees that cover the Skipperdome. Sweat, affordable beer, fried foods and a swampy soulful blues band from J-ville following the hyper-sweaty dirty blues outfit that is Tampa’s own Nervous Turkey made this seem like a perfect Florida storm. A Florigasm if you will.
As I said last week, I had never seen the Mofro boys live before and as the sold out crowd began to filter in I soon realized I was definitely in the minority but it seemed like a welcoming enough crowd. I settled in at the front of the stage to watch the Nervous Turkey boys. I have seen Nervous Turkey two other times in bars with acoustics as poor as my grammar. Seeing them in the Skipperdome sealed the deal for me. I love these guys. They play a brand of blues that makes me wanna drink and there’s nothing wrong with that. For the bulk of the show I was completely taken in by Mr. Locke but as their set was winding down I took a look around. The crowd had probably tripled in size and a lot of them were just as enthralled with these fellas as I was. If you get a chance do not pass on seeing Nervous Turkey, I guarantee that you’ll have a good time.
Next came the reason for the evening. A bead of sweat slowly ran the length of my back as the band took the stage and began to tune up. “It’s been too long Skipperdome” were the first words from Mr. Grey’s mouth. The crowd response was exactly as it should have been. The opening instrumental quasi-jam band number with Grey announcing his band gave way to Florida:
Now skyscrapers and superhighways / are carved through the heart of Florida / Building sub-divisions while the swamps are drained / makin’ room for people and amusement parks / It’s like watchin’ someone you love die slow / Yeah they’re killin’ her one piece at a time / I know some fools who think I should let go / but they never seen Florida through my eyes
It was here I really began to appreciate both the honesty of these guys and the connection they have with the crowd. I would really like to think that the connection with Florida based crowds is a lot closer to the bone than it is with outta state crowds but something tells me I should not be so naive. Blogcritics put it so perfectly I am just gonna quote them direct:
Like shamans, the charismatic Grey and his sinuous band build their modestly structured, unprepossessing songs into small volcanoes of emotion, with the audience supplying half the energy.
It wasn’t some low key soul show mind you. No, No, No. The funk of tracks like “How Junior Got His Head Put Out“, “Nare Sugar” and “Ho’ Cake” most definitely proved to be crowd favorites and caused more than a few folks to break out in fits of spontaneous dancing. In the end I left feeling less like I went to a show and more like I had just witnessed an event. Do you know what I am saying? I know it sounds cheesy but I just feel like I am devaluing the the night if I just call it a show. I dunno, maybe it’s the heat talking.
Mofro - Florida
Mofro - Ho’ Cake
Mofro - How Junior Got His Head Put Out
Mofro - On Palastine
It’s been quiet around town for a few weeks, but it looks like this weekend will be making up for it. When it rains it pours, I guess, but it’s better than sitting at home and watching pre-season football.
Friday Night @ Skipper’s Smokehouse:
Jacksonville’s own JJ Grey & Mofro bring their swamp-infused brand of front porch blues/soul music to the Skipperdome. I have never seen these guys live, but everyone I know who has is telling me it is gonna be one of my favorite shows of the year, and I’m totally buying into it, too. I’m loving their new cd, Country Ghetto, and judging from the tunes I can glean from archive.org, the band is tight and energetic. Besides, what could be better than an August night eating fried catfish and gator tail while listening to some bluesy soul music?
Opening up for Mofro is a group quickly taking over as my favorite local band, Nervous Turkey. Playing a brand of blues dirtier than a country boy’s, feet Nervous Turkey always puts on an entertaining show and will make for a perfect opener for this evening. So, come out, drink beers, eat fried food and have a good time.
Nervous Turkey - Too Late for Romance
Show starts at 8:00 and tickets will be $22.00.
Saturday Night @ Crowbar:
from aes presents:
“After amicably breaking away from his gig as an axman and songrwriter for DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, Isbell returns with his first solo outing, a gorgeously whiskey-soaked Country-Soul masterpiece. It’s a perfect soundtrack for rocking on the porch or crying into your PBR.” - highly recommended for fans of DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, RYAN ADAMS, UNCLE TUPELO, KINGS OF LEON, THE BOTTLE ROCKETS, etc. - from Muscle Shoals, AL - brand new record, “Sirens of the Ditch”, out now on New West.
I have been looking forward to this show for a few months now. If you are a fan of the rock show this is a must-see. Opening up for Jason is Denton, Texas’ Centro-matic. They come in with a root-rock/alt-country sound and seven albums under their belt. Always a good show, there is no reason for you to show up late for this show.
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Try
Doors are at 9:00 and tickets will be $12.00.
ADDITIONAL JASON ISBELL AND CENTRO-MATIC MP3′S ARE AVAILAVLE HERE.
Saturday Night @ Janus Landing:
Like I said earlier, when it rains it pours. Weeks of nothing and then we get two shows on the same damn night. If it weren’t for the Jason Isbell show, I would be at this show for sure. Tech N9ne, Kottonmouth Kings and Hed PE bring it to St. Pete. I don’t really know what the definition of ‘Krunk’ is, but when I think about seeing Tech live, I think K.R.U.N.K.. Fans of that hiphop sound should be at this show. Then email me and tell me what I missed.
Tech N9ne - The Industry is Punks
Doors are at 7:30 and tickets will be $28.00
WTF? Why not. I already keep the Essential Listening list. I can spend a day telling you what may favorite 5 so far are. Maybe you’ll buy one, and you should…downloading all the time is like fucking whores. Sure, in the end you got off, but wouldn’t it be nice to get a pretty package every once in a while?
These are selected from my Essential Listening list. It is basically the best albums I have come to hear this year. They may have been released earlier but I did not hear them until 2007 and the same rules apply here. Furthermore, these are not in any order, and isn’t a be-all end-all list. This list could change depending on the day and my mood. All the albums in the Esslist list get regular play. However, some get more than others, and trying to trim those down to a mere 5 has left a few out that may have been on it if I was typing this yesterday….or tomorrow. Without further ado:
My favorites of the first half of 2007:
This is one if those albums. Honestly, I didn’t even put it on the Esslist when I originally posted about it, but I never stopped listening to it. Ever. Then my brother started listening to it in the cubicle next to me at work and it just kept occupying more and more of my music time. So finally, with no fanfare, I quietly added it to the Essential Listening list. Country Ghetto is so much better of an album than I initially gave it credit for. Of everything on this list, this will probably be the album I still listen to 5 years from now. It really is timeless like that.
Unlike the JJ Grey album, I knew I was in love with this album the moment the cd changer tried to switch to the next disc and I got my drunk ass up off the porch swing and walked inside to play it again. I opened my write-up about these guys with these two sentences:
Somewhere on the highway between Drag the River and Lucero, there is an exit with a dive bar. The Fox Hunt, out of Martinsburg, West Virginia, is that bar’s house band.
I still think those are the best two lines to have ever come from this little blog. At the same time, I have never thought my writeup did these guys justice. The album they put together really does only get better with time. Listening to them way too early in the morning a couple of weeks ago on my way to go fishing sealed the deal on these guys making this post. I do not care that they are just some unsigned band from Virginia who happened to put out a cd. It is better than 95% of the crap that Pitchfork is gonna bust wood over. That’s a fact. If these guys manage to buck the odds and stay together they are gonna be mainstays on your community radio station in a few years. Do yourself a favor and check these kids out. They gots mad skills.
On the way home from mountain biking over the weekend, I was telling the wife about this post and asking what she thought. I asked her what her choices would be, without thought she says, “Alela Diane and The Wells! I’ll have to think about it after that.” The Wells were already on my short list as well. The characters of this album and myself have spent many an evening and a bike ride together. I cannot wait for the next Wells album, but ’til it gets here, me and outcasts are like a familiar and well worn book.
The Wells - I had a Dream, Jess
At the risk of hyperbole, 10 Days Out is much greater than the sum of it’s parts. 10 Days will serve as documentation of some of the lesser known, but by no means lesser, blues musicians of the South. Some of the people featured on the cd/dvd release passed on before it was released, and more have moved on since. The object was to shine a spotlight on these people while there was still time, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, along with the legendary Double Trouble and producer Jerry Harrison, achieved their goal in spades. No overdubs, no high-tech fixing, “Live as it went down,” says Shepherd. “What happened is what you hear. We kept it as real as possible.” More history than mere album release, this is the most ‘important’ album released this year, in my opinion.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd w/Cootie Stark and Neal ‘Big Daddy’ Pattman - Prison Blues
Cootie Stark (1926-2005) - A blind street singer, he learned his stuff from Greenville, South Carolina, bluesmen Uncle Chump and Pink Anderson in the 1930’s. At 70 he rediscovered his unplugged genius and has headlined at festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe. His card catalog repertoire runs from soul classics to Piedmont blues songs like “Sandyland” and “Metal Bottoms.” Cootie Stark was one of the last authentic Piedmont blues guitarists/singers and provided a direct link to a South long gone.
Neal Pattman (1926-2005) - Nobody made moonshine, worked a cakewalk, chopped wood or played a harmonica like Neal Pattman. Losing an arm in a wagon wheel at the age of nine didn’t slowed him at all. “66 years ago the Blues knocked on my door and they wouldn’t leave.” His testimony can be heard in a sound and a style his daddy taught him as a child in the country outside Athens, Georgia.
As I said before, “Two Cow Garage is a band I can root for. Three completely awesome guys who write completely awesome rock music and play it with everything in them, regardless of the size of the crowd behind the monitors, and if you can’t get behind that, then I dunno why you would even bother to read this site.” They may hate their name, but what a name they are making out of it. “Three” shows the band at their cow-punk/rock-and-freaking-roll best. Life on the road may have left them a little jaded, but not so cynical you need a white belt to listen to them. Three will be one of the best albums this year, regardless of what gets released in these remaining six months, and if you are so lucky to have them come to your town, they will also be one of the best rock shows you will get to see.
Two Cow Garage - Should’ve California
The album I most regret not being on this list:
I kept thinking that damned Gill Landry album has got to be on this list, then I could not find anything to bump, but at the same time, I could not accept leaving this list without a mention of Lawless Soirez. This album is beautiful on many layers. “Featuring a mixture of old country blues, jazz and songster music of the 20’s and 30’s, and Gill’s voice….and oh what a voice, makes this the perfect cd for a quiet night with a warm glass of whiskey and a little sweat.” One listen to the song Dixie and you should understand.
And there you go. Hopefully there is much awesomeness left to be found in the remaining six months. I’m gonna go find some to write about tomorrow.
Take care.
“A glorious, soul-drenched delight…
down-home funk, blues and Dixie
rock, unmistakably Southern,
undeniably soulful.” —Billboard
Here is the million dollar question, would the move to Alligator Records change Mofro? Well, they added horns. Other than that, not to much is different. That’s a good thing. I wonder how much of a following Mofro has outside of Florida, but with the release of Country Ghetto, I have no doubt that it is about to expand. The best way to explain Mofro’s sound is to call it front-porch whiskey gospel. From swampy funk, to rock, to delta blues, Mofro’s music is the dirt under your fingernails sound of the common folk. Much like The Drive-by Trucker’s, Mofro writes about the other side of southern culture, and by other side I mean everything beside the slavery, racism, and troubles so often emphasized in pop culture. As Grey said in a recent interview in regard to the assassination of southern culture, “It’s like the buffalo,” he says. “The Southern culture has almost been hunted to extinction. The South has routinely been picked apart…”
Country Ghetto is Mofro’s strongest release to date. I am gonna add a brief description by JJ Grey of the 3 songs I chose for y’all on this one.
CIRCLES
From Florida’s vicious Barber-Mizell feud to religious stand-offs. From race relations to jilted lovers. Sooner or later someone has to break the vicious cycle of he-said, she-said by letting go and moving on.
COUNTRY GHETTO
I grew up when the “root hog or die” days were still fresh in the minds of my parents and grandparents. I was brought up to earn it and not waste it, to respect and protect womanhood and promote manhood, and to be thankful for what you got. By today’s standard we, and most of the folks we knew, lived below the so-called “poverty line.” We were land and culture rich and dollar poor ,but I wouldn’t trade my upbringing for any other. I’ve always felt blessed to be raised here, to know so many larger than life characters, and to steep in the years of blood, sweat, and the grim determination of my people before me. My culture, my life, my love is here in this country ghetto.
ON PALASTINE
When my grandfather was a young man the timber barons came and tried to cheat the folks around Lake Palastine (seven miles south of Olustee, FL) out of their land. The timber men bought off some for nothing and burned the rest out of house and home. I was a young’n when my grandparents told me this story.
Mofro - Country Ghetto
Mofro - Circles
Mofro - On Palastine
Mofro’s Official Site, Mofro on myspace, Buy Mofro’s new cd “Country Ghetto”
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