By: David Schultz

The evening concluded at the Cedar Street Courtyard with Grace Potter & The Nocturnals warming the slight evening chill by previewing selections from their upcoming album This Is Something. The winsome Potter, fast on her way to becoming the sexiest, hippie goddess in rock, led the Nocturnals through a rootsy, soulful set punctuated by guitarist Scott Tournet's increasingly killer guitar solos, Brian Dondero's finely honed bass and Matt Burr's straightforward, powerful drums. Rather than try to put into words the extent that the Vermont natives conquered SXSW, let this tale suffice. In the 21 years that I have been attending concerts the one thing that I have always ached to see, but never have, is a true encore. Without fail, once the planned encore ends, every crowd immediately shuffles off like lemmings, leaving the very intoxicated and consciousness-expanded few to scream fruitlessly for more. When Potter and the Nocturnals finished their set, few left the Courtyard. Even though the curfew had passed, the band upstairs and the power turned off, the crowd howled for more. Potter came back to the stage, seemingly questioning whether they could heed the request for "one more song" only to be told no. Over the protests of the venue's staff, Tournet came running down the stairs with an acoustic guitar and he had Potter played a brief but rollicking "Mystery Train." With Potter spilling her whiskey while she bopped and sang next to Tournet, the two played what has to be every musician's dream – a true encore. In talking with Matt Burr after the show, he said that it's every band's desire to kill at SXSW. Well, Potter & The Nocturnals didn't kill at SXSW – they devastated it.

Labels: Grace Potter and The Nocturnals

By: David Schultz

Although every band wants to have a fresh and new sound for their debut album, it’s not uncommon to look back to prior eras: for Hot Fuss, The Killers looked back to the Eighties; on Wolfmother’s debut they immersed themselves in Seventies hard rock and heavy metal. On their self produced, self-titled debut, The Cannys one up everyone by looking back to another century, bringing a selection of Irish folk ballads and pub songs into the 21st century.

Staying focused on the Emerald Isle, here are links to our reviews on The Swell Season at Radio City Music Hall, Bell X1 at the HighLine Ballroom and U2 at Giants Stadium.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Labels: Bell XI, The Canny Brothers Band, The Swell Season, U2

By: David Schultz

White Denim, one of the more talked about bands at this year’s SXSW, finishes out the night at Club de Ville, combining with the White Rabbits to create an indie-rock version of Puff Daddy’s White Party. The Austin based trio of guitarist James Petralli, bassist Steve Terebecki and drummer Joshua Block have been blowing people away over the past few days and have become a destination band for anyone not familiar with the local scene. When I got off the plane four days ago, I had never heard of White Denim; by the end of their set, I wanted to own everything they had ever recorded. Such is SXSW and such is the awesomeness of this band. White Denim distills everything that is great about the blues and garage style rock and roll, strips it down and condenses it into its purest essence and offers it up in highly concentrated doses. At Club de Ville, Petralli broke a string in the middle of their second song and announced that they would then try to play every song they knew that didn’t require him to use the string. If they sound that good with 5 strings, I can only imagine it gets better with 6.

There are also some near misses. Earlier that day, I caught a memorable set by San Francisco's Built For The Sea.

The second biggest surprise of the week (after White Denim) awaited me on Bourbon Rocks’ patio: Built For The Sea. Fronted by the adorable Lia Rose, Built For The Sea is the indie-rock equivalent to Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. Rose moved between her keyboards and guitar, working nicely off of the prodigious wall of indie-fuzz being produced by Jon Latimer, Daniel McKenzie and Eric Kuhn. Their self-titled 2006 debut album doesn’t give you any idea of how effective this quartet is as a live band, coming nowhere near displaying BFTS’s sonic heft. Had I heard the album before seeing them, I don’t think I would have bothered to catch their set. Either they had to dull their sound down for the studio or BFTS has made phenomenal strides over the last two years. My explanation of Built For The Sea isn’t going to do justice to their live sound, which truly was captivating. I’ll just leave it that this is one of the bands I’m looking most forward to seeing again.

I never did see them again. Unlike White Denim, who have taken off, especially overseas, Built For The Sea's Web site still promotes a show that took place more than a year ago and I can't find any new music from them anywhere. Oh well. That Bourbon Rocks set was still one of my favorite.

To read the entire Schultz By Southwest column from 2008, click here.

For the 2007 column, which includes the tale of Earvolution inadvertently Shanghai-ing the Sub Pop showcase at Emo's Lounge, click here.

Labels: SXSW, White Denim

By: David Schultz

As with most years, the Allmans' invasion of the Beacon sounded a testosterone laden siren call. Women who were looking for slightly overweight, highly intoxicated men in their forties or fifties with fading hairlines, vintage tie-dyes and a love of proper classic rock could have rummaged the Beacon’s aisles like a sale at Filene’s Basement. While the residency attracted its fair share of female guests, the shows were likely the only ones in recent memory where the women could waltz by a bathroom line of nearly a hundred guys and walk right into a nearly vacant ladies room. . . .

Over the course of 15 shows in a three week span, the Allman Brothers Band engaged in a little rock and roll revivalism that went beyond reawakening interest in the Southern rock stalwarts back catalog. By showcasing the blues as a vital and living entity, the Allmans recharged and enlivened interest in the whole genre. If you managed to attend more than one show and not feel the need to acquire some old blues recordings, you weren’t paying close enough attention.

For the entire article on the 2009 residency, click here. Do likewise for coverage of the 2007 and 2006 residencies. Don't strain yourself looking for 2008: it's lumped in with articles on the 1994 World Series and Michael Jackson's This Is It shows.

Labels: Allman Brothers Band

By: David Schultz

Next week, Earvolution will be down in Austin, Texas for the annual South By Southwest Festival. Rather than place the site on hiatus, I am taking a cue from the major television networks and throwing the Earfuls into reruns while I spend the week assessing how ridiculous I look in a Stetson and acclimating myself to breakfast burritos.

Labels: SXSW

I love a Cloudcast where I get to hear a bunch of music I wouldn't otherwise have heard. Rinjo's got it right: this is a worthwhile 33 minutes.

Labels: Rinjo Cloudcast

By: David Schultz


In entering the studio with Steve Berlin, Anderson, his brother Matt and drummer Tim Kramp have found a producer that can harness the their feral growl without losing their band-next-door geniality. An unfairly unsung songwriter, Anderson excels at capturing moments and feelings with a pithy empathic wit. “Brady,” a song about a kid in Amsterdam with too much money and too much time, bounces along with an apropos sense of giddy enthusiasm and “Estelle” could sit comfortably amidst anything from the Tom Petty collection. Once again, the greatest bar band in the world proves they can tear it up in the studio.

NINETIES ERA JAMBAND God Street Wine will reunite for a pair of benefit shows at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On July 9 and July 10, they will raise money and awareness for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, a charity endorsed by their longtime stage manager who was diagnosed with MS in 2004. Well before the announcement, Hidden Track has tirelessly kept the memory of the band alive with their God Street Wednesdays. This may be the only news that can derail the wire-to-wire Phish coverage.

Labels: Backyard Tire Fire

By: David Schultz


Chuck Berry who’s also featured in The T.A.M.I. Show, has his own documentary floating around the nether regions of the cable universe. In Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, Taylor Hackford, the director of Ray, focuses on the preparations for a 1986 concert at the Fox Theater in St. Louis, Missouri to celebrate Berry’s 60th birthday. Filmed almost a quarter century ago, it features a fascinating round table between a now-deceased Bo Diddley, a now-incoherent Little Richard and Berry discussing the good-old-days in a calm, unembellished manner. It also features Berry going into a slow burn as he instructs an increasingly irritated Keith Richards on the correct way to play “Carol.” All of originators of rock and roll know what gets a crowd going and the concert footage, especially “Little Queenie,” captures Berry doing just that.

Howlin’ Wolf, one of Berry’s label mates from Chess Records, is the appropriate subject of Don McGlynn’s 2003 documentary, The Howlin’ Wolf Story. Popping up sporadically on Ovation, this one is a must DVR as it’s riddled with lengthy commercial breaks. The black and white footage from Wolf’s TV appearances, reminiscences from peers like Hubert Sumlin and Wolf’s own voice from archival footage make this worth the time. Among the voyeuristic moments, footage of a gathering of old blues musicians that gets a little edgy when Son House has too much to drink and, to Wolf's consternation, becomes a bit of an irascible and annoying presence in the room.

Beyond The Sea, Kevin Spacey’s biopic of Bobby Darin, falls at the other end of the spectrum. Using nearly all of the musical biography staples mocked in Walk Hard, Spacey fails to make Darin captivating or show why his career was worthy of the feature film treatment. The actor’s version of “Mind Games” blew people away at a 2001 John Lennon benefit, overshadowing many of the actual musicians on hand that night. He doesn’t recapture that glory in his embodiment of Bobby Darin. Stay away from this one and just watch The Usual Suspects again.

Although none of them play a note of music, rock stars dominate Jim Jarmusch’s 2003 gabfest Coffee & Cigarettes. Consisting of conversations between smokers sipping Java, the offbeat director gets the most out of his musical actors. Meg White says more in her one scene with her brother/husband/houseboy Jack and a Tesla coil than she has in a decade on stage. The GZA and RZA, who are the only ones in the film to neither light up or imbibe caffeine, more than hold their own in their absurd interlude with Bill Murray as they convince him to gargle oven cleaner as a homeopathic remedy. The piece de resistance is Iggy Pop and Tom Waits engaging in an uncomfortable conversation in which Waits consistently rebuffs all of Pop’s overtures of friendship while they both chain smoke their way through a found pack.

Labels: Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, White Stripes

By: David Schultz

If it's OK, first let me answer a related question you didn't ask: Mayer wasn't "drunk" during the interview, as many people have written and presumed.

Read the interview by clicking here.

Labels: Allman Brothers Band, John Mayer, Rob Tannenbaum

By: David Schultz


After Woodstock, the Leroy Justice/Hothouse Flowers combo will play one more gig, March 11 at the Fairfield Theater in Fairfield, CT. On March 14, the first off-day of the 2010 Allman Brothers Band residency, Justice will play BB King Blues Club & Grill as part of a benefit for The Allman Brothers Band Museum. The Jamie McLean Band, Lingo and Yonrico Scott from the Derek Trucks Band will also be on the bill.

Leroy Justice will remind you why you love rock and roll. Why deprive yourself of that?

Labels: Leroy Justice

Labels: Jay Reatard, Rinjo Cloudcast; Future Of The Left

By: David Schultz

The second album from Blues & Lasers, Scott Tournet's Delta blues side-project that features fellow Nocturnals Benny Yurco and Matt Burr, bassist John Rogone and drummer Steve Sharon, is at the mastering stage and is on schedule to beat the new Grace Potter & The Nocturnals album into the stores (or whatever passes for one these days). The band is targeting April 15 as a release date for the CDs (give or take a week or two) but are aiming to have it available for digital download by the end of the month. If their set at the Brooklyn Bowl served as a preview, get excited for what's coming.

Early last year, I interviewed B&L for jambands.com. Check it out by clicking here.

COMPILATIONS FROM BONNAROO always tend to be eclectic collections and now they support a cause. Music For Action, a partnership between Bonnaroo, HeadCount, the NRDC Action Fund and JamBase, is willing to give you a 17 song album of live tracks if you help them pester Congress and news outlet to do something about climate change. Best of Bonnaroo features My Morning Jacket covering the Velvet Underground's "Oh Sweet Nuthin'," a portion of The Decemberists' rock opera The Hazards Of Love and Grateful Dead standbys from Phil Lesh & Friends and Bob Weir & Ratdog. It also has live cuts from jamband stalwarts like moe., Phish, The Disco Biscuits and the Dave Matthews Band as well as non-traditional festival fare from Pearl Jam, Wilco and Raphael Saadiq. Download the album and get the political info by clicking here.

Labels: Blues and Lasers, Bonnaroo

By: David Schultz


IF YOU ARE READING THIS because The Stones and/or Petty tickles your musical fancy, then you will be excited to know that Alan Parsons has a new live album coming out March 19 in Europe and April 6 in the USA. Eye 2 Eye - Live In Madrid captures a May 14, 2004 show at the Playa Mayor in Spain and contains "Games People Play," "Damned If I Do" and "Sirius," a staple of every NBA pre-game. There seems to be a supporting tour but to see it, you need to be in Israel, Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Russia.

Labels: Alan Parsons, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty

By: David Schultz


Last Thursday night, Lewis & The Honeybears played a sold-out show at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom, pulling in a sizable crowd despite the raging blizzard that shut down Gotham the next morning. Much as he does on Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is, the band’s full length debut on Lost Highway Records, Lewis offered up the emotionally unguarded sentiments that underlie the blues. In a voice that bears a slight resemblance to Chris Rock and an attitude derived from James Brown, Lewis confronts lack of money on “I’m Broke,” the need and desire for female companionship on “Sugarfoot” and “Big Booty Woman” and the fear of losing a good woman no matter how many times you screw up on “Get You Shit.” The Honeybears rank up there with the best bands of any era: there’s no song that a horn section can’t make better and when Lewis ramps up into roadhouse raves like “Bobby Booshay,” they kick into another gear.

It’s become commonplace at most shows for there be a level of chattiness amongst the crowd. If you go to enough shows, you get attuned to drowning it out. For Lewis’ set at the Bowery Ballroom, it was too loud to ignore. A combination of hipsters who were present because the bloggers told them they were supposed to like Lewis & The Honeybears and drunken frat boys hoping to howl along with misguided glee at Lewis’ “Bitch I Love You” seemed to dominate the crowd that braved the weather to get to the show and their incessant chatter overwhelmed and at times drowned out Lewis. During “Get Yo Shit,” one of Lewis’ wittiest and humorous songs, his tale of frustrated reconciliation became lost within the din of the self-involved audience, depriving it or any other song of any sense of resonance. Casting pearls before swine, Lewis played a fine show before a predominantly uninterested audience.

Labels: Black Joe Lewis

I am unsure how this started but some time back Rinjo developed an obsession with songs that lasted 2:22. I know of no significant February 22 birthdays and unless he's been hiding it from me, there's no weird numerological fixation at work. It results in The Hives, The Len Price 3 and The Staples Singers ending up on the same Cloudcast, so three cheers for iTunes for making this simple.