Boston reggae funk band Spiritual Rez hits the Engine Room in Tallahassee tonight. Doors open at 9, cover is $10.
Local band Shoes and Laces opens.
Spiritual Rez opened last weekend's PoJo Festival in Port St. Joe, Fla.
That little PoJo fest was a gem -- listening to music while bobbing in the clear aqua waters, yes! Texas's Bob Schneider, indie darlings (recently on the cover of Rolling Stone) The Sheepdogs, Calfornia's ALO, and Honey Island Swamp Band out of New Orleans turned out stellar performances to a crowd that was pretty tiny.
Props to the organizers, and if they keep booking bands this good, this fest can only grow. There's plenty of room for more of us to float in that lovely bay.
Heading down to the Panhandle coast tomorrow for the free PoJo festival in Port St. Joe, Florida, which has a bunch of national acts and a few local ones as well. Did I mention it's free and on the coast? Here's my other festgrrl post on it and my other festgrrl post on it.
Honey Island Swamp Band is great (check out their streaming music player) and they have a cool back story on their web site:
"The band came together after Aaron Wilkinson (acoustic guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Chris Mulé (electric guitar, vocals) were marooned in San Francisco after the levee breaches following Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and had a chance encounter with fellow New Orleans evacuees Sam Price (bass, vocals) and Garland Paul (drums, vocals). They'd all worked together in New Orleans bands for years, but with no prospects of getting home any time soon, they figured they’d better cook up something new, and quick!
A few days later they had put together a song list, landed a recurring gig at San Francisco’s Boom Boom Room, and settled in to share a little taste of Southern culture with their new West coast neighbors. Their 7-song eponymous EP was recorded in 2006 at famed studio The Plant in Sausalito, CA, and was received so well that they all decided to continue the band upon moving back to New Orleans in early 2007.
Honey Island Swamp Band's sound has been described as "Americana on the Bayou", with timeless songs from Wilkinson & Mulé, highlighted by Mulé's searing guitar, Wilkinson's sure-handed mandolin, and 4-part vocal harmonies, all anchored by the powerful groove of Price & Paul's Louisiana stomp rhythm section.
In April 2009, the band released its first full-length album, Wishing Well, produced by Tom Drummond of Better Than Ezra. Throughout the rest of 2009, the band toured relentlessly in support of Wishing Well, on the strength of such songs as "Natural Born Fool", "Till the Money's Gone", and the album's title track. In January 2010, Wishing Well was named 2009's “Best Blues Album” at OffBeat Magazine's BEST OF THE BEAT Awards, where the band was also honored as “Best Emerging Artist”.
The newest offering from HISB, Good To You, was released in April 2010, and has quickly become a staple of most DJs on the Crescent City's legendary radio station WWOZ, as well as on Sirius/XM satellite radio’s Bluesville and traditional stations from coast-to-coast. Featuring the southern strut of songs such as “Rod n Reel” and the album’s first single “Chocolate Cake”, Good To You illuminates the mix of country-inflected rock and New Orleans funky blues that makes Honey Island Swamp Band's music so familiar and unique at the same time."
Willie Nelson and some fine New Orleans musicians will give a free day-long concert on Pensacola Beach Sunday, Oct. 17, thanks to money from Gulf despoiler BP.
The free shows happen on the final day of DeLuna Fest October 15 and 16. You can get two free tickets per person. Check the DeLuna site (linked above) for details on that. Also on the Sunday lineup: Galactic, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Kermit Ruffin,and Honey Island Swamp Band. Nice!
Headliners for the two paid days of DeLuna Fest include Stone Temple Pilots, Daughtry, 311, Bush, Dierks Bentley, 30 Seconds to Mars and Michael Franti & Spearhead. In all, the two paid days encompass more than 20 acts on three stages. Weekend passes, which include admission to all three days of the festival and guarantee admission to the free third day, are $90 advance, $99 at the gate. You can buy single-day passes for $47.50 per day advance, $55 at the gate. Purchase of single-day tickets doesn't guarantee admission for the free day. Complicated enough for ya?
No camping for this one, they want you to suppport hotels on Pensacaola Beach, which is probably a good thing considering the hellish summer the Gulf Coast has been forced to endure.
Posts
