Dayton's Andrew Gabbard vs. The Impressions

Andrew Gabbard recently cut his own version of the Curtis Mayfield-penned Impressions gem "Don't Let It Hide" – hear 'em both. 

Remembering blues great Junior Kimbrough on his birthday

Celebrating Junior Kimbrough's birthday with some live footage, interviews and a tribute from the Black Keys. 

One For The Weekend: The Black Keys w/ Noel Gallagher

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded "On The Game" with Noel Gallagher for their Ohio Players LP at Toe Rag Studios. 

Robert Finley previews Black Bayou album with "Sneakin' Around"

Robert Finley's new Dan Auerbach-produced Black Bayou album – due Oct 27 – features the Black Keys' Pat Carney on drums.  

Here's the scoop...

Robert Finley has just released “Sneakin’ Around,” the second single to his highly anticipated fourth studio album, Black Bayou, due October 27 via Easy Eye Sound. Check out the accompanying music video directed by Andy M Hawkes, starring the 69 year-young Finley below. You can pre-order Black Bayou right here: https://click.ees.link/blackbayou

 

Finley recorded Black Bayou at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville. It’s the fourth time the duo have worked together, although for this record they did things a little differently. Rather than write songs beforehand—as they did on 2017’s Goin’ Platinum and 2021’s Sharecropper’s Son—they devised everything in the studio, with Auerbach leading a band of some of the finest players around: drummers Patrick Carney (The Black Keys) and Jeffrey Clemens (G. Love & Special Sauce), bassist Eric Deaton, and legendary Hill Country blues guitarist Kenny Brown along with vocalists Christy Johnson and LaQuindrelyn McMahon—who just happen to be Finley’s daughter and granddaughter. They worked quickly, devising their parts spontaneously and getting everything in one take.

 

Black Bayou, is a portrait of North Louisiana from an insider who’s lived there all his life. It coalesces all of the vibrant genres bubbling in the bayou from southern soul, jazz, folk, blues, rock and roll and more. A vivid collection of songs that depict life in North Louisiana, with Finley playing the role of charismatic and knowledgeable tour guide. Tales include surviving the jaws of an alligator on “Alligator Bait,” a true story of his grandfather using him as bait to catch an alligator when he was a child. “Nobody Wants To Be Lonely” is a poignant track spotlighting the generation forgotten in nursing homes across the nation. Songs like “Miss Kitty,” a  tale of lust and love are an instant induction into the canon of the blues tradition. In all, a collection set to establish Finley as perhaps one of the last true bluesmen of our time and a truly original Louisiana storyteller who evokes the place and its unique culture for the rest of the world.

 

“It’s amazing to realize how much of an impact Louisiana has had on the world’s music,” says Dan Auerbach, “and Robert embodies all of that. He can play a blues song. He can play early rock and roll. He can play gospel. He can do anything, and a lot of that has to do with where he’s from.”

 

If Finley’s previous albums established him as a formidable blues and soul artist - overcoming losing his sight in his 60s to become a music star - Black Bayou Finley hopes will help put North Louisiana on the musical map and launch the next generation of stars. Finley still plays small clubs around the region—even the occasional nursing home. Rather than move to where the music industry is, Finley is bringing the industry down to Bernice and working to boost regional acts and has plans for a new local recording studio in the works. “We got a lot of good talent down here in North Louisiana, but nobody’s really done much with it.” Finley stated, adding, “A lot of people just haven’t had a chance to record—or even just be heard. It worked for me, so I might as well try to help someone else get discovered, too.”

Watch the video for "Sneakin' Around" following his previous single "What Goes Around Comes Around" and the Black Bayou tracklisting. Check out Robert's tour dates for October and November below.

 

Black Bayou – Robert Finley

01. Livin' Out A Suitcase

02. Sneakin' Around

03. Miss Kitty

04. Waste Of Time

05. Can't Blame Me For Trying

06. Gospel Blues

07. Nobody Wants To Be Lonely

08. What Goes Around (Comes Around)

09. Lucky Day

10. You Got It (And I Need It)

11. Alligator Bait 

ROBERT FINLEY TOUR DATES

Thursday October 26, 2023 - New York, NY - Knitting Factory 

Saturday, 4 November 2023 - Groningen, NL - Take Root Festival

Sunday, 5 November 2023 - Brussels, BE - Rotonde @ Botanique 

Wednesday, 8 November 2023 - London, UK - Jazz Café 

Thursday, 9 November 2023 - Manchester, UK - Blues Kitchen 

Friday, 10 November 2023 - Pandrup, DK - Blues Heaven Festival

Tuesday, 14 November 2023 - Toulouse, FR - Salle Nougaro 

Wednesday, 15 November 2023 - Saint-Nazaire, FR - VIP

Thursday, 16 November 2023 - Amiens, FR - La Lune des Pirates

Saturday, 18 November 2023 - Šumperk, CZ - Blues Alive Festival

Monday, 20 November 2023 - Tourcoing, FR - Le Grand Mix

Tuesday, 21 November 2023 - Paris, FR - Maroquinerie

Thursday, 23 November 2023 - La Roche-Sur-Yon, FR - Quai M 

Friday, 24 November 2023 - La Rochelle, FR - La Sirène

Saturday, 25 November 2023 - Castres, FR - Lo Boegason

Sunday, 26 November 2023 - Saint-Etienne, FR - Le Fil  

Happy Birthday Junior Kimbrough!

Remembering Mississippi blues great Junior Kimbrough with his Philwood single credited to "Junior Kimball" on the label. 

Happy Birthday Archie Turner!

Celebrating the birthday of Memphis keyboard great with both sides of his 1969 Blackrock joint "Yeah Yeah." 

Watch the Black Keys' video for "Wild Child"

"Wild Child" is off The new Black Keys album Dropout Boogie out May 13th. Check it out here. 

One For The Weekend: Ceramic Animal

"Tangled" by Philly's Ceramic Animal is off their new Sweet Unknown album for Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound label. 

Buffalo Killers' Andrew Gabbard releases solo album Homemade

Andrew Gabbard has been stockpiling his Beatles-inspired tunes for his solo debut Homemade out now via Karma Chief/Colemine. 

Here's the scoop...

A musician whose influences span hard rock, psych, garage rock, and energetic pop, Andrew Gabbard has long been a force on the Southwestern Ohio music scene. Working with Thee Shams, The Buffalo Killers, and currently as The Gabbard Brothers with his brother Zach, Andrew is truly a prolific artist covering a wide range. The Buffalo Killers caught the attention of Dan Auerbach who produced their debut LP and Andrew is currently part of the touring band for The Black Keys. Now joining forces with another Ohio establishment, Colemine Records, Andrew hopes to hone his sound and grow his reach. His first LP as Andrew Gabbard is "Homemade", a mix of hazy pop infused with alt-country vibes that feels part Neil Young, part Wilco, and part Flaming Lips all at the same time.

Get a copy of Andrew Gabbard's Homemade album right here. If Leroi Conroy's nicely shot preview clip (below) doesn't give you enough of an idea of what's in store, the album's opening track "Wake Up, Brother" should. 

Watch Robert Finley's video for "Sharecropper's Son"

"Sharecropper's Son" is the title track off Robert Finley's new Dan Auerbach-produced album out May 21st via Easy Eye Sound. 

Robert Finley shares Dan Auerbach collaboration "Souled Out On You"

"Souled Out On You" is off Robert Finley's new album, Sharecropper's Son out May 21 via Easy Eye Sound. Get it here​.

Tony Joe White home recordings set for May release

Tony Joe White's Smoke From The Chimney will be issued by Easy Eye Sound on May 7. Watch the clip for "Boot Money" below.

Here's the scoop... 

On May 7, Smoke from the Chimney, a nine-song album of never-before-heard Tony Joe White tunes, will be released on Easy Eye Sound. Produced by Dan Auerbach and rounded out by Nashville’s most seasoned studio musicians, Smoke from the Chimney started out as a number of unadorned voice and guitar demos from White’s home studio before being transformed into full band arrangements harkening back to the albums he recorded in the late 60s and early 70s in Nashville and Muscle Shoals – just as he was emerging as an internationally recognized songwriter and recording artist. 

It takes a keen eye and a steady hand to restore something great from the past; to take the time to examine, catalog, and care for every last task without resorting to bolt-on mail-order parts and cheap paint. What was always great deserves that extra care and attention to detail, and when the time came for White’s son and manager, Jody White, to revisit his dad’s catalog of unreleased songs, he knew Auerbach was the one to make them shine once more. 

In the last 10 to 15 years of his life, White would preserve new compositions or revisit older tracks in his home studio with only a guitar – usually his Fender Stratocaster – and that inimitable voice. Most of that material would ultimately wind up on his late-career albums. But when an unproven song didn’t make the cut for a release, or if he couldn’t get another artist interested, the song stayed right where it was as Tony Joe moved on to other things. This dismissal was not a reflection of the song’s quality; in fact, it meant quite the opposite, as he would often reserve his best material for other artists. 

After his father’s death in 2018, Jody started transferring those multitrack home recordings to digital files. Looking back on the moment he unearthed the demo of Smoke from the Chimney, he recalls a mix of happiness, gratification, and shock. As he continued to find other songs that didn’t make an album, he moved the material into a separate folder. Within a year, those select recordings would evolve into Smoke from the Chimney. Jody says that even in those basic tracks, that definitive Tony Joe White groove instantly stood out. “He always finds a tempo and a pocket that is exactly right. and it’s a little bit different than anybody else would choose themselves,” he says. 

Ever since meeting Tony Joe backstage at an Australian music festival in 2009, Auerbach sought to make a record with him. For nearly a decade, Jody tried to line up session time for them but Tony Joe demurred. “For one reason or another, my Dad would never just want to go into a studio and write with somebody, or go work with somebody,” Jody says. “He liked to do it at his place, and his way, and it turned out how it turned out, you know what I mean? So, this album really all worked out perfectly. He was making these tracks for Dan all along, but we just didn’t know it.” 

Auerbach agrees. “Jody and I had been talking about this record for so long, and it didn’t happen for a reason,” he says. “It’s because it wasn’t supposed to happen. I was in a nervous cast of characters until the last few years, and if you’d given it to me any earlier, it wouldn’t have been right. I felt like all these people on the record were the right people and they laid in there behind Tony Joe. It felt really magical when we were making it happen.” 

“These songs feel like a collection to me and they all seem to work together, in a weird way, even though they’re so different,” says Auerbach, who is releasing the album on his Easy Eye Sound label. “There’s some heartbreaking ballads and some really raunchy carnal blues. But it all works together like scenes of a movie.” The cast of musical characters brought in by Auerbach to accompany White’s guitar and vocal recordings includes legendary keyboardist, Bobby Wood (Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett), Nashville pedal steel ace, Paul Franklin, next-generation guitar hero, Marcus King, and Grammy and ACM award-winning fiddler, Stuart Duncan, just to name a few. 

Jody believes that his father would love the way Smoke From the Chimney turned out. “I feel like it’s validation that Tony Joe was one of the greatest of all time,” he says. “That he could make something so potent, even so late in life, is something that not many people can do. I think it’s going to make people who loved him already love him even more.” 

Across five decades as a performer and storyteller, Tony Joe White (a.k.a. “The Swamp Fox”) left an indelible mark on American music. His catalog offers indisputable classics such as, Polk Salad Annie and Rainy Night in Georgia, and his songs have been recorded by Ray Charles, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, and Tina Turner.

 

 

Tony Joe White – Smoke From The Chimney 

1. Smoke from the Chimney

2. Boot Money

3. Del Rio, You’re Making Me Cry

4. Listen to Your Song 

5. Over You

6. Scary Stories 

7. Bubba Jones 

8. Someone Is Crying 

9. Billy

You can pre-order a copy of Smoke from the Chimney right here. Check out Robert Schober's animated clip for "Boot Money" below. 

John Anderson previews Dan Auerbach-produced Years album

Listen to the title track off John Anderson's forthcoming Years album out April 10th via Easy Eye Sound. You can pre-order it right here.

New Jimmy "Duck" Holmes album Cypress Grove due October 18

Blue Front Café boss Jimmy "Duck" Holmes – last of the Bettonia bluesmen – cut his new album with Dan Auerbach for Easy Eye Sound. 

Black Keys' Pat Carney & Cobra Verde's John Petkovic form Sad Planets

Check out "Not Of This World" off The Sad Planets' debut Akron, Ohio – featuring J. Mascis – due in April. 

Don't miss Bombino @ The Horseshoe, Tuesday

The Tuareg guitar ace is showcasing his new Azel album produced by Dave Longstreth (Dirty Projectors).

LINKS
Bombino site
Partisan Records label
Horseshoe Tavern ticket info

Listen to the new Black Keys' tune Fever

Akron's Black Keys salute Ghoulardi with their new album Turn Blue due May 13. Check out "Fever" below.

Black Keys sneak some rock 'n' roll into boring Grammys gala

Black Keys: No Longer Underdogs

Happy Birthday Junior Kimbrough

LINKS
label  http://www.fatpossum.com/artists/junior-kimbrough
Black Keys  Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough