Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
The Lumineers, who just played a sold out Tower Theater last week and are nominated for a best new artist Grammy this Sunday, will headline the WXPN Xponential Festival at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden on July 27th. The undercard on the bill is filled out by Philadelphia local heroes Dr. Dog.
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
UPDATE: As expected, Beyonce's big Super Bowl splash is being followed by a tour announcement. The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour play the Wells Fargo Center on July 25 and Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on July 26. Tickets for the Philadelphia show go on sale Feb. 15 at ComcastTix.com.
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
Canadian honky tonk songstress Lindi Ortega plays the Tin Angel in Old City tonight. The Inquirer's Nick Cristiano interviewed the Torontonian who recently moved to Nashville - and guest starred on ABC's Nashville - in today's Weekend section. Read that here.
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
Going to see an artist who has had the words “paralyzing stage fright” written next to her name as many times as Cat Power - the stage name of the singer Chan Marshall - can be a perilous proposition.
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
Philadelphia guitarist Jef Lee Johnson died on Monday night at Roxborough Memorial Hospital. He was 54. The list of people Johnson played with is staggering, from McCoy Tyner and Roberta Flack to Ronald Shannon Jackson and The Roots to Mariah Carey and Aretha Franklin.
My obituary of Johnson is in the Wednesday Inquirer and here. The video below is of Johnson playing and talking music with bass player Chico Huff in 2012. The photo is by Jempi Samyn. More videos are here.
Johnson's death was deeply felt among the community of Philadelphia musicians. Here's what a few of them had to say.
James Poyser, record producer and keyboard player for The Roots: "Jef had the ability to play like anybody, but not everyone could play like him. He was at home in any setting. He seemed to always play exactly what was needed in any situation, but with a style that was absolutely his own: a funky cosmic slop-pot of blues/rock/jazz/bluegrass/gospel and much more, sent back in time from the future.
But as great as he was, he was one of the most humble, soft-spoken, funny, gracious musicians I've ever known. The virtuosity he had could have been intimidating, but he was quite the opposite. He always inspired and encouraged you to 'just play.'"
Aaron Levinson, Grammy winning producer who played with Johnson in Gutbucket and worked with him on the 2008 project Rediscovering Lonnie Johnson said this about why JLJ remained an underground legend better known to fellow musicians than the public at large: "Because unlike lesser talents who were better ass kissers and sycophants Jef resolutely put art above commerce every single day of his life. He didn't suffer fools gladly and if he sensed insincerity and a traitorous disregard for honesty in art he packed up his axe and strolled out the door. In New York or L.A. that kind of behavior doesn't endear you to kingmakers and power players who want you to be an obedient little slave...
Adam Guth and I worked with Jef on Gutbucket as well as a few bands and projects that preceded that group as well. We spent countless hours, playing, writing and rehearsing at my house, Jef's, Adam's and in rehearsal spaces and studios around the region. Every single moment of that time was pure magic and I will treasure it as long as I can draw a breath. When it came time to do the Rediscovering Lonnie Johnson project Jef was the only person I could imagine that embodied the kind of eclectic, genre-bending spirit of Lonnie himself."
Kevin Hanson, the guitarist formerly with Huffamoose who currently leads the Fractals and called Johnson "my mentor and guitar idol" had this story to tell: "I first saw Jef Lee in play 1992. I had recently moved to Philly from my hometown of Spokane, WA. A housemate suggested we hop on our bikes and go to a club called 40th Street Underground in W. Philly to see some crazy band. It was Gutbucket (Jef Lee, Ace Levinson, Ben Schacter, Adam Guth, Jamaaladeen Tacuma). The most raw, insanely funky and ripping music I'd ever heard live. What was coming from the stage brought my mind to a complete halt and shot me, like a cannon, into outer space. The guitar player was astounding. He was Hendrixy, but had a sound and a reach that I'd never heard before. Completely original, steeped in blues and sonically punishing. You could follow every line he played as if on a roller-coaster. Musically, I felt like I'd been handed a compass, but the needle was spinning out of control in every direction. And I wanted to follow it.
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James' first solo album, Regions Of Light and Sound of God, comes out next Tuesday. Today, it's streaming over at NPR Music. Click here to listen.
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
Dave Hartley has just released his second album as Nightlands, the self-described "baroque bedroom pop" project that is the Philadelphia musician and songwriter's chief creative outlet when he's not playing bass in The War On Drugs. It's called Oak Island, and it's out on Secretly Canadian. My interview with him is in today's Inquirer and here.
Hartley is a man of many hats. Besides singing in the Silver Ages and writing a basketball column for the WXPN music blog The Key called Top Of The Key, he's also an amateur photographer. This month, after Spin magazine named both Nightlands and Philadelphia power trio Purling Hiss as among the five artists to watch for January, Harltey returned the favor by providing the Spin web site with a 25 picture photo gallery that works as a love letter of sorts to Fishtown, where the Maryland native has lived for the past seven years. Check that out here.
On Monday, I went to a Sixers game Hartley and his War on Drugs band mate Adam Granduciel, in part to watch Matt Bonner, the San Antonio Spurs three-point shooting specialist who is the inspiration for the Hartley founded online campaign #LetBonnerShoot. the Eva Longria-endorsed movement's intention is to get the unfrashionable power forward into this year's NBA All-Star Weekend three-point shooting contest.
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
Robert Earl Keen plays the World Cafe Live tonight. Last year about this time, Keen played Philadelphia for the first time in a long time, and I interviewed him in the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer. That Q and A is here.
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
The Roots announced the lineup for the 6th annual Roots Picnic at Festival Pier today. This year's fesitivites - scaled back to one day after last year's two-day fete - will take place on June 1 and feature Solange, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Naughty by Nature (backed by the Roots), DJ Premier, Grimes, Gary Clark Jr., Araab Muzik, Robert Glasper, Sonnymoon, How To Dress Well, and more. It's a little hip-hop, a little indie rock, and a little electro, and with the presence of Glasper and Clark on the bill, both jazz and the blues will be represented.
Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic
Pint-sized soul man Lee Fields & the Expressions play the World Cafe Live tonight. The gruff, pugnacious North Carolina native, now based in Plainfield, N.J., is a terrific one-step-removed-from-James Brown live performer, who hasn't received the attention he deserves in the current retro-soul revival. Put it this way: Sharon Jones started to make a name for herself when she tried out to sing back-up in Fields' band. I saw him upstairs at the WCL when he was pushing his album Faithful Man last year at the Non-Comm convention, and he tore it up for real.
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