Sep 28, 2023
From Taylor's Instagram:
@mapleleafnola Friday night with the @nolasuspects!
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From Taylor's Instagram:
@mapleleafnola Friday night with the @nolasuspects!
Recensie: New Orleans Suspects - Live At The Hamilton
New Orleans Suspects – Live At The Hamilton Format: CD – Digital / Label: Eigen Beheer Releasedatum: 1 mei 2018
Tekst: Mark Harmsma
Als ik een recensie schrijf probeer ik meestal om de artiest te duiden, en een referentiekader te geven. Dit lijkt me handig voor lezers, zeker wanneer een (relatief) onbekende artiest beschreven wordt. Herken je je niet in mijn verhaal – in relatie tot mijn smaak,…
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BEADS, BONES & SUSPECTS: CELEBRATE MARDI GRAS WITH NEW ORLEANS SUSPECTS AND BONERAMA AT ARDMORE MUSIC HALL!
New Orleans Suspects brings together some of the best, most highly respected players in New Orleans, including: “Mean” Willie Green on drums (Neville Bros.); Jeff Watkins on saxophone (James Brown Band, Joss Stone Band); Jake Eckert on guitar/vocals (Dirty Dozen Brass Band); CR Gruver on keyboards and vocals (Polytoxic, Outformation) and Charlie Wooton (Royal Southern Brotherhood) on bass guitar.
Known for their blazing live performances, New Orleans Suspects continue to excite audiences around the country and are revered in their hometown of New Orleans. New Orleans Suspects released their third full-length studio recording, Kaleidoscoped, in September 2016 to rave reviews and substantial airplay on four stations on Sirius/XM Radio.
Kaleidoscoped takes a variegated look at roots music, funk and traditional New Orleans music through a colorfully distorted lens, creating a sound described as "psychedelic funk." The 8 tracks include a plethora of special guests including: Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett of Little Feat; Golden Commanche “Big Chief” Juan Pardo; and more. The opening tracks, "Let's Get it Started" and "Cocaine Jane" feature Jeff Watkins and Grammy Award ® winner Jake Eckert at the peak of their powers of studio wizardry. On these tracks, they utilize Tower of Power horn veterans as well as a Leslie speaker cabinet and newer, electronic effects to great advantage.
The album sequencing devolves into twisted looks at such traditional Louisiana genres as Cajun swamp pop ("You Got the Fire" and "Creole Hannah"), Mardi Gras Indian Funk ("Round Up Dem Suspects," with call and response led by Pardo), plus a trip through a pastiche of Southern rock, Dr. John-style R&B and traditional jazz. A slight outlier of a track, "Dixie Highway" was written by Paul Barrere for Little Feat; he and Fred Tackett add guitar/vocals and mandolin, respectively, for a New Orleans feel the listener might imagine Little Feat having searched for, but never located.
NEW ORLEANS SUSPECTS and BONERAMA will perform at Ardmore Music Hall, 23 East Lancaster Ave, Ardmore, PA, on Friday, February 17th. Doors open at 8:00 p.m. Showtime is 8:30 p.m. This event is open to patrons 21 and older. Tickets are $20.00 in advance, $25.00 day of show and $30.00 reserved. For more information, call 610-649-8389 or visit www.ardmoremusic.com.
NOLA Suspects + Glen David Andrews Kick Off AMH’s Mardi Gras + Carnivale Series TOMORROW!
Tomorrow kicks off Ardmore Music Hall’s Mardi Gras + Carnivale Series, and what better way than with two bands straight from The Big Easy: New Orleans Suspects and Glen David Andrews. One of New Orleans’ best supergroups, the NOLA Suspects puts a contemporary twist on the funk, rock, and R&B traditions of New Orleans music. Glen David Andrews, a native son of New Orleans and known as the “Tremé Prince,” is a critically acclaimed vocalist and trombonist.
While I would love to escape the harsh winter weather that we have been recently experiencing and travel down to NOLA myself, I’m excited to witness the various Carnivale celebrations we’ll be having at AMH over the next few weeks. On Friday, we’ll have some authentic King cakes to enjoy while listening to the energetic live music, as well as a special dish from the NOLA Suspects drummer: Mean Willie Green's New Orleans Smothered Pork Chops - yum!
To get you pumped for this season, jam out to this track, aptly titled “Carnivale,” from NOLA Suspects off of their latest album Ouroboros.
Happy Carnivale! Lauren Silvestri, Promotions Assistant
Happy King’s Day!
Here it is, January 6, Epiphany, or as it's called in New Orleans, "King's Day." Whoo-hoo, it's officially the first day of the Carnival or Mardi Gras season. If you are in New Orleans or if you know the traditions thereof, you might be enjoying a slice of your first king cake of the season. If you are part of a group of like-minded friends, whomever gets the baby hidden in today's cake has to give the next king cake party -- maybe a week from today ---or maybe tomorrow.
That's the way it goes in New Orleans.
In honor of the season, Ardmore Music Hall will be putting on a series of New Orleans and Louisiana-themed concerts. Two acts I happen to manage, New Orleans Suspects and Glen David Andrews will be presenting "Carnivale Celebration" Friday, Jan. 22 at the Ardmore. We are giving the chefs there some of Mean Willie Green's and Glen David Andrews' favorite home recipes and we will be sharing them with you on the Ardmore's Facebook page as well.
We are really going to do this show up right -- not only with New Orleans food and music, but we encourage each and every one of you to put on your favorite costume -- don't avoid being a little risque, as we have no shame in New Orleans -- and come to the show. We will help you by handing out Mardi Gras beads and eye masks at the door and we will have a face painter to make you colorfully vibrate. This is not to be missed. Check the blog and the Ardmore Facebook page over the next several weeks to hear more about the history of Carnivale in New Orleans and the history of the amazing musicians you will be hearing. Just to whet your appetite, here's the New Orleans Suspects' "Carnivale," streaming on Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/new-orleans-suspects/08-carnivale/s-9fTlx?in=new-orleans-suspects/sets/ouroboros/s-mBcUo
Happy Carnivale to All, Barney Kilpatrick, Guest Blogger
A great weekend in the South! There is nothing quite like good southern cooking, and we made sure we took full advantage of our surroundings this weekend with stops at some out-of-the-way mom-and-pop eateries that rank at the very top of anywhere we've eaten down south. Jeff Watkins will be writing a food blog about our food on tour, so details coming soon, but take a look at Mama's Boy and Carolina Crossing, two spots well worth the trip!
We left Nola in the wee hours of the morning and started our drive to Athens, GA for our first show there, ever. The day was perfect and the drive was pleasantly uneventful, arriving in Athens right on schedule. Thanks to our boy Paul Agostino for running the sound at The Melting Point, and for other Widespread Panic crew members for their help throughout the night - Willie needed a drum key, Jake brought a guitar to be re-fretted, and with our friends and connections in the Panic world, we were well taken care of.
Our show that night was a good one, surprisingly filling the room on a weekday night with school between semesters. Our set got stronger every song, and by the last few songs the entire crowd was up and dancing - we left Athens the next morning feeling like we made a good mark in that town, can't wait to go back!
The drive to Charleston is short, and we were there before we even know what happened. There's something special about the Pour House - their new restaurant is bangin and the staff is top notch. I've known the owner since he bought the place 16 years ago, and he's still one of the nicest guys in the industry. We had another strong crowd - that town REALLY knows how to party - and pulled away from C-town the next day feeling good - 2 for 2.
We headed to our last stop for the weekend, in the deep woods of South Carolina. We didn't have an address or any info, we were told to follow the smoke signals and keep our ears open to the sound of chanting and tribal drumming. Following those things, we arrived at a place on sacred Indian Lands, an amphitheater carved into the very forest. There they were - like a coven of dancing tree nymphs, the local tribes people gathered together and dancing to the beat of their own drums. We joined in and together created a night of unspeakable bliss, the strains of dancing and music heard drifting through the trees until the sun started coming up...
That really made the next day's drive - a 12-hour behemoth - seem like un insurmountable task. We took it on head-first, limping away from the forest with satisfied grins on our faces, and found ourselves at a down-home little restaurant on the wrong side of the tracks called Carolina Crossing that felt like our own momma was in the kitchen cooking for us. It gave us the strength to make the journey, and we arrived back in New Orleans just at the strike of midnight.
Installment #2 of the Ask Willie series, this time Willie talks about which venues he prefers more, large or small. "Mean" Willie Green has literally played every size venue imaginable over the past 35 years, from 100,000 seat venues to tiny rooms where there were only a handful of people in attendance. Hear in his own words which size venue he likes better.
Since The Suspects had the weekend off, I've decided to open an old notebook and dig out something I wrote years ago. The process of recording this next studio CD, writing songs and developing them as a band, reminded me of this, and I wanted to share it with everyone as the weekly blog.
It has been said that art is a divine expression. The untouched block of marble contains the form of the sculpture within it. It's an old "folk tale" (based loosely on fact…) familiar to many - Michelangelo, when creating his sculpture of David, spent the first month sitting in the room with the marble block, staring at it. When the church (the organization who commissioned Michelangelo for the work) demanded that he prove he had been working, he told them that he was waiting for God to show him the form of David inside the block, so that he could remove all the marble around the form of David. He wasn't going to create the sculpture, he was merely going to remove all the excess marble around the sculpture to reveal the form which already existed in the block. At first they thought he was crazy, and almost fired him on the spot. Of course we all know how the finished product turned out - it stands today as one of the most amazing accomplishments in the world of art and sculpture.
Music, I believe, can be a similar experience. Any particular song has a true essence. When it speaks to the songwriter, the songwriter responds not so much by "creating it", but by stripping away all the "noise" to reveal the song within. By quieting his/her mind and really listening from within, the songwriter can get a clearer sense of the essence of the song. A band's job in performing the song is identical - it's the challenge of the band to express the true essence of a song, by NOT playing things that aren't part of the song's true essence.
When we first learn a song, it's like a rough piece of marble in a shape which may resemble the actual song. Through time and patience, the band tries to remove anything that takes away from that essence. It's a very humbling experience, and if done correctly, will encourage the musician to not force himself or his "style" into the song, but to let the song speak to him and tell him what is needed. If the musician can quiet his own voice long enough to allow that experience to happen, the song has a life and character of its own, and the true essence of the song shines through. Ironically, during this process of quieting your voice is when your true voice appears. It's a mystical process that we can only hope to be an active part of, a fundamental aspect of the purity of the gift of music.
I believe that when we are truly touched by some piece of music or artwork, really moved by something on a deep level, it's because the artist has expressed something beyond himself, something universal and powerful - that true essence. We as listeners or viewers are put in touch with the same spirit that moved the artist to create it - just as the artist was merely a channel for that expression, so the listener (or viewer) also becomes a channel by experiencing it. Artist and spectator both become equal participants in the experience of expression - a truly symbiotic and transcendent connection. That to me is what makes all forms of art so important to understanding ourselves and each other, and things beyond our comprehension.