You Can Leave Your Hat On

Ok so it's been clear for quite awhile that Marc Broussard is a real gem. But did you know he went out on the road this summer doing a set of mostly 70s funk and soul covers by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Al Green, supporting the covers album "Save Our Soul"? Somehow I didn't...

Anyway, for those of us who missed the tour, some real fun stuff here, including a mixed-bag mini set with the pride of Cherry Hill NJ (um...), Toby Lightman. Actually I think she's tolerable on the Aretha stuff but clearly ymmv.

Broussard's band is more than just rock-solid on this material, they are on fire. Definitely sound tighter than they did at SXSW, and they were good then. But biggest props to Broussard for doing songs that very few, if any other white guys on the planet could sing in public without embarrassing themselves: You Haven't Done Nuthin' and Inner City Blues. Not only can he sing it, but he gets it. If only our political leaders had that kind of conviction...

You Haven't Done Nuthin'
You Can Leave Your Hat On
I've Never Loved A Man
Inner City Blues
Come Around
Hot Pants

Whole Show

42,000 on tap at the wayback machine

So last week was an awesome week for music here in the swamps of Jersey but for various reasons I didn't see a single show. I did do some playing, reconnecting with old friends, and that was great.

Looking at the calendar, this could be a great week to get into NYC for some jazz. Joe Lovano is simply a monster: emotion, chops, stage presence, tone, stylistic range/facility. A truly inspiring musician's musician.

Then the weekend offers way too many choices, with Marah, Radiators, Bob Mould all playing Friday and/or Saturday. Posts of each of these coming up soon...perhaps :-)

But I leave you this morning with several links to one of the true marvels of the net, that being the Live Music Archive. Over 42,000(!) live concerts archived and available for free download, often in multiple formats. It's just astonishing.

Anyway, there are of course many old favorites on LMA (2000+ Dead shows, hundreds of Feat, Rads, Ryan Adams) but here are a few more contemporary artists you might be getting into, that have a few shows up on LMA.



Spoon (I'm listening to http://www.archive.org/details/spoon2005-06-09.flac16 at this very moment in fact), Mp3 Sample Sister Jack


Josh Ritter (I have this
show on tap for later, still acoustic I think.)






Grace Potter and the Nocturnals who are just fantastic, as Brian H and many others have written so eloquently about in the past few months...




Marc Broussard who sounds way too soulful, world-weary and wise to be in his 20s. (I saw him at SXSW this year, and stood next to his best friend from high school -- a talkative fun Louisiana kid that I suspect had not yet started shaving! :-)

mp3 sample: Hard Times from 10/12/2006