Billy Powell Died Today. I Remember.

Billy Powell died today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Powell
Back in October of 1977 I was a freshman on a college campus in Decatur, Mississippi. It could have easily been last night from the vivid recall of this event, as it was the moment I heard that Lynyrd Skynrds plane had crashed just a two hours drive south of where I was standing. From the FM car radio and word of mouth we heard the words "McComb, Mississippi." McComb, as my mind drifted to a memory of the town. I had spent time there as a teenager with my family and friends... I can literally remember where I was standing and the tree canopy overhead with a view to a moonlit Mississippi sky as I heard the words of this plane crash story. As I recall the whole thing was a shock as I had really embraced this band as sort of a charter member of the then non-existent fan club. I had started listening to bootleg cassettes of their music on a car stereo in the middle of the night in the Delta town of Greenwood, Mississippi, somewhere around 1973. I remember the first time I heard this band we had just loaded all the amps from a blues show and it was the wee hours of the morning. We were headed down the very flat highway in a truck with some local musicians listening to a new song I had never heard before, it was "Sweet Home Alabama." It seems like yesterday.

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you
Here I come Alabama


Well today I hear that Billy Powell of the band has left us after surviving that fateful plane crash on that Mississippi Autumn night that seems not so long ago.

Sail on Billy, and thanks for the memories. You will be missed.

The Explorers Club!!!

The Explorers Club. The boys from South Carolina smoked the stage in Chapel Hill last night. If you want to hear some awesome music on a small stage before these guys hit the big lights now is the time. I don't say that often but something tells me this is one of those moments where something very cool is just getting started.
They rock. I will see them again. Very soon.

Hmm...they are in Charlotte tonight! I gotta' run, see ya down the road..

The Local 506.

When I first heard about this gig I promptly bought my tickets online. I knew these guys were mounting a tour all over the East coast so I had to move fast to see them. I traveled just under two hours to get there and it was worth every mile.
As I write this I am sitting in my home studio listening to The Explorers Club cd on my studio monitors. If you walked in right now you would swear the Beach Boys had just recorded some new tracks. This band is not small. In fact I was talking to several of the guys last night discussing various topics and one of the things I mentioned was how much space they really need to perform. Although they can pack onto a relatively small stage they produce a heavily layered sound. One thing you notice right away is how tight the band is and how they switch instruments through each segway into another song.
The vocal harmony in this band is right off the scale. I am not exaggerating! Go to the Myspace page and listen to the samples.
http://www.myspace.com/explorersclub
Then don't walk, run to get the vinyl, the cd, and a ticket to see this band.

http://www.deadoceans.com/artist.php?name=explorers

The Explorers Club!

http://www.myspace.com/explorersclub
Finally. I have been wanting to hear this band perform for a while now as you can see that in one of my earlier posts on this blog.
They did not disappoint me. Au contraire! On to the next post where I will continue my praise for these guys.

Here is a link to some interesting reading:

http://crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault.com/Article.aspx?id=10986

The Huguenots last night in Chapel Hill !!

http://www.myspace.com/thehuguenotsmusic On a very cold Friday night in Chapel Hill, North Carolina the Huguenots hit the stage to open the show for The Explorers Club. I wasn't sure what to expect from these guys but I thought they were dressed very cool and they were sporting some very nice Rickenbacker guitars. http://www.rickenbacker.com/ After they started and the girls from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (which was a stones throw from this place) hit the floor dancing I knew this was going to be a good night.
It was already a great night. Somehow I had managed a parking place right on the street in front of the Local 506 http://www.local506.com/
which was a miracle given the amount of traffic on Franklin Street. I had just found a really nice used book and music store, "Nice Price Books" around the corner. I scored some awesome 1960's and 1970's vinyl (let's don't talk about my vinyl addiction right now) and proceed to heed the advice of the nice lady running the store about where we should eat dinner. After stepping across the street My friend and I enjoyed some fabulous fresh fish tacos and salsa at Carburritos. Next was the Carolina Brewery. http://www.carolinabrewery.com/ Only a block away from the Local 506, it was nice to kill a few minutes prior to the door opening at the club to sample a pint and take in the college crowd doing what college crowds all do. Did I mention that this is Tar Heel central? You already knew that..

Back to the music. Go check out the Huguenots, they are a really cool band. They switch all the guitars around. They change the lead vocals. They make you feel like you have transported yourself back to the 1960's. Remember you have to be transported as "if you remember the 1960's then you really weren't there."
I kept hearing bits of The Beatle's, the Kinks, you name it. At one point I heard some drumming and I thought the Dave Clark Five were hitting the stage! As for the four Huguenots, I enjoyed hearing them and I left with a cd. Nice.

The Derek Trucks Band "Already Free"

http://www.derektrucks.com/ Derek and Eric. Yes he was named after the band and the man. It was destiny I say.

What a cd! It releases in the morning. I have been waiting for this one. I have to say this one is the best yet from the Derek Trucks Band and friends. The picture you are looking at is a scan of the liner notes from the new cd. The cover can be seen on Derek's web site. As I write this I just listened to a phone interview with Derek and Andy Preston http://www.gater.com/main.html recorded back on December 22nd. Andy was at the same Asheville Christmas Jam show as I was on December 12th. We saw the Allman Brothers http://www.allmanbrothersband.com/ rock the place at 4:00 AM playing with John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin and he asked Derek about it. Derek said he looked at Greg singing at one point and thought "this is probably the first time since the early 1970's that the Allman Brothers Band had been on stage at that time of morning!" I have to agree...Derek also kept saying this show was one of those "over the top moments." Yes it was.

Andy also mentioned that Carlos Santana introduced Derek at the Seminole Hard Rock show as "the anointed one." Yes there is something to that comment. Here is a link to a NPR interview that kind of piles on to that...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5300263


I got a sneak preview of this new release at the Warren Haynes Xmas Jam http://www.xmasjam.com/ when they played "Down in the Flood." I stood and cheered after the solo on this one. Derek was ripping it! I cannot put into words who intense this solo was. A great guitarist can take you places you have never been.

Did I mention as if you didn't know that he is married to Susan Tedeschi? http://www.susantedeschi.com/ A two for one that one is. Susan is as I write this at the top of the blues charts with a new cd that blazes! Just go listen to the song "People." Excellent.

Oh they had brunch at the same place as we did during the jam. It is off the charts....Tupelo Honey. http://www.tupelohoneycafe.com/ A bellini at this place is a great way to start a late-night morning! Drink a peach for peace after seeing the Allman Brothers Band. Cool stuff. The people in Asheville know how to serve up some food...as stated in my best southern slang.... I had awesome food the whole time I was there. We'll talk about my favorite Tapas bar on Walnut Street some other time. http://www.zambratapas.com/ All of the are off the scale I say! Anyway...

So walk, don't run and get this cd. This is just the beginning of another great career. I am happy to say I say him play at the age of 15 in a small room and recently on stage with Eric Clapton playing to a sold-out house of 30,000 and last month with the best iteration of the Allman Brothers Band since Duane departed our world. It's all good. Life is great when you have musicians turning this kind of material out. It is just so good.