Local Artist to Watch: Jonny Grave

Jonny Grave live at Ebenezer's on Capitol Hill, Washington DC
January 7
photo courtesy of Jason McCool

It's often said that white men can't really play the blues. Even more often it's said that young people can't play the blues because they lack the experience of the lifelong heartache that pours out of each song.

Somehow, a 22-year-old white boy in DC is taking the blues world by storm and the thing is: he's fantastic! Meet Jonny Grave, a guitarist and singer-songwriter who can belt out the blues. He alternates among 12-string and 6-string guitar and a fret-less banjo. His slide work is really impressive. According to his website, at age 15, he began learning slide guitar techniques from old blues records. Two years later, he was performing them live.

His influences include R. L. Burnside, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Robert Johnson. He plays some originals and also puts a fresh spin on older blues songs. Two years ago, after performing as a solo act, he assembled a band that includes drummer Nate Oliver. Billed as Jonny Grave and the Tombstones, they are positively electric. Check them out at local clubs around DC and Maryland.

On January 7, they performed at Ebenezer's Coffeehouse to a packed crowd. There they released a new album, The Bluesmaker. This album goes from solo-acoustic to full band and also utilizes sounds that will propel you to an earlier time, when the blues sounded raw and gritty. Check this guy out. He's the real deal.

Check out a couple of Youtube videos of Jonny:

Beulah Land (music starts about a minute in)
Untitled 12 String (song starts at 2:38)

Trombone Shorty Funked It Up on New Year’s Day

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Ave.
9:30 Club, Washington, DC
January 1, 2011

One guarantee at a Trombone Shorty show is it will always be a great time. Alternating between trombone and trumpet, singing, dancing around the stage, and at times conducting his band, Shorty (Troy Andrews) is immensely talented and he’s the ultimate showman. So it was no surprise that his New Year’s Day show at the 9:30 Club was a raucous, fun, jumping experience.

Shorty has been touring relentlessly in support of his latest CD called Backatown, which is the nickname given to the 6^th ward neighborhood in New Orleans where he resides. The Grammy-nominated disc, his first on a national label, is filled with funk-infused jazz that rocks. And much of his 2-hour set featured music from it.

But Shorty came up a little short on one thing: traditional New Orleans music. I think it’s the civic duty of any funk/brass band from New Orleans to be an ambassador of the city’s culture by playing such favorites as “When the Saints Go Marching In” or “Iko Iko.” Typically, Shorty plays that stuff, often in a medley but it was not to be that night. He did play his popular rendition of “Sunny Side of the Street,” which was outstanding, even though he did not incorporate his fantastic vocal impersonation of Louis Armstrong.

The show was exciting, high-energy fun with Shorty engaging the audience and hamming it up at every turn. In the end, I’m just glad Shorty is starting to get the national exposure he so richly deserves.

Nicknames:

Backatown, the album title, is the nickname of the Treme, his New Orleans neighborhood.

Shorty: Most folks notice he’s not short and wonder how he got that name. When Troy was 4 years old, his family teased him because his trombone was bigger than him. The nickname "Shorty" stuck and remains to this day.

Happy New Year from Club D: Dada in Philly

12.31.10: Dada, North Star Bar, Philadelphia, PA

Dada, the dynamic California trio of Mike Gurley, Joie Calio, and Phil Leavitt who have been making music together for nearly two decades, played a rockin’ New Year’s Eve show at the North Star Bar in Philly. While it was not the 3-½ hour music marathon that occurred at that venue exactly two years ago, the 2-hour+ show was a crowd-pleaser. Much of the set came from their first three albums, with a heavy emphasis on their first album, Puzzle.

Unique to this show was a Beatles mini-set, which Joie opened on slide guitar after an instrumental Eleanor Rigby teaser. The sound guy then played audio from an intro Ed Sullivan had given the Beatles in 1964 and the trio broke into “Please Please Me” to a roaring crowd. And, as a treat for those in attendance, the entire show is available on download via secret code. If you beer me, I might share the code with you.

Dada played a handful of shows over the holiday—in Chicago, Philly, and Boston—and then will return to the studio to finish their newest album, reportedly due out later this year. Dada fans are waiting with baited breath for this, as the band hasn’t released a full-length studio album in nearly seven years.

Dada appeared on the music scene in 1992 when they hit the airwaves with the parody song Dizz Knee Land. Their staying power comes from a fiercely loyal longtime fan base. Most refreshing are their gorgeous harmonies and the fact that the boys have a solid friendship and respect for each other that permeates their music.

Set List

Posters
I Get High
Dim
Mercury Down*
72 Hours
(New Year toast / Auld Lang Syne)
S.F. Bar '63
Timothy
Ask The Dust
Just Along For The Ride

Beatles mini-set
Please, Please Me
No Reply (see the You Tube video)
Boys
All My Loving [reggae-style] (link to You Tube video)
Blue Jay Way

Bob The Drummer
8 Track Mind
California Dreamin'
Fleecing Of America
Here Today Gone Tomorrow
Baby Really Loves Me
Dizz Knee Land

Encore:
Moment In The Sun
Dorina

*new song to be released on forthcoming album