CONTENTS • JULY 2021 • VOLUME 29, NO. 11
music at
the fred 2021 concert season presented by:
29 R AT I N G CELEB
YEARS!
Atlanta’s
Entertainment Monthly
INTERVIEWS 08 Summer of Soul
07
10 Grand Funk Railroad 11 Wanderlist 12 The Flatlanders
The Best live music experience limited tickets available for 2021 socially distanced concerts
SATURDAY JULY 10 GEORGIA PLAYERS GUILD Presents “Georgia Rhythm - Hits from Georgia Artists” & TRIBUTE - The Music Of The Allman Brothers Band SATURDAY, AUGUST 7 WHO’S THAT GIRL – The Ultimate Diva Experience SATURDAY, AUGUST 21 NATURAL WONDER – The Ultimate Stevie Wonder Experience and BOGEY & THE VICEROY
FOR DETAILS VISIT w w w . a m p h i t h e ate r . o r g PG 2 • July 2021 • insiteatlanta.com
13 Jim Lauderdale
08
FEATURES 04 July 4th Celebrations 06 Summer Movies 09 Atlanta’s Best Barbecue
10
COLUMNS 03 Around Town 04 New Releases 05 Station Streaming 14 Album Reviews
13
insiteatlanta.com STAFF LISTING Publisher Steve Miller steve@insiteatlanta.com Art Director / Web Design Nick Tipton nick@insiteatlanta.com Managing Editor Lee Valentine Smith lee@insiteatlanta.com Local Events Editor Marci Miller marci@insiteatlanta.com Music Editor John Moore john@insiteatlanta.com
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Around Town
Local Events taking place this Month
JULY 2 - SEPTEMBER 26
JULY 10
High Museum of Art
Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater
ELECTRIFYING DESIGN
GEORGIA PLAYERS GUILD
JULY 11
JULY 17
Chattahoochee Nature Center
CD Warehouse Store Locations
JOE GRANSDEN QUARTET
RECORD STORE DAY
This new exhibit chronicals electrical lighting over the past century. Explore the innovation of the electric light in the 1800s to the development of ultraefficient lightbulbs in the 21st century. The exhibition will feature nearly 80 rare lighting examples by leading international designers. It is the first large-scale show to consider electrical lighting over the past 100 years as a catalyst for technological and artistic innovation within major avant-garde design movements.
The Georgia Players Guild’s newest show Georgia Rhythm: A Revue of Georgia Music History will take music fans on a high-energy and fun-filled journey of the Peach State’s greatest artists and most well-known songs from Ray Charles and Collective Soul to OutKast and Jason Aldean. Opening the show is Tribute - The Music of the Allman Brothers. This powerhouse band of amazing musicians will bring the soulful gritty energy alive of Georgia’s own to The Fred.
Chattahoochee Nature Center’s Sundays on the River Concert Series returns with three live onsite shows for 2021. is year’s theme is “Jazz for nurturing our heart and soul.” Come out for a night of jazz, blues, and swing on Friday July 11 and join the Joe Gransden Quartet with special guest vocalist Robin Latimore. Bring your friends, family and a picnic of your choice. A cash bar is available. Purchase a seat at the pavilion or sit on the lawn.
Visit CD Warehouse on Saturday, July 17 and celebrate Record Store Day. Stores are located in Duluth on Pleasant Hill Rd. and Kennesaw on Barrett Pkwy. is national event recognizes the vinyl record and those great album covers. To honor Record Store Day, CD Warehouse will be buying and selling vinyl records throughout the month. e event celebrates record stores in the US and abroad. Find out more at Facebook.com/CDwarehouse.
JULY 9 & 10
JULY 10
JULY 17
AUGUST 6 - 8
Mable House & Big Shanty Park
Mable House Barnes Amphitheatre
Cobb County Civic Center
Piedmont Park in Midtown
MOVIES IN THE PARK SERIES The 2021 Movies in the Park Series continues with How to Train your Dragon: The Hidden World (July 9) at Mable House Barnes Amphitheatre and The Sandlot (July 10) at Big Shanty Park. Pack your car with family and friends, gather outdoor chairs and blankets and join Cobb County Parks Department for an outdoor movie experience. Tickets are required and charged at $20 per vehicle. Visit cobbcounty.org/parks and click on "Register and Reserve" then click on the "Special Events" tab.
ELTON JOHN TRIBUTE
Remember When Rock Was Young The Elton John Tribute is a full strength stage experience like you've never seen before. Multiple award winning, multitalented singer/actor/pianist Craig A. Meyer captures the music, costumes and charisma of Sir Elton John. He is considered to be the best Elton John tribute artist in the market today whose strong vocals, striking resemblance and amazing talent on the piano has audiences everywhere remembering when rock was young.
DRIVE-IN CONCERT SERIES
ATLANTA DOGWOOD FESTIVAL
Back by popular demand, Cobb Parks and the Anderson eatre are producing a full summer drivein concert season. Get In e Groove with this funky, fun, soulful show. You will be whisked away to Hitsville U.S.A. and experience your favorite Motown tunes of e Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross and e Supremes and many more. e Drive-In Concerts features local professional actors and musicians. Purchase tickets at andersontheatre.org/drive-in.
e Atlanta Dogwood Festival is a fine arts festival featuring the top 200 artists selected from more than 1,000 entries each year. e Atlanta Dogwood Festival Mimosa 5K welcomes runners and walkers to start festival Saturday off right. During the days, the festival offers a variety of live entertainment. Enjoy music from local bands and be entertained by dance troupes to international performers and children’s choirs. Ticketed culinary events are located under the spacious VIP Tent.
Your Neighborhood Pizzeria!
Mable House
Big Shanty Park
AUGUST 7
JULY 9
JULY 10
MOVIES IN THE PARK SERIES
Lost Mountain Park
Ticket required. Register at CobbCounty.org/parks Movies begin at Dusk.
Atlanta’s Favorite Pizza! Multiple Atlanta Locations: JohnnysPizza.com insiteatlanta.com • July 2021 • PG 3
Riveting Novel Now on Paperback! “A darkly comic novel by a wildly talented new voice. For better or for worse, I'll never go to the dentist again without thinking about this book.” -Colleen Oakley, USA Today bestselling author
July 4th
CELEBRATIONS FANTASTIC FOURTH Stone Mountain Park
5 NIGHTS JULY 1 - 5
Experience the Lasershow Spectacular with state-of-the-art digital graphics and awe-inspiring effects five nights in a row. The show includes a lighting feature at the base of the mountain shining up like fingers of light showcasing the 825 foot mountainside. Laser beams bounce around in harmony with the music. The special patriotic fireworks finale will immediately follow the Lasershow all four nights. Visitors may bring blankets and lawn chairs. $20 for 8-foot square ($10 for members) plus $20 parking. Advanced tickets required StoneMountainPark.com.
4TH ON THE PARK
Centennial Olympic Park
CANCELLED
Centennial Olympic Park’s 4th of July Celebration will not be happening this year as parts of the park are still closed. Check CentennialPark.com for updates.
4TH OF JULY CELEBRATION Marietta Square
SATURDAY, JULY 3
This all day celebration begins with an Independence Day parade at 10:00am on the Square. The parade includes 30 floats and 2,000 participants. The end of the parade marks the start of the festival. Food concessions, arts and crafts and carnival will provide plenty to do for the whole family. A live concert by the Bogey and the
Viceroy takes place at 8:00pm which leads to the City of Marietta fireworks finale beginning at 9:30 p.m. Visit MariettaGA.gov for more details.
STARS & STRIPES CELEBRATION
City Springs in Sandy Springs SUNDAY, JULY 4
Sandy Springs Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration is being held for the first time at City Springs. The event was previously held at the Concourse Corporate Center. The Rupert’s Orchestra will rock the City Green. Music begins at 7:30 p.m., and fireworks will start at 9:30 p.m. Bring your own picnic, purchase from one of the nearby restaurants or check out the event food trucks. Food trucks will open at 6 p.m. Only alcoholic beverages sold on site are allowed. Tents and personal sparklers are not permitted. Visit CitySprings.com.
FIREWORKS EXTRAVAGANZA Roswell Area Park
SUNDAY, JULY 4
The city of Roswell hosts its annual Fireworks Extravaganza at Roswell Area Park at 10495 Woodstock Rd. This familyoriented event includes live performances and food. Bring your picnic blankets and chairs. No dogs are allowed. Food trucks begin serving at 5:30 p.m. Live music from Party Nation, the eight-piece band with three incredible vocalists, takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. Fireworks are scheduled to begin at 9:30 p.m. More information at Roswellgov.com.
HOME THEATER
With every trip he makes to the dentist, Wade's pain only gets worse. His smile has faded. He's clenching his jaw and grinding his teeth more, not because of bad oral hygiene or any mishaps in orthodontics. Wade's teeth don't need straightening out, but the rest of his life could use that kind of adjustment. Wade has fallen in love with handsome Dr. Emmett, and their office visits in the afternoon have become decidedly more personal than professional. And poor Wade is sure his girlfriend Jessa would punch him in the mouth if she found out. About the Author: Benji Carr has been featured in The Guardian, ArtsATL and INsite Magazine. Onstage, his pieces have been presented at the Center for Puppetry Arts, Alliance Theatre, and as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival in Manhattan. He lives in Atlanta and helps run the online literary magazine, Gutwrench Journal. IMPACTED is his first novel.
Now Available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Indigo, Kobo, IndieBound, Book Depository
PG 4 • July 2021 • insiteatlanta.com
NEW RELEASES THE LATEST DVD, BLU RAY & VOD RELEASES By John Moore
NOBODY (Universal)
It’s tough to watch Nobody and not draw on the comparisons to John Wick. And for good reason, both movies were written by Derek Kolstad. Nobody follows the milquetoast Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) who loses respect from his son when he fails to defend the family from a break in. But that incident sets off an orgy of violence as Hutch revels his past and begins taking revenge. The violence is over the top and the action is almost as gleefully, ridiculously fun as John Wick. Odenkirk is stellar as the doormat turned anti-hero. Not sure if there’s potential for recurring sequels like thew Wick movies, but as a standalone, Nobody is compelling entertainment.
LONG WEEKEND (Sony)
This wildly overlooked quirky romantic comedy is easily one of the genres best of the last few years. Bart (Finn Wittrock) is still nursing a breakup and his career as a writer is going nowhere. In a movie theater, drinking whisky alone in the middle of the day, he meets Vienna (Zoe Chao) an outgoing, attractive girl who asks him out and
they instantly hit it off. But he has more than a few questions about her, like why is she living in a motel; why does she carry around all of her cash; and why does she reveal nothing about her past? Written and directed by Steve Basilone, known for his work on sitcoms like The Goldbergs and Community, Long Weekend is unpredictable, funny and compellingly creative.
YOUR HONOR
(Paramount/CBS) This limited run legal thriller, based on an Israeli series, centers on a New Orleans judge (played brilliantly by Bryan Cranston) whose son is involved in a hit and run killing the son of a crime boss. Realizing who the victim is, the judge decides to help cover up the crime. The 10-episode series is a solid legal thriller mixed with some predictable plot twists. It’s the acting however that makes this series work. Along with Cranston, Michael Stuhlbarg, playing the crime boss and Hope Davis, playing Gina, the crime boss’ wife, all put in remarkable performances greatly elevating what should be just another run of the mill thriller.
TV
Station Streaming
WOMEN BREAKING BAD
SATURDAY, JULY 17TH
BY BENJAMIN CARR
T
V SHOWS OF LATE ARE FILLED with strong female characters with zero tolerance for nonsense. When women break bad in a television series, it’s usually more subtle, less violent and less criminal than when a male antihero is at the center of a story. And that makes the journey infinitely more unpredictable and satisfying. Mare of Easttown Why Women Kill
MARE OF EASTTOWN (HBO Max)
Mare of Easttown ended its dazzling run a couple weeks back on HBO Max, and scenes from it still echo in fans’ brains. Kate Winslet’s morally compromised detective is a mess when we meet her, wary and bitter because she’s weathered so many tragedies and disappointments. All her friends and family, including standout performances from Julianne Nicholson and Jean Smart, are also coping with grief after a number of deaths in their community rock the characters to their core. Beyond being a story of the community, at its heart is a terrific murder mystery, full of twists and turns. Winslet’s scenes alongside Evan Peters, playing a younger detective, are full of humor and chemistry as they work to solve the murder of a teen mother named Erin, whose life was filled with secrets. Mare of Easttown was perhaps the year’s best series. It’s available to stream on HBO, and it’s worth the binge.
WHY WOMEN KILL (Paramount +)
The second season of this soapy, comic Marc Cherry melodrama travels further back in time than the original season’s three stories. This season takes place in 1940s Pasadena, yet it’s still about frustrated, desperate housewives driven to kill.
Fargo’s Allison Tolman and Once Upon a Time’s Lana Parrilla lead the new cast through the tale of Alma Fillcott, a frumpy yet kind veterinarian’s wife who freaks out a bit when she learns her husband is a serial killer. Yet Alma’s aspiration to join the garden club and achieve social status stop her from turning him in, lest she be tainted by scandal, yet the fallout of her decisions starts spiraling out of control. Pretty soon, a nosy neighbor dies in an accident while eavesdropping and Alma finds herself burying the body in her garden. Meanwhile, Parrilla’s glamorous character Rita Castillo is the trophy wife to a dangerous millionaire whom she is cheating on with a beautiful young actor named Scooter. Yet Scooter is cheating on Rita with Alma’s daughter. Tolman and Parrilla are two of the finest working actresses and watching them passiveaggressively spar is a highlight of every episode so far.
DULUTH
2175 Pleasant Hill RD
Corner of Satellite Blvd next to Starbucks
(770) 623-1552
KENNESAW
50 Barrett Parkway
at Bells Ferry Road next to Barnes & Noble
(770) 425-3472
CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK! CD WAREHOUSE ATLANTA
KEVIN CAN F—- HIMSELF (AMC+)
Emmy winner Annie Murphy follows her star-making turn on Schitt’s Creek with this experimental series that examines the inner turmoil of a literal sitcom wife. Murphy stars as Allison, an exceedingly beautiful wife of a stereotypical schlub named Kevin, played by Eric Petersen, the central character of a sitcom. You’ve seen this type of character before, in shows like According to Jim or Kevin Can Wait, where the chemistry between the two lead characters seems more like an unfulfilled male fantasy than an actually plausible relationship. In certain scenes, Kevin Can F—- Himself has a laugh track and plastic veneer in scenes when the characters interact with Allison. Each episode even has its own sitcom plot. Yet when Allison is alone, the tone shifts abruptly, allowing the hot sitcom wife to truly express the misery she feels within her marriage and we become complicit in her plan to escape.
DINE-IN! Vaulted Dining Rooms & Enclosed Patio
Extremely Fresh Cuisine Atlanta’s Best Margaritas & Tequila Bar Open 7 nights a week at 4pm
insiteatlanta.com • July 2021 • PG 5
Always Fun. Funky. Unusual.
FILM
MOVIES OUT THIS MONTH JULY 2
THE FOREVER PURGE
Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and her husband Juan (Tenoch Huerta) live in Texas, where Juan is working as a ranch hand for the wealthy Tucker family. Juan impresses the Tucker patriarch, Caleb (Will Patton) but that fuels the jealous anger of Caleb’s son, Dylan (Josh Lucas). On the morning after The Purge, a masked gang of killers attacks the Tucker family—including Dylan’s wife (Cassidy Freeman) and his sister (Leven Rambin) forcing both families to band together and fight back as the country spirals into chaos and the United States begins to disintegrate around them.
Cool Clothes - Cool People - Little 5 Points
428 Moreland Ave NE Atlanta (Next to Vortex) 404-523-0100 • Open 10am – 10pm(ish) Psychosistersatlanta
Psycho_sisters
Psycho_Sisters_Atl
SUMMER OF SOUL
In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was never seen and largely forgotten until now. The feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more. JULY 9
BLACK WIDOW
In Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow,” Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow, Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour portrays Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz is Melina. JULY 16
SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY
Welcome to the Jam! NBA champion and global icon LeBron James goes on an epic adventure alongside timeless Tune Bugs Bunny with the animated/live-action event “Space Jam: A New Legacy”. This transformational journey is a manic mashup of two worlds that reveals just how far some parents will go to connect with their kids. When LeBron and his young son Dom are trapped in a digital space by a rogue A.I., LeBron must get them home safe by leading Bugs, Lola Bunny and the whole gang of notoriously undisciplined Looney Tunes to victory over the A.I.’s digitized champions on the court: a powered up roster of professional basketball stars as you’ve never seen them before. PG 6 • July 2021 • insiteatlanta.com
It’s Tunes versus Goons in the highest-stakes challenge of his life, that will redefine LeBron’s bond with his son and shine a light on the power of being yourself. JULY 23
SNAKE EYES
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins stars Henry Golding as Snake Eyes, a tenacious loner who is welcomed into an ancient Japanese clan called the Arashikage after saving the life of their heir apparent. Upon arrival in Japan, the Arashikage teach Snake Eyes the ways of the ninja warrior while also providing something he’s been longing for: a home. But, when secrets from his past are revealed, Snake Eyes’ honor and allegiance will be tested – even if that means losing the trust of those closest to him.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA: TRANSFORMANIA
Drac and the pack reunite with your favorite monsters for an all-new adventure that presents Drac with his most terrifying task yet. When Van Helsing’s mysterious invention, the ‘Monsterfication Ray” goes haywire, Drac and his monster pals are all transformed into humans and Johnny becomes a monster! In their new mismatched bodies, Drac, stripped of his powers and an exuberant Johnny, loving life as a monster, must team up and race across the globe to find a cure before it’s too late. With help from Mavis and the hilariously human Drac Pack, the heat is on to find a way to switch themselves back before their transformations become permanent. JULY 30
JUNGLE CRUISE
Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” is an adventurefilled, rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton. Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila—his ramshacklebut-charming boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine.
STILLWATER
A dramatic thriller starring Matt Damon, Stillwater follows an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter. In the process, he develops a friendship with a local woman and her young daughter and embarks on a personal journey of discovery and a larger sense of belonging in the world.
WE’RE BACK!
September 2 – 6, 2021 in Atlanta Dragon Con Night at The GA Aquarium Live Music and All Night Dance Parties Comics, Costumes, Games and so much more!
Meet stars from your favorite movies and TV shows Thousands of hours of programming & special events Huge Vendor Hall
Hurry, Limited Memberships Available. Get Yours Now!
Hotels and more info at DRAGONCON.org insiteatlanta.com • July 2021 • PG 7
FILM
SOULFUL SUMMER
Engaging New Documentary by Questlove Revisits the Sizzling Summer of ‘69
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
“S
UMMER OF SOUL (OR, WHEN the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” is new documentary directed and assembled by musician-activist Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. With footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, the film juxtaposes musical highlights from an incredible summer concert series with fascinating commentary on the cultural climate of the tumultuous era. Interspersed with live performance footage from Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension, The Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson and others are moving remembrances from some of the participants and festival attendees. Among the most heartfelt observations are appearances from Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr of the 5th Dimension. As Summer Of Soul gears for streaming on Hulu, McCoo and Davis spoke to INsite about the production. Celebrating their 52nd wedding anniversary this month, as well as the April release of an excellent new album Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons and a new star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, 2021 is shaping up to be one of the couple’s busiest years. First, a big congratulations on the new Star on the Walk of Fame. I just read about it in Variety. It’s rare for an artist to have one star, but rarer still to be a part of two such honors. Billy Davis Jr.: Thank you. Well, we’re excited about that. Marilyn McCoo: As you know, our first star was with the 5th Dimension, of course Florence [LaRue], Lamonte [McLemore] and Ronald [Townson]. Florence is continuing with the group and she’s out there working very hard. We always like to give a shout-out to her. What we’re also excited about is that we just found out we’re the first AfricanAmerican couple to end up with our own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Isn’t that hot? Billy: Yeah, we didn’t even know it was coming until our management company told us about it. Congratulations. Do you know where it’ll be located? Is it near a landmark from your history?
PG 8 • July 2021 • insiteatlanta.com
Marilyn: I don’t know if that decision has been made yet. Billy: Hey, as long as it’s not put on top of a sewer, it’s OK with us. Marilyn: (Laughing) A sewer? Billy: Yeah you know, a sewer lid where it could be removed. Marilyn: Don’t pay any attention to him.
Before we get to the Summer of Soul film, I want to know how you’ve have handled the pandemic. It’s been an unprecedented time for everybody. Marilyn: Well, we were working in Florida. We had about fifteen concerts that we had to do. We did about two of them. Then we went home and didn’t work for the rest of the year. So it’s been interesting. Billy: The pandemic has been an awful thing for a lot of people. I mean, we all know that a lot of people lost their lives behind this terrible virus. But for couples, many married couples, some weren’t used to being together, staying together, being quarantined all together in one house all day long. They probably got on each other’s nerves, but Marilyn and me, we were used to each other. We’ve been together all day, every day for years! So when the pandemic hit for us, it was like, ‘Okay. It’s just another day in the life for us.’ So we went on and hibernated, brought it into 2021 with Questlove, and like we do all the time, and it was okay. made the statement for today. We had so Marilyn: But one thing that we did do, many young people who were out protesting Lee, is that the Lord gave Billy a ministry and working together and they needed to a number of years ago, called Soldiers know if we were supporting them. This is for the Second Coming. What we do is our way of supporting and letting them we try to encourage people. It’s a praise know that we are with them. In Blackbird, ministry where the people talk about how the birds are leaving their home and they’re being blessed. So even though we mothers watching out for them, and they’re couldn’t go into churches, we started on Facebook and continued our praise ministry, the birds that never coming back home. That’s been happening to too many of us. encouraging people to not to lose faith We leave home and our parents are worried because the Lord is watching over us. He’s about us and some of us going to take care of us. come back and some of us We certainly put our focus BACK THEN, THERE WERE don’t. So we carried that on on that. Billy: That’s right. And we BIG CHANGES HAPPENING into this project and we hope can always use that message EVERY TIME YOU TURNED that people get it. anytime. AROUND, TOO. YOU’D WAKE UP THE NEXT DAY, It’s a great album project Oh, absolutely - and cheers AND THERE’S ANOTHER - and you can’t go wrong with the material because on the release of Blackbird. CHANGE. WE DIDN’T Lennon and McCartney This is an incredible year REALLY KNOW WHAT WAS songs never seem dated. for you. Marilyn: They’re incredible GOING TO HAPPEN. Billy: Yes it is - and we’ve songwriters. The way that got a wedding anniversary they can capture describing coming up soon. It’s just the lives of people is just beautiful and they like everything’s happening at once. It’s can encourage us to come together and love beautiful. Our album is doing well and one another and to support one another. we got some great songs on there. I mean, It’s a healthy, powerful, positive message for “Blackbird” itself is just a wonderful song. our country. It kind of coordinates with Questlove’s Billy: Marilyn and I we were talking about documentary because what he was talking this one day, that it’s amazing how they about that was happening in 1969, showing the things from back then, and “Blackbird” is write about everyday people. It’s almost like they just see the world and somebody showing us things that are happening right walking down the street, and see a situation now. They really are one and the same. going on, they write about it and it becomes Marilyn: So many strong connections. such a part of everybody’s life. That’s what Billy: You see, “Blackbird” was written as their songs were about. So artists can take a civil rights anthem, but we’re using it as a their songs and put themselves into it, their human rights anthem, as part of the human own experiences into it, and that’s what we rights movement. We want to try and get did with this Blackbird album. the country to bring itself back together as one because we’re a little bit too divided right now and it’s creating a major problem. That’s a true sign of great art. Everybody can get a different message from it as it That song was written for people who have carries on to new generations. been oppressed. That was something that Marilyn: Well that’s how we looked at Lennon and McCartney saw all over the Summer of Soul, too - and what Questlove world and then here in the states as well has been doing with his projects. The way as in their home. So we just took that and
that he has taken that music and brought it all together to show music that was thought to be lost, but it wasn’t lost forever, thank God. I think the Lord knew what he was doing. He had a plan for it. Maybe it needed the benefit of time to really bring the message home. Marilyn: Exactly. If it had been seen back in 1969 or 1970 or even ‘71, maybe it wouldn’t have had the power of what it’s doing today because it is so special. People are so uplifted by what they’ve been seeing. Billy: To tell you the truth, I don’t believe it would have been accepted as well in 1969, not the way the world was going back then. Now it’s a true piece of American history and it’s really a phenomenal experience to see. It was quite moving to see you watch yourselves in the clips. Billy: We were moved by the moment when we did it because we didn’t know Questlove was going to put it in the movie. We were just doing it because he had asked us to watch it. We hadn’t seen it and we were so excited about finally looking at that footage, we didn’t even care that he was filming us. Marilyn: We had no idea that watching that footage was going to move us in the way it did. Just re-experiencing that day again and seeing the beauty of the audience and the excitement in their faces. It was just a big, beautiful family affair. Billy: Back then, there were big changes happening every time you turned around, too. You’d wake up the next day, and there’s another change. We didn’t really know what was going to happen. Marilyn: The world was moving so fast and in such an unpredictable way, you didn’t know what to expect the next day - or the next minute. Very much like now. Summer Of Soul debuts July 2 on Hulu. For more information on the McCoo and Davis ministry, visit soldiersforthesecondcoming.com.
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Fat Matt’s Rib Shack
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Call (404) 607-1622 • fatmattsribshack.net Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q an award-winning barbecue restaurant is known for their unique Southern-style barbecue with Texas flair, serving up whole hog, smoked brisket, and wings with original side dishes to the hungry masses. To complement their que, the Fox brothers developed a sauce that mixes the flavors of Texas with the heat of the South. Today Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q has become a staple for Atlanta natives and visitors alike, and has earned top spots on barbecue rankings from top publications like Eater, USA Today Travel and Southern Living. The restaurant has been featured on national news channels including The Weather Channel, TLC and The Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives”. Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q's "Que"-osk is a fastcasual counter service serving a pared down menu of Fox Bros. greatest hits! The Que-osk is open from 12pm-7pm for lunch, Wednesday - Sunday, serving up our famous Texas-style BBQ to the hungry masses. Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q is the Official BBQ of the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United and they serve up their famous fare to hungry fans inside the Mercedes Benz Stadium. They are also a featured vendor at the home of the Atlanta Braves, SunTrust Park. Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q is also available at the Terrapin Taproom at the Battery Atlanta.
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Pig-N-Chik is one among the top Barbecue restaurants on Facebook and on first taste you can see why. The ribs come St. Louis cut and are cooked until they show a pink smoke ring. All the meats here are served naked without sauce so the true flavor of the meat comes through. Their homemade BBQ sauces are found on the tables and their barbecue is served accompanied with a slice of thick white bread to mop it up. AJC food critic John Kessler writes, “It is glorious stuff, as every barbecue should be but rarely is.” Pig-N-Chik is a family friendly, community oriented barbecue restaurant that offers something that everyone will like; all at affordable prices. From barbecue ribs and barbecue pork to turkey, beef brisket, chicken wings, smoked salmon and a variety of salads, they’ve got a menu filled with irresistible dishes. Your children will love their kid's menu, featuring a tasty selection of chicken fingers, corndogs, beef and pork sandwiches and pork ribs. For dessert they have great homemade pudding in iconic Moon Pies. Pig-N-Chik has a full scale catering operation. They will be bustling on 4th of July so make sure to place your order a few days before. All three locations open for Dinein, Take-out, Delivery and Catering.
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More BBQ Restaurants Dreamland Bar-B-Que Roswell, GA 678.352.7999 dreamlandbbq.com Moe’s Original BBQ Midtown, Atlanta 404.249.0707 moesoriginal.bbq.com
Fat Matt’s, an electric and unpretentious blues and barbecue joint specializes in ribs, from sandwich to slab, and a long list of special sides. The award winning barbecue is not limited to the North Carolina or Kentucky styles. Fat Matt's uses their own seasoning and cooking technique. These ribs are smoked to perfection and literally falling off the bone and can be ordered as a whole, half slab or on a sandwich. They also serve great barbecue chicken and pork. The signature side is their Rum Baked Beans, but they also have delicious Brunswick Stew, Mac & Cheese, Roasted Peanuts, Collards, Potato Salad, and Cole Slaw. Fat Matt's is also known for their nightly blues but that is currently on hold. Check their Facebook page for updates. Fat Matt’s catering offers quality, consistency and service. Catering orders taste just as good as in the restaurant. Services include full-service catering, delivery and pickup. Call their catering hotline 678.521.5607. Fat Matt has a little piece of the south you can take home with you. Order their world famous barbecue sauce, T-shirts, koozies and stickers at their online store or purchase onsite. Limited dine-in with patio seating available. Call in advance from their online menu and beat the wait.
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The 85th Annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival is BACK in Piedmont Park, August 6-8, 2021! Festival-goers will enjoy fine art, live music, high school art exhibit, disc dogs, a 5k run, VIP experience and more! Due to financial constraints from the impact of COVID-19, the Atlanta Dogwood Festival is requesting a donation of $5 at the gate. FOR TICKETS AND DETAILS VISIT:
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insiteatlanta.com • July 2021 • PG 9
MUSIC
AT MAXIMUM VOLUME
Five Decades Later, Grand Funk is Still the American Band
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
O
NE OF THE BEST HARD ROCK songs of the ‘70s is, without question, Grand Funk’s “We’re An American Band.” The anthemic composition contains all the necessary ingredients of a classic rocker. Mark Farner’s sinewy guitar lines, the incessant pulse of bassist Mel Schacher, a raucous vocal from drummer and songwriter Don Brewer - and lyrics that vividly illustrate the mythos of the feral rock and roll lifestyle. Including nods to travel, groupies and bluesman Freddie King’s late-night poker sessions, pop-savvy producer Todd Rundgren honed the three-minute, thirty-second charttopper into an undisputed masterpiece of the era. On July 2 - the exact 48th anniversary of the single’s release - the modern edition of Grand Funk Railroad kicks off its 2021 Some Kind Of Wonderful tour in the Atlanta-suburb of Fayetteville, highlighting the area’s July 4th weekend celebrations. The show also marks the band’s welcome return to the road after a lengthy hiatus. Historically, Georgia has been a goodluck charm for the group. Grand Funk was “discovered” and signed to a major-label deal with Capitol because of their well-received opening slot at the first Atlanta Pop Festival in nearby Hampton on Independence Day weekend in ’69. Today, anchored by co-founders Brewer and Schacher, the ‘Railroad rolls with veteran musicians Max Carl (38 Special), Bruce Kulick (KISS) and Tim Cashion (Bob Seeger), all poised and ready to help vaccinated audiences across America “party it down.” INsite recently spoke with Brewer by phone from his home in Florida. Don, your career has survived Vietnam, Watergate, major label politics, crooked management and the commercial rise of FM radio. Now that the post(ish)-pandemic tour is ready to start - you’ve pretty much covered the entire Book Of Revelations at this point. (Laughs) I guess that’s definitely true! The other stuff is terrible, whether it’s war or the music business and all that kinda crap but this last thing has felt like it’s right out of a bad sci-fi movie. Now that people are getting vaccinated and starting to get out, I think they’re just ready to have a good time. I hear a lot of comparisons to the end of prohibition and that people are going to get out and probably do things to excess because of it. That’s probably good for rock and roll shows, I suppose. I just think they’re looking for an excuse to get out of the house. They’ve been vaccinated and it’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to party.’ Luckily there’s a band whose fifty-plusyear mission has been to help out in the party department. Oh yeah and I know we’re all really looking forward to it. I haven’t seen the other guys in about 15 months. We’ve been touring with this band now for well over 20 years now, so it’s like missing your family. These guys are my brothers. Looks like you’ll be jumping back in with a solid six months of shows on the books. How do you prep for such a long trek? We’re going to squeeze in what was left of the rest of our tour for 2020 into the next six PG 10 • July 2021 • insiteatlanta.com
shows that we played were rodeo arenas, they just had bleachers and dirt floors. The PA system was one that we hooked up with a bunch of local guys. The quality wasn’t good but they were the only ones that had enough equipment to fill an arena and make it loud. But that was the whole point. It wasn’t about making it sound good, we just had to make it loud. The labels on the We’re An American Band LP echoed that hi-watt band mantra: “Should Be Played At Maximum Volume.” Exactly. We just wanted to fill the place with sound. We don’t play quite as loud anymore, but I think we’re still rockin’ it.
months, so the last half of 2021 is going to be very busy for us. I’ve been preparing for it. I’m a walker. I’ll go out and walk four or five miles a day. I’ve set up a little gym here at the house and I’ve been practicing nearly every day to get my chops up. But it’s like riding a bike, once you do it for a couple of nights it’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, I remember this.’
everything as tight as we could, then we’d cut everything in a day. We would cut the tracks one day, the overdubs the next day and then do the mix the next day - and we were done, mistakes and all. The contract we signed with Capitol said we had to do two albums and two tours every year. We did that for six years and we were just burnin’ it. It was a lot of material to produce, a lot of touring and a lot of hard work. A lot! I remember that first tour, there were no days off at all so it was 40 shows in 40 days. All in different cities.
The tour starts not too far from the historic Atlanta Pop Festival site in Hampton. July 4, 1969 was a big deal holiday for Grand Funk. Nobody had ever really heard of Grand Funk That much pressure can Railroad before then. I think make or break a band. we only did one other date It really took a toll on us. before that show. Then we But it was a rock and roll appeared on the scene as dream and to be honest Friday, July 2 • 8pm the opening act, opening we were not ready for it. day of the very first Atlanta Luckily, we weren’t in New Southern Ground Pop Festival. We played and York or Los Angeles. So we Amphitheater got a huge ovation from the didn’t fall into all the traps. southergroundamp.com We stayed home in Flint crowd! Then they invited us back the next day to play and I really think that kept a little later. Then the next us grounded. day they brought us back again, to play a little later in the show. By the end of that three-day The trajectory from a festival in the weekend, we were somebody. middle of Georgia to playing huge arenas and stadiums happened in an incredibly Grand Funk’s debut album [On Time] was short amount of time. What was it like on released a month after the Festival. That the inside? was a really quick turnaround. Well, all we really did was beef up the In the 80’s and 90’s, bands could go in equipment. We got more cabinets and amps and maybe spend six months or a year on a and that was basically it. There was no fancy recording. But we didn’t have that kind of stage set, and no drum riser. The light system budget. So we’d go in and rehearse to get was virtually nothing. A lot of the early arena
GRAND FUNK RAILROAD
You were in right the middle of the cultural shift as ‘69 turned into ‘70. Obviously everything was changing. Everything was in flux and we were actually riding along with it. We were part of that movement, that generation and I think a lot of folks identified with us. Mark would write a lot of songs that were not really protest songs necessarily, but they were relevant to the time period. The drug movement went from being the peace-loving, acid-tripping hippy thing right to the major hard-drug stuff. That happened in a couple of years, too. It was all so fast. Everything was changing quickly but the band shifted gears as well. Late ’72 into early ’73 was a whole new chapter of GFR history. Completely! We had to, actually - because a couple of things happened. [Producersvengali] Terry Knight took all our money and we found out he was a crook. So we were broke and we had to break away from him as he sued us. At that exact same time, radio was no longer friendly to seven or eight-minute songs. We were an album-oriented rock band but commercial radio wasn’t going to play that stuff anymore. So we had to make hit records that were two and a half, three minutes long if we wanted to stay in business. We fired Terry and we produced ourselves for a while. Then we hired Todd Rundgren to help us find the hit record angle. I started doing more of the writing and singing. So yeah, it was a completely different chapter, it really was. But necessary if we were going to survive - and we did. The tour-kickoff show coming up in Atlanta is on the exact anniversary of the “We’re An American Band” single. By showtime, you’ll have played it for 48 years - at pretty much every show. Do you ever get tired of that particular piece of music? Oh wow, that’s cool. And yeah, that’s an interesting question. Well, when you start with that drum lick and the cowbell, everybody immediately knows what it is. You see the smiling faces and people getting up on their feet. Three generations, kids, parents and grandparents, they all know the words! It’s incredible. So the answer is no, I don’t. I never get tired of that feeling because we’re still the American band. Grand Funk Railroad kicks off its Some Kind Of Wonderful 2021 tour on Friday, July 2 at Southern Ground Amphitheater in Fayetteville. Showtime is 8 p.m. Soulhound opens. For tickets and more information, visit southerngroundamp.com.
MUSIC
ALL MUSIC, NO DRIVING Wanderlust Gets the Band Back Together – from a Safe Distance
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
T
HE ORIGIN STORY OF Wanderlust is familiar to any music creator or fan who managed to survive the ‘90s. The band formed in Philadelphia in 1993, signed a lucrative major-label deal with RCA in ‘94 and issued a well-received debut [Prize] in ’95. As often happened, despite good reviews, some well-positioned airplay and high-profile shows, Wanderlust was dropped from the label a couple of years later. After the release of a self-titled album in ’98, the four lads splintered off to their own lives and post-partum projects. Usually that’s the end of the story. But the crafty members of Wanderlust aren’t your average band. Front-man and chief lyricist Scot Sax found success as a songwriter and filmmaker and guitarist Rob Bonfiglio stayed busy with musical direction duties for Wilson Phillips as well as stints in the Brian Wilson band and Mike Love’s version of the Beach Boys. Normally, Wanderlust would become a footnote of the ‘90s commercial radio juggernaut but their status quickly changed when Sax found a DAT tape during the early days of the pandemic. It featured acoustic versions of a batch of songs once intended for a new Wanderlust album. The result of that discovery is All A View, offering a rare glimpse of the band’s past glories, combined with their current - dare we say mature? - musical direction. With the demos as a fertile sound-bed, the band - including original bassist Mark Getten and drummer Jim Cavanaugh - reunited virtually to finish the album from their various home studios. Free from the constraints of major-label pressure and irritating ‘90s-band drama, the group has updated their familiar ‘60s-meets-‘80s power pop, injecting it with a seasoned, muscular attack that pushes tracks like “Something Happens” and the subtly Who-inspired “Trick Of The Light” into rousing, thoroughly modern rockers. Recently Sax and Bonfiglio hopped on a conference call with INsite to discuss the album. Rob, I know that you were the mastermind of the recent California Music project that gathered most of the Beach Boys and family for a unique collection of material. But Scott, how was your pandemic shutdown? Scot: In addition to songwriting, I do a lot of videos for artists in Nashville. I have a video and audio studio here in my house, so when the pandemic hit, my first thought was, ‘How am I going to continue to do this?’ So I built an outdoor studio. It was like just an outdoor version of my indoor studio. But the part that was really exciting, and I guess why we’re speaking with you right now is, I found a tape.
Doing the ol’ pandemic house-cleaning bit? Scot: Yeah, I think everybody started finding crazy shit in their basement in the first couple of weeks and months of the pandemic; there was nothing else to do! On social media, people would take pictures of something they probably hadn’t seen in years, ‘Oh, look at this thing!’ But your thing was actually something cool. Scot: I was rooting around and I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll get some old tapes and stuff digitized and put them up online.’ I was finding some interesting things. Then I found a tape of songs that I had laid down as demos but never were properly recorded. Then I sent it to the guys. It was like Wanderlust had reformed in the digital world and it was an amazing experience. A band comes with baggage, though. Scot: They sure do, but we’d already got through all that stuff and survived it. I think we feel the thing we have is too special to let ‘growing-up stuff’ get in the way. That’s rare! A band from the ‘90s finally agrees on something. Scot: There’s your headline! Rob: The trick is subtracting the van rides. Scot: Yeah, I really do think bands would last a lot longer if they weren’t sitting in a van for eight hours a day. Rob: It’s so different now because we’ve finished an album but we’ve yet to come face-to-face and play music together. This was all done digitally through emails and files and FaceTime. But the ingredients of the music and the chemistry that was there from the beginning was still intact. Scot: That’s really true. When Wanderlust first started out, Rob and I had the classic rock and roll band thing going. We’re opposites in how we approach everything but when we put it together it’s harmonious. You’re lucky if that happens even one time in your life.
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ELTON JOHN TRIBUTE FRIDAY, JULY 30
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Old School Hip Hop Fest SUNDAY, AUGUST 1
Morris Day & The Time
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Boney James with Average White Band SUNDAY, AUGUST 8
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No pressure, no label guys and leave breathing room for everyone. Pretty simple rules of the road, right? Scot: You’re right, we didn’t even have a timeframe. But this time nobody had a complaint because everybody got to do things exactly how they wanted to do it. I think after all this time and maybe it took a pandemic to realize this - but when we get together, we form this pretty sweet, colorful polished musicality to what we do. That’s what the Wanderlust thing really is. So kids, that’s the key to success. Just play your music and it’ll be fine. And stay out of the van! Remember: it’s all music, no driving. All A View is available from music retailers this month and directly from the band at wanderlustfans.com.
insiteatlanta.com • July 2021 • PG 11
MUSIC
RAMBLIN’ MEN
Laid-back Texas Supergroup The Flatlanders celebrate the Treasure Of Love
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
I
T’S BEEN TWELVE YEARS SINCE THE FLATLANDERS released a new studio album. But the laid-back supergroup has never been in a hurry. The Texas-based trio of Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore formed The Flatlanders almost fifty years ago, bonding over their love of country, folk, bluegrass and rock ‘n’ roll. All those ingredients are present and well-accounted for on Treasure Of Love, slated for release on July 9 through Rack ‘em Records and Thirty Tigers. Recorded at Ely’s Spur Studios in Austin before the pandemic shutdown, the 15-song collection was co-produced by the band with longtime collaborator Lloyd Maines. Highlights include lead track “Sittin’ On Top Of The World,” Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me” and Hancock’s “Ramblin’ Man.” The result is an engaging blend of road-tested favorites and originals, including several from the band’s early ‘70s honkytonk repertoire. By the end of 1973, the musicians had split for their respective solo careers, occasionally reuniting long enough to keep the band’s legend alive. By the early 2000s, the Flatlanders had released an influential canon of new and archival material. INsite spoke with Gilmore from his home near Austin last month. The last time we talked, you were considering retiring. Thankfully that hasn’t happened yet. Yeah I was thinking I was at least semi-retired and all-ofa-sudden, I said I’d do a record with Dave Alvin. We toured, just the two of us, for a year. Then we made the record [2018’s excellent Downy To Lubbock] and went back out for another year with the band. I actually became busier than I’d been in many years! We finished a tour just before the pandemic started. Then everything came to a screeching halt. Have you been working on any music projects during the shutdown? Mostly, I’ve just played for fun. I played a gig with Butch in Houston in May and then with Bonnie Whitmore at the Continental Club in June. So I’ve just had two actual gigs since the pandemic first started. Once we can look at this era in hindsight, do you think good, new music will float to the surface? Oh, I’m sure of it. Good music always comes out of strange times. When a time like this, one that’s been so wide-ranging and affected nearly everybody, there’s going to be all kinds of things come from it. Like young people coming up with stuff we never even thought of - and seasoned people will also have new kinds of inspirations. Part of the function of music is to help mend things and change minds, so yeah. How has the past year changed your own songwriting? I never have been very prolific. I have thousands of fragments of unfinished things because I really want it to be right. I may be overly ‘perfectionistic’ but that’s just the way I am. In a sense, it hasn’t changed it too much except in the
PG 12 • July 2021 • insiteatlanta.com
way that every-day life always changes it. One time somebody asked me how I thought my philosophical and spiritual ideas affected my music. I said, ‘That’s kind of like asking, Well, how do you think oxygen affects you?’ I would never want to try to force my views or to proselytize anything - but at the same time, you can’t keep your worldview from being a part of the way you work. If you’re an artist, it’s going to be in there because it’s all around us.
‘What was your plan when you did this or that?’ He said, ‘We didn’t have a plan.’ As a matter of fact, he said that between us, ‘There wasn’t a thimble-full of ambition.’ And that was really true! It was just the music. Then as we got older, different things happened and we actually pursued careers and all that stuff. So the dynamic definitely changed. It wasn’t exactly my band, but it was billed as Jimmy Dale and the Flatlanders early on. When we did our first record and everything, it was like I was the one that got signed to a bad deal. So I was kinda the ringleader in the beginning. Then later on it came to be very much that Joe was the leader. But there was never any friction about anything like that because we just enjoy playing music.
Was Treasure Of Love completed before the shutdown? The basic recordings were things that we had already recorded. Joe had it all. We did most of it out at his studio a number of years ago IN AN INTERVIEW ONE and it’s mainly songs that we used to do together purely for fun and songs that we TIME, SOMEBODY WAS always liked but we’d never put on a record. ASKING JOE, ‘WHAT WAS We’d recorded them in off-times while we YOUR PLAN WHEN YOU were doing other records. So he had all of that stuff and he just can’t stop himself from DID THIS OR THAT?’ HE working. A lot of them, I was calling ‘em SAID, ‘WE DIDN’T HAVE diamonds in the rough. Then [producer, A PLAN.’ AS A MATTER multi-instrumentalist] Lloyd Maines got ahold of them and took the rough off. He OF FACT, HE SAID THAT added just the right touch to everything.
Your influences are all over the place but Bob Dylan seems to be a major unifier. His presence is appropriate for today because it seems that everytime something weird is going on in the world, there’s a new Dylan record out. It’s amazing you say that and it’s true. I still am astounded by how he’s managed to do that for so long. You know, Butch and Joe and I all had real, real different musical when we were young. I mean, BETWEEN US, ‘THERE backgrounds we were exposed to a lot of the same stuff WASN’T A THIMBLE-FULL but the stuff that we had focused on was You go way back with Lloyd. All the way back. Then he did all that OF AMBITION.’ AND THAT very different. Joe was into rock and roll and I was into real, classic country like stuff with Joe in those early days, in the first post-Flatlander days, and then came the Joe WAS REALLY TRUE! IT WAS Hank Williams. Butch played the banjo JUST THE MUSIC. when he first started playing - I mean Ely Band. So yeah, Lloyd’s been a big part before he even learned to play the guitar. of the team for the whole time. You know, He was into that kind of folk music. We came from all over the we wouldn’t be able to afford Lloyd now at his status - if he just map but Bob Dylan, we had in common. All of us were fanatics. wasn’t so into it personally. And it has maintained. I don’t know how he did it back then and I don’t know how he continues to do it now. He is such a Well, it turned out great and it’s about time for a new strange guy but he’s so brilliant. Flatlanders record. Because it’s only been, what, 12 years since the last one? Any plans to take The Flatlanders back out on the road? Well see, that’s how regular we are. Treasure Of Love is a strong album to tour. Well because everything is still so iffy and up in the air right There’s a lot of history on this record and the “Sittin’ On Top now, no plans have been made. I know that we’ll want to do some of the World” video offers a nice little scrapbook of the band’s things for sure. But right now there’s no tour being prepared or early days. How does it feel to go back and look at those anything. We just sorta do whatever happens next, so I don’t images now? even know. I guess I still don’t have a thimble-full of ambition! One of the great things about it is the simple fact that we’ve had this wonderful musical partnership for so long and that That’s a cool thing about The Flatlanders, you had to go and it’s still here. We’ve been very fortunate in that respect. In all do your solo stuff and then you came back to complete ‘the those pictures, I was noticing that the same feeling is always there. Joe and Butch and I entertain each other. We’re all fans of legend’ on your own terms. Somebody one time said that we had gone from the status each other. To have been apart for a whole year and not having of unknowns to being legends - without going through the recorded anything for so many years, it was nice to realize that phase of actually being stars. It’s still about the music and feeling, that magic, is still there. But music can always do that. being friends. When this idea came up of what to name Music brings all kinds of people together. the record, somebody said, ‘Well, it should be the Treasure of Love,’ because that’s what we have. That’s all that really Has the group dynamic changed over the years? Obviously, you still respect each other but as time goes on, people change. matters anyway. You know, lots of things have swirled around differently. The For news, videos and to order vinyl and CD editions of Flatlanders is a funny thing because we never did set out with Treasure Of Love, visit theflatlanders.com. a plan. In an interview one time, somebody was asking Joe,
MUSIC
HOPE FOR TODAY
Jim Lauderdale Offers an Uplifting Batch of Tunes on His 34th Release
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
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OR HIS PREVIOUS 33 ALBUMS, JIM Lauderdale has blended elements of classic country, rock, and bluegrass. But rarely has the busy singersongwriter-guitarist-producer-radio host been as effusively reassuring as the batch of songs on his latest release. The aptly-titled record finds the prolific artist in stellar form, emerging from the solemn seclusion of the lockdown with an inspired message of Hope. The beloved Americana musician often draws comparisons to the best of Crosby, Stills, Nash (and of course Young), Garcia and Weir and likeminded westcoast rockers, but here Lauderdale puts a refreshingly upbeat, Nashville-tinged spin on his decidedly ‘70s approach. Co-produced with his colleague Jay Weaver, Hope is the perfect successor to 2019’s From Another World and 2018’s Time Flies. Backed by the finest session cats in Tennessee, Lauderdale glides through the uplifting missives of album-opener “The Opportunity to Help Somebody Through It,” quickly setting the tone of the collection. A cursory glance at the tracklist reads like a mini self-help manual. “The Brighter Side of Lonely,” fades into “Mushrooms Are Growing After the Rain” and “Breathe Real Slow,” concluding with the divine promise of “Joyful Noise.” Calling from his home studio, Lauderdale spoke with INsite about the new album, his frequent collaborations with legendary Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and the true definition of Americana. There’s a message of optimism on the new album. The spirit of Robert Hunter looms large as well. At first, I wasn’t quite sure what to call this record. I had reached out to Robert’s wife Maureen because there’s a song on it that I wrote with him and it turned out to be the last thing he heard of ours. So that means a lot. I didn’t realize he was going through a severe illness at the time. But his wife is a brilliant artist and I’d admired her paintings and prints at their house on many occasions. I wanted to put the song “Memory” on the record and so I spoke with her about that. Then I said, ‘Hey, listen if you have any new artwork, I’d like to use it for the cover.’ She sent several things and it was kind of a toss-up between an owl and this wild stag. So that was the one that I decided on for the cover because it’s such a unique picture. It’s a little different than most of your covers. There’s usually a portrait on the front or back. Yeah, definitely. Frankly, I don’t really like to get my picture taken or watch myself very much. I wanted to take a break from pictures of me and so I thought, ‘Gosh, what better substitute than a beautiful painting of something totally different than my face.’ Let’s talk about Hunter a little bit. I know you had a long history with him. Did a Ralph Stanley project initially bring you together? That’s exactly right. I guess that was about ‘97. I was planning to do a record with Ralph and I sent word to Robert, asking
if he’d write something with me for it. He agreed and we wrote a couple of things that ended up on that one. Then Robert came to Nashville for a few months and we wrote about 33 songs. I made a record out of 13 of them called Headed For The Hills. I started going out to California occasionally and we got together again to write. I made a record called Patchwork River from more of our songs. So the collaboration just sort of grew that way. The whole experience was kind of mind blowing. I just couldn’t believe that he was allowing me to write with him. I really enjoyed the fact that Ralph Stanley sang on some of the stuff we wrote. James Burton and Hal Perkins got to play on some of the recordings too, along with the North Mississippi AllStars and David Hood and some great bluegrass players. I’m just really happy that this wide variety of musicians, renowned musicians, all got to record some stuff that Robert and I had written. You must’ve really hit it off because you have quite the catalog of tunes with him. Right. We’ve probably written about 100 songs and I think I’ve recorded 88 of them so far. I do have a few more that I’ll put out here and there when I can. We had a pretty fast process of working together but there’s a few things that I still haven’t been able to come up with a melody yet. There’s definitely more to come from our time together.
You’ve written with tons of folks, but was he your most frequent collaborator? I’d say he’s the co-writer I’ve written the most with. I think John Leventhal and I have written about 40-something songs. When working on a song, do you know instantly that it’ll end up on your own record, or is there a different process when you’re writing for other artists? I first try to decide if it’ll be a rock song or a country song. Then the channel is open and I’ll write for these projects with a sound in mind. If somebody, say for instance, George Strait, was going in to record, I might get contacted by his label or producers saying, ‘George is going in next week, do you have anything for him?’ If I have something I think might work for him, I’ll throw it out there. Ultimately, you never know if they’ll like it and that’s the biggest challenge. Has your writing technique changed over the years? I think it has only changed when I cowrite. I really resisted, for probably six or eight months, doing the Zoom writing sessions. I just didn’t think that would work for me but then I started doing it with my friend Charles Humphrey from Songs From The Road and a co-writer friend of mine named Sarah Douga. We’ve done some Zoom writing and it has worked out fine. I
guess I got used to it. But when I’m writing alone, that process hasn’t really changed too much. A melody will usually come to me or sometimes a title and then I just go from there. The challenge is obviously to keep it fresh. Definitely but there’s always something new to discover out there - listening-wise or writing-wise - and that is a challenge for songwriters to not repeat ourselves, but try to find something new melodically or thematically. When you went into the Hope project, were you intending to go for such an uplifting theme or did it just happen organically? I was just kind of recording whatever came out at first. Then these other songs were coming. Then when the pandemic came, for a while I just couldn’t do anything. Headwise, I just couldn’t get into working on it. But I knew I wanted to put out something that’d be uplifting for people because that’s what we all need. You can never have enough of that. Then I finally started writing and I thought, ‘Well, wait a minute, these songs fit just right with this theme of hope.’ So that completed the record. Hope is very much a classic ‘70s rock record and I’m sure it’ll be warmly embraced by the Americana folks. But what exactly is “Americana” at this point? It covers so much ground. It does. I’ve really kind of always described it as being this umbrella term because really it covers American roots music - from rock to bluegrass to country to singer-songwriter to folk to blues to R&B and soul. I mean, it’s just a very eclectic genre, so I really like that. I always enjoyed listening to and playing all sorts of things as I was growing up. Now it’s a real blessing for us artists that were maybe asked to tweak this or that in order to fit whatever genre we were working in. That kind of thing. So it really gives people like me freedom. It’s a healthy way for artists to just do whatever they want and not worry that they have to stick to any certain formula. It definitely works for you because Jim Lauderdale records run the gamut of styles. From track to track and year to year. Right. I started out trying to make bluegrass records. Then my next deal was country and sometimes it was considered to be too ‘out there’ for some of the folks. Then sometimes it was called too traditionalsounding. I never quite caught on with country radio like you really need to if you’re going to be on a major label. But it still worked out, because people started recording the songs from the records so that was great. So then I just started making bluegrass records again with Ralph Stanley and getting more and more eclectic with the records I put out under my own name. It always comes around. The way I see it, it’s just a lifelong process. Luckily, I still have some new stuff and I feel like I’m writing more during these last several years than I ever have before. I’m glad that I’m still capable of writing so I just want to keep going for as long as I can. Hope is available on July 30 from Yep Roc Music Group yeproc.11spot.com and jimlauderdealemusic.com. insiteatlanta.com • July 2021 • PG 13
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Recordings) Of all of the 1980s alt bands you expected to still be relevant and churning out some of their best music decades later, Wisconsin’s Violent Femmes would likely be one of the long shots. They were/are a fantastic trio turning out left of center quirky brilliant anthems for all of the kids who didn’t fit in. But an acoustic folk punk band led by a warbled-voiced front man doesn’t exactly scream career longevity. But here we are, 38 years after the Violent Femmes shockingly brilliant self-titled debut and the band is still touring and still churning out great albums. So, it seems only appropriate to finally re-release Add It Up, the 1993 comp pulling together nearly two dozen of the band’s best – on vinyl for the first time since the initial pressing of the record. It includes, obviously, the essentials like “Blister In the Sun,” “Gone Daddy Gone” and “American Music,” but also live cuts of “Kiss Off,” (the most essential of the essential of the Femme songs) “Vancouver,” “Johnny” and the title track. There are also a slew of demos and rarities here. Though not all of the tracks are known by casual fans or those who solely own the debut, this set serves as a fantastic intro to their earlier efforts and is of course a must have for anything beyond casual fans.
Amy Helm
What The Flood Leaves Behind
(Renew/BMG) Amy Helm may have gotten her start in her father’s group, Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band, as well as the folk collective Ollabelle, but it took the release of What The Flood Leaves Behind to really spotlight her power as a singer. Across 10 tracks blending Americana, folk and hints of blues, on her third solo effort, Helms turns in her most consistently satisfying record yet; a cohesive collection of songs about reflection and appreciation that tops anything the singer has done so far. The album kicks off with “Verse 23,” a track whose chorus boasts the album title, a remarkably powerful song hinting at what’s to follow on the record, like the swamp organ-drenched slow burn blues number “Calling Home” or the stellar “Cotton and Cane,” a track Helm has been playing live for years now. To record this one, Helm came back home to Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York. “Going back to the place where I learned so much about how to express music, how to hold myself in music, how to listen to music, it was humbling in a funny way,” Helms said. “I could see clearly where I came from and where I am now in my life. I was singing from a different place now and for a different reason.” Whether it was recording in that environment, simply growing as a singer and a songwriter or a combination of both, the result is Helm’s strongest album yet.
The Mumps
Rock & Roll This, Rock & Roll That, Best Case Scenario, You’ve Got Mumps
(Omnivore Recordings) History is littered with bands who inexplica-
bly never got a record deal. In the mid-to-late ‘70s as labels scrambled to sign punk bands – or what they thought were punk bands – it seemed obvious that the New York-by-wayof-Los Angeles band the Mumps would get a deal. Their singer, Lance Loud was one of the world’s first reality TV stars; they regularly played at the epicenter of punk and new Wave in the 1970s (CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City); and more importantly, the band could write cleaver, memorably quirky songs. Despite releasing two singles, “I Like To Be Clean” and “Rock & Roll This, Rock & Roll That,” - two fantastic, odd ball pop numbers that alone should have justified an album deal - one never came and the band broke up. Over the years there have been bootlegs and two official compilations of the band’s music, but Omnivore recordings has just released a new collection including five tracks from those singles as well as nine songs recorded between 1974-1979, available on vinyl, CD and digitally. The CD and digital albums also include nine additional songs from the pre-Mumps band, Loud, which have never been formally released before. The new song here, including those from the pre-Mumps era, are all pretty much in the same vein making for a satisfying collection for longtime fans of Loud’s music. While not every song here is as strong as “I Like To Be Clean” and “Rock & Roll This, Rock & Roll That,” there are several that come pretty close, like the piano-backed, Queen-esque “S.O.S” and the remarkably catchy “Dance Tunes For The Underdogs.” With Rock & Roll This, Rock & Roll That, Best Case Scenario, You’ve Got Mumps the band finally gets the proper release they d serve.
Joecephus And the George Jonestown Massacre
Heirs Of The Dog: A Tribute To Hair Of The Dog (Saustex Records)
It takes a ballsy band to try and cover Nazareth’s classic Hair Of The Dog, a seminal album that finally brought the Scottish rock band to the attention of the masses back in the mid- ‘70s. Joecephus And The George Jonestown Massacre are certainly a ballsy band. Created by Dik LeDoux and Joey Killingsworth, the rest of the band is filled out by a rotating cast of musicians, including members of The Supersuckers, Nashville Pussy, Dangerous Toys, North Mississippi All Stars and The Butthole Surfers, among others. Over the years, Joecephus And the George Jonestown Massacre have lent their musical quirks to tribute albums for Johnny Cash and Black Oak Arkansas, but this one is the most consistently solid. The result, like those other efforts, are anchored in an honest tribute but carried off with the band’s brilliantly irreverent sound. The songs range from goofy, almost novelties, to simply great creative covers. Among the standout is the driving “Changin’ Times” with Jason McMasters (Dangerous Toys) and Manny Charlton (founding member of Nazareth and producer of the original album), Supersuckers’ Eddie Spaghetti and Nashville Pussy’s Ruyter Suys take on “Love Hurts” and a fantastic cover of “Guilty” by Harvey McLaughlin. Keep ‘em coming.
insiteatlanta.com • July 2021 • PG 15
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