Marva Whitney, Billy Prince, The Sweet Divines -- NYE 2010

Let's party like it's 1969...

I'm playing with Syl Johnson

Playing with Syl Johnson tonight (Fri Dec 3) at Southpaw. Sweet Divines doing an opening set!

A good NY Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/arts/music/03syl.html?_r=2&ref=music

And a Time Out NY article:

http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/music/616001/syl-johnson

This really makes me want a lavender or possibly lime green suit:

I Love Bill Wyman

The SOUL of rock bass. Turn it UP!!!!

The rest of the tracks are here.

Nicole Atkins Tour Video Pt 2

Seattle and Portland Photos

Some more great tour photos...










Here are links to more photos including a lot of The Black Keys.

Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR

Paramount Theater in Seattle, WA

Nicole Atkins tour video

Awesome first part of the tour video by our tour manager Joe Jennings.

Nicole Atkins at the Hollywood Palladium

Jaguar Bass Amp

Psyched about my new Jaguar bass rig for the Nicole Atkins/Black Keys tour!

Dig Deeper Documentary Trailer

Sometimes it's really hard to describe to people exactly what the Dig Deeper series is, and it's even harder to impress upon them just how magic the whole process is...from learning the music, to meeting the artist, to rehearsal, to dress rehearsal, and then of course the show itself. I've been really lucky to play bass for almost every Dig Deeper show and it's exciting and wonderful every time.

So I'm really pleased that someone is finally putting together a documentary about it that gives a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into putting on the show.

The filmmakers are trying to raise funds in order to complete the film, but here is a sneak peak:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Dig-Deeper-?i=pite

The opening few songs are by The Sweet Divines!

Nicole Atkins @ Union County Music Fest

Us playing "The Tower". I hadn't had my coffee yet on this one and combined with the rain I wasn't too psyched about it after. But I think we ended up playing great. It just goes to show you that whatever is going through your head as you play isn't always what's actually coming out of the speakers.

Also on the bill were Nils Lofgrin, Suzanne Vega, The Zombies, Robert Randolph and Spoon.

Nicole Atkins West Coast Tour w/The Black Keys

This is what I've spent most of my summer preparing for...a west coast tour with Nicole Atkins opening for The Black Keys. Can't wait!

I hope to have some good pictures of the tour up on here as we go from town to town....

9/25/10 San Diego, CA Soma w/ The Black Keys
9/27/10 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium w/ The Black Keys
9/28/10 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium w/ The Black Keys
9/29/10 Oakland, CA Fox Theatre w/ The Black Keys
9/30/10 Oakland, CA Fox Theatre w/ The Black Keys
10/2/10 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre w/ The Black Keys
10/3/10 Vancouver, BC Orpheum w/ The Black Keys
10/4/10 Portland, OR McMenamins Crystal Ballroom w/ The Black Keys
10/5/10 Portland, OR McMenamins Crystal Ballroom w/ The Black Keys
10/7/10 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
10/8/10 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
10/10/10 Tulsa, OK Cain's Ballroom w/ The Black Keys
10/12/10 Sante Fe, NM Warehouse
10/14/10 San Diego, CA Bar Pink
10/15/10 Echo Park, CA Echo
10/15/10 Echo Park, CA Echo

The Sweet Divines @ Rockwood Stage 2

Our first show in Manhattan in quite a while and only our second show of the summer. We had a lot of special guests, Binky Griptite, Inyang Bassey, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, and Maxine Brown. What a night!

Here's a video of Eli singing Precious, Precious, which we had played with Otis Clay last summer for the Brooklyn Soul Fest.

Nicole Atkins @ XPN fest

Wow, haven't updated in way too long, this was a fun one -- a nice summertime festival. We got to stick around and enjoy The Walkmen, Yo La Tengo, and Rosanne Cash among others!

Billy Prince @ Southpaw Sat Mar 27

I'm playing with Billy Prince of The Precisions tomorrow Mar 27 @ Southpaw. What a voice!

Instead of the usual Sweet Divines opening set we're having a multitude of guest singers. The rehearsal was a blast so I'm really looking forward to the show.

The lineup on Sat is:
Saturday, March 27
DIG DEEPER @ Southpaw
125 5th Avenue, Brooklyn

Advance tickets ($10) available here:
http://tinyurl.com/billy-prince-digdeeper

10:30p - THE DIVINE SOUL REVUE
Featuring:
The Divine Soul Rhythm Band
Ashley Vitha and Jennie Wasserman of the Sweet Divines
Meah Pace (The Mellomatics)
Alba Ponce de Leon (The Suspicions)
Inyang Bassey (Moby)
Cici James (Loser's Lounge)
and Eli "Paperboy" Reed (Capitol Records)

12:00a - BILLY PRINCE of THE PRECISIONS
(Gut-wrenching Motor City soul)
Backed by the Divine Soul Rhythm Band

And some history on The Precisions:

"The Precisions were a vocal group formed by Arthur Ashford, Michael Morgan and Dennis Gilmore on the Motor City's west side, a neighborhood mecca for much of the city's R&B talent as well as the site of its densest aggregation of recording studios.

With a few obscure mid-'60s singles on the prolific Detroit soul and R&B label D-Town already to their name, the Precisions would go on to add young college student Billy Prince as a lead vocalist in 1967. This selection, the debut release of the reconfigured group, would be the first of five Precisions records on Drew Records, a label whose discography, as it turns out, only included other Precisions records."

Tami Lynn and The Sweet Divines - Tonight @ Southpaw

I'm playing tonight @ Southpaw with Tami Lynn and The Sweet Divines. Show starts at 10pm, see you there!

Michael Leonhart & The Avramina 7 at Nublu Fri

I'm psyched to be playing with the super-talent Michael Leonhart at Nublu this Fri Feb 5th at 9pm!

Check out more info here.

Darrow Fletcher Recordings and Video

What a show! Darrow is a truly unique and inspiring talent. He had so many great tricks up his sleeve for directing the band...he knew the little things like when to choke the guitar strings, how long to make the bass notes last, which voicing to play on the piano, etc, etc All those little things add up in an arrangement. He said he learned a lot from Ray Charles who was his executive producer when Darrow was only 25. He also had a story about Ray when he first signed Darrow to his label...Ray asked him what he wanted as a signing bonus and Darrow asked for a motorcycle to get around LA. Ray agreed and got him the bike, but insisted on doing a test drive first! Everyone watched in horror as Ray took the bike across the parking lot, but somehow Ray had a 6th sense and drove the bike with perfect balance avoiding every obstacle. Apparently Ray *loved* to drive, which gave his manager a heart attack every time (maybe that's why he liked it?).
But of course the highlight was grooving with Darrow and the band on stage...
Some recordings of the show can be found here.

Darrow Fletcher Dig Deeper Jan 23rd!

It's been way too long of a vacation, but Dig Deeper is back. We'll be playing with Darrow Fletcher on Jan 23 at Southpaw. I'm having a blast learning the stuff and can't wait to play it!