Sunday, May 31, 2009
Summer Tunes Will Make Me Feel Fine I:
The Lee Boys
As I slam through last meetings through the that have been put off for months in the waning days of the academic year, I find myself sometimes anticipating some promising looking evenings of music that have been announced in the summer entertainment preview of the Oregonian's Friday A&E section. Original name eh? There was, in fact, a lawsuit with the A&E cable network over name dispute. I don't know how it was decided or settled.
At this moment, I am most interested in the upcoming July 3 lineup of Portland's Waterfront Blues Festival. The second day of the four day festival features Bayou guitarist Sonny Landreth, the irrepressible Karl Denson and his Tiny Universe, and a band I have only heard about through word-of-mouth so far: The Lee Boys.
The Lee Boys are a Sacred Steel funk band made upof brothers and nephews. They are as tight as outfit of family as one could fathom this side of Nevilles. Their origins are in a House of God church they attended in Perrine, FL lead by Rev Robert Lee, their father and grandfather who also played the sanctified steel guitar.
Nowadays they are bringing their music to the masses. The testifying gospel plays a role in what they do, but the funk that makes you feel good is what really takes prominence. They play a lot of festivals and sometimes show up with some very unlikely company when they jam, such as Warren Hayes of Allmans/Dead/Gov't. Mule or with Del McCourey's sons when they perform as the Travelin' McCourys. I watched some YouTube clips and somehow Sacred Steel and hot bluegrass complement and converge quite nicely.
On July 3 they will be doing a set on the BluesFest mainstage but they will also be on a three hour jam hour show across the street at the Marriott after the Albino Jimi Hendrix aka Johnny Winter has shut down the bowl (that place is hell on sad arches like mine, I'm telling you) for the night. They are also doing the blues cruise the night before, but I think they are the kind of act you only see once or once in a long while. Besides that is the night Bayren Munchen's B Squad is in town to flash over the Timbers. And you know they are going to be cooler with Karl.
Religious root soul is a tricky thing to pull off. Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin truly worked miracles. But I am always rooting for the Kirk Franklins and Winans of the world. Lee Boys are far more interesting to me than the first Sacred Steel crossover artist, Robert Randolph, who was the first High Sierra Music Festival act I ever saw. Randolph is truly a showboat. He does a great Papa Was A Rolling Stone. Lee Nephew Roosevelt "the Doctor" Collier can be flashy but he is more like a great B3 organist in the Charles Earland tradition who uses dynamics and leads up just so before he gives you some pyrotechnics.
These two clips are from the Sioux City Jazz and Blues festival in 2007 where they are "heatin' up the stage y'all" for the first couple of the blues Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:50 PM
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