Thursday, February 25, 2016

The Dustbowl Revival at Mississippi Studios on Friday

Hi music lovers ...

I'd like to highly recommend this show tomorrow night at Mississippi Studios ... Some might describe The Dustbowl Revival as the love child of the Preservation Jazz Band and the Grand Ole Opry. I call this rootsy Venice, CA, based band a ton of fun. Check them out ...


The Dustbowl Revival is what you could call an American roots orchestra with eight full-time members — and they play it all, mashing the sounds of traditional American music into a genre-hopping, time-bending dance party that coaxes new fire out of familiar coal. This isn't a throwback band. It's a celebration of the sounds that have kept America moving for more than a century, performed with all the flair of a medicine show and rooted in the sweat and swagger of a juke joint song swap.

With A Lampshade On, the Dustbowl Revival's fourth album, finally shines a light on the band's strength as a live act. They formed in L.A.'s bohemian enclave of Venice Beach in late 2007, the result of a hopeful Craigslist ad posted by bandleader Z. Lupetin, a Midwestern transplant who hoped to join together players in the string band and brass band traditions. Since then, one thing has become clear as the group grows more confident in their abilities: Dustbowl does its best work onstage. They've played dive bars, saloons and theaters, front porches and festivals. To watch them onstage is to take part in an evolving conversation between an orchestra and audience. The horns blast, the fiddle and mandolin swoon, and the howling vocals — which Lupetin shares with Liz Beebe — rattle off stories about preachers, drinkers, lovers, and holy rollers.

Over the last few years, the band has steadily gained recognition while playing festivals and venues across North America and Europe, notably with Lake Street Dive, Trombone Shorty, Rebirth Brass Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Their video for their new single, "Never Had To Go," was was shot with a new friend of the band: the legendary actor Dick Van Dyke. While their previous studio albums had more of an old-time feel, this new album has a more funky, soulful, let-loose flavor.

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