Tag: The Revivalists

From New Orleans to Albany: An Interview with The Revivalists Guitarist Zack Feinberg

For the past seven years, Guitarist Zack Feinberg has been on a seemingly endless tour with New Orleans rock group The Revivalists.

Currently touring to promote their 2015 album Men Amongst Mountains, the group made a stop at the Hollow Bar and Kitchen in Albany, NY on November 5. Feinberg, along with pedal steel guitarist Ed Williams and drummer Andrew Campanelli, took a few minutes of his pre-show time to speak with NYSMusic about the band’s origins including the “famous bike story,” early tours with The Rebirth Brass Band, their Prince-inspired Halloween show and more.

Erin Clary: How did you all come together? I understand none of you are actually originally from New Orleans.

Zack Feinberg: Yes, I’m actually from New York. A bunch of us went to college in New Orleans; six out of seven of us. Everyone but Dave, our lead singer, went to college in New Orleans. The famous “bike story” is that Dave had just moved to New Orleans and he was singing on his front porch. I was riding my bike and stopped because he sounded so good. He was looking for people to play with, had just moved to the city. I had known Andrew, our drummer, from Tipitina’s, a club in New Orleans. They have these weekly clinics and we had been going there kind of jamming with each other. He knew George, our bass player, from college. He knew Rob from college. We knew Mike from college and playing in bands in New Orleans. Ed we knew from bands but he also went to school down there.

EC: So because you all lived in New Orleans but you all happen to be from different areas, does that influence your sound? Because it’s clear it’s not a strictly New Orleans sound.

ZF: Yeah. I think we’re all musicians that have a different range of influences. We love New Orleans. We love New Orleans music. We like a lot of different music. I think a lot of musicians in New Orleans also are into different styles.

EC: I’ve heard that the Rebirth Brass Band took you guys under their wing for a time. Can you talk about how that has shaped your influence along the way?

ZF: They were generous enough to allow us to open for them when we first started to tour. It was really because our manager at the time, Stu Schayot, he is the general manager for a pub in New Orleans call The Howlin’ Wolf. He manages them as well. So he kind of set that up. But they throw a great show and they get the crowd moving the whole time.

EC: Yeah – like you guys!

ZF: Yeah!

EC: I’ve been listening to you guys for a few years. I first heard you at Mountain Jam a few years ago. You played a few sets.

ZF: Yeah! That was awesome. That inside set was so awesome.

EC: This was the first time I heard you. My friend and I were like, “Who are these guys?” But I listen to you a lot and the lyrics include struggle and love, of course. How do you come up with these lyrics? Is there one person who generally writes, or do you all take turns?

ZF: Dave writes a lot of them, as the singer. If there’s a song that’s stemming out of an instrumental idea where everyone’s jamming on, he will tend to be the one to do it. I’d say he writes probably 70 percent of our lyrics. Andrew, our drummer, writes lyrics. I write lyrics. It’s pretty collaborative. A person could write an entire song on their own or write a lot of the song on their own.

EC: Are they from your own life experiences? When I’m listening it often feels like a movie scene in my head. I can see the girl, the guy, the struggle…

ZF: I think personal experience definitely offers a big part of it but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.

EC: There’s an audible passion for the music. It is evident that this is your love. Did you grow up surrounded by music? Were your parents musicians?

ZF: They’re not musicians but my family really likes music a lot. My older brother is a musician; he’s a guitar player. My dad plays guitar.

EC: You just released an album this summer, “Men Amongst Mountains.” Can you talk about the process in creating it? And what is the theme?

Ed Williams: It’s literally a man walking into a mountain.

Andrew Campanelli: I always think of it that our songs were written a lot when we were on the road in those years that we spent touring after we made City of Sound, a record that we made while we were getting used to living in New Orleans. And then we went on the road and that song itself was written while we were on the road in the Colorado mountains. The one thing that ties all the songs together is the years that they were in. We’ve been going out into this world and realizing it’s a big place, and we’re just men.

EC: Ok, so the process then?

ZF: It was made over three sessions in 2014. We did a week in January 2014, at a studio in the country which is a studio in Bogaloosa, Louisiana. It was kind of like a cabin in the woods situation. From there, we added two or three songs onto the record and did overdubs on two different sessions in New Orleans. The process was very much like get everyone together playing in a room and track it. Then do our overdubs.

EC: I counted this tour you have 40 shows…

ZF: Yeah, we’re doing about 150 a year, so it’s really a never-ending tour.

EC: Well I would call that “extensive” then. So what are some of the highlights?

ZF: Definitely Halloween.

EC: I mean…you guys dressed as Prince. You nailed it.

ZF: I made an appointment at a barber shop and everything. We had a blast; that was amazing. It was a sold out show at the 930 Club. It was a great milestone and we really prepared a lot with all the Prince material. Red Rocks was another highlight. Outside Lands was definitely a highlight. Kaaboo was cool. We got to see No Doubt at Kaaboo! Brews and Blues Festival in Telluride.

EC: So now you’re here in Albany, called “Smalbany” by some. Does playing in a small city and small venue offer any opportunities?

ZF: It’s its own thing. It’s cool to do shows where you have less expectations all day because in a way you’re looser and it’s a different vibe to the set. So it’s really fun as an audience member to see shows like that and as a musician. And you know what, its’ fucking packed up there! We played here, but it wasn’t called The Hollow. We played here a few years ago, and sat in this very basement. So this is a huge improvement.

November 19, 2015
The Revivalists Prove Size Doesn’t Matter in Albany

Upon pulling up to find parking outside The Hollow on November 5, I noticed a familiar face taking a solo stroll down Pearl Street. The late 20s/early 30s man was staring up at the many abandoned buildings that seem to colonize the area as of late. With a closer look, I realized the stranger was Zack Feinberg, guitarist of The Revivalists, the New Orleans based rock hybrid group I was about to see.

Photo Credit: Rocco DeCarlo, 2015

“Oh God, this place must look so lame,” I thought to myself.

Here is a band whose tour has recently included the likes of Telluride and Red Rocks in Colorado, various festivals including Kaaboo, a sold-out Halloween show at the 9:30 club in Washington D.C., and poor Zack here can’t even find a pizza joint open in downtown Albany on a Thursday night.

Fortunately the Hollow was jam packed on this particular evening. A combination of the unseasonably warm weather and the rising popularity for the raw talent of the band. I felt at ease that “Smallbany” would at least provide an energetic crowd, ranging from backwards snap-back sporting college girls to business casual school district administrators who were attending a conference nearby.

Photo Credit: Rocco DeCarlo, 2015

To my surprise, our small city and relatively petite venue seemed to have provided an opportunity for the band to relax and have some fun. While initially pulled back, singer Dave Shaw literally let his impressively voluminous hair down as he bounced about the stage. At times he crouched down so close to the women in the front row, I could practically feel the heat coming from their blushing faces. Had he removed his shirt – as he is known to do – I would have questioned whether we were at a concert or an evening with the Chippendales.
With a few exceptions, the set was mostly tunes from their most recent album Men Amongst Mountains, providing plenty of solo opportunities for the horn section featuring Rob Ingraham on the saxophone and Michael Girardot on trumpet and keys. These two help provide the familiar NOLA sound, while the steel pedal guitar played by Ed Williams announced a twang all his own.

Photo Credit: Rocco DeCarlo, 2015

Shaw continues to woo the ladies by physically joining them in the crowd. Even Williams jumps up from his steel guitar to playfully ask “Why don’t you love me, baby” during “When I’m Able,” a song from their City of Sound album. This particular song provides room for improvisation and crowd interaction. Crystal clear notes rise from the keys, Shaw breaks out the tambourine and an intense faceoff ensues between Feinberg and Williams. These guys are clearly having a blast in Cap City.

After exiting momentarily to take a breath, the septuplet returned to the stage for an encore of “Need You,” an emotionally charged and powerful song from the new album. And finally the cherry on top of this Cajun sundae, the boys closed out the evening with Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” Although they weren’t dressed the part as they did for their Halloween show, the Revivalists nailed the cover while adding their own grit to this pop classic.

If the Revivalists were unimpressed with Albany, it certainly wasn’t evident by the intensity of their set. So there you have it – at least when it comes to cities and venues – size apparently doesn’t matter.

Setlist: Bullet Proof, Stand Up, Fireflies, Amber, Monster, When I’m Able, Keep Going, Fade Away, Criminal, It Was a Sin, Wish I Knew You
Encore: Need You, When Doves Cry

November 10, 2015
McDowell Mountain Music Festival in Phoenix, Arizona
To anyone inside the 53 square mile radius of the Denver International Airport, it was clear that we were going somewhere different. Everyone in an airport are coming and going from any number of locations around the world, but the arched eyebrows, piercing stares and gaping mouths clearly signaled that my finance, Greta, and I, weren’t going to any of the places they all were. I was dressed in a Christmas tree bright full length, red and green, dashiki. The gown was emblazoned on the chest with an elaborate gold flower embroidered pattern. Greta, too, was dressed in a full length purple tie-dyed dashiki. And the stares were correct. We were headed somewhere different, the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. More accurately, the 2-hour plane flight, and following cab ride would drop us off at the hallowed grounds of an abandoned city lot in downtown Phoenix, Arizona that recently had been bulldozed and flattened to accommodate the blinky, LED light-covered, tie-dyed shirt wearing, hula hoop dancing music aficionados camping next to the Margaret T. Hance Park where the festival would be held.

I had a number of reasons to feel Christmas tree bright. For one, I soon would be slipping into my red sequin Santa suit. It would the first time in two years that I would be donning my official work clothes at a music festival. It would be the first time in three years that I was handed a photo assignment to work a music festival. I may have been temporarily trapped in the serpentine purgatory that most people call an airport security line, but adrenaline shot through my limbs with fire hose force.

Still, I wasn’t quite ready for liftoff. My return to the outdoor music scene bore more than a moment’s worth of self-reflection. A week before one my favorite music festivarians active particularly in the Northeast music scene had accidentally died of an overdose. He was still in his 20s. His heart roared with the power of a V-8 engine and his dancing feet could outlast the Energizer Bunny. (He would die the last night of the festival.) So, as we entered the festival gates for the first time, I knew this return to the music festival world would be a wake-up call. Henry David Thoreau put it best, “Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.” McDowell Mountain Music Fest would become a reminder to hold onto the music, the people, and the places I love.

Many public places, like airport terminals, are difficult to love. In modern times there seems to many spaces where anonymous people are packed together, but no one feels like they are bound together. Music festival grounds are unique, in that, even in a space where few people may know each other by name, they seem to know each other by heart. McDowell Mountain was a quick reminder of this truth. As soon as the green taxi unceremoniously lurched away from Greta, I, and our lone duffel bag in a shadeless dirt lot, baked to 97 degree perfection, we were approached by new neighbors who offered cold beverages, food, air-conditioning, and even more cold beverages. In addition, they all were adorned in Christmas tree bright apparel brighter than ours. We were but two small fish in the middle of a desert swimming pool swirling in crimson, magenta, fuchsia, bronze, and vermillion. Welcome Home didn’t become a festival cliché by mistake.

A key element contributing to the openness of the scene for musicians and fans alike, was that McDowell is a completely non-profit festival. Festival organizers were hoping to raise $100,000 this year for the Arizona Children’s Hospital. Welcome Home, indeed. The steady parade of top-tier acts played with reckless abandon for modest sized crowds. Among the early night headliners Passion Pit and Portugal the Man spent the evening belting out songs that often hit notes on the Mariah Carey-like high register. Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos, in particular delivered wineglass-shattering falsetto notes while zig-zagging in front of his bandmates like a single kernel of popcorn jumping on a hot iron skillet stage.

Saturday’s music proved wildly eclectic, veering from the likes of Trombone Shorty’s testosterone-infused New Orleans funk to Phantogram’s ethereal guitar-driven electronica. Finally, Sunday’s line-up delivered hippie friendly acts like the bluegrass Trampled By Turtles, and jam band favorites Widespread Panic. One Phoenix area reporter overheard a conversation about Panic’s lead guitarist Jimmy Herring that went something like this, “That guitar playing is nastier than the lunch I just threw up.” Even Panic’s lead in, Beats Antique seemed to take a page from the Primus playbook by ending their show with a inflatable cyclops cat that was over 20 feet tall. A threesome from Beats Antique donned animal masks and enacted a ritual battle with the one-eyed cat till it was completely deflated.

The cyclops creature may have been defeated, but the Arizona crowd was elated. And as Widespread Panic closed their set and the last of Jo Jo Hermann tinkling keyboard notes skittered into the night sky like wild mice, a new feeling began tugging at my sleeve. It felt like the bittersweet pang from the farewell of an old friend. I could almost hear the sinewy roar of a V-8 engine rise in my heart as it carried the rusty, dented dreams of my truest self and all my long lost friends into the infinite star-strewn highway over an ancient desert floor.
April 12, 2015