In a collaboration that could’ve only been dreamed up in New Orleans, Emerald Quintet, featuring saxophonist Skerik (Garage a Trois), drummer Stanton Moore (Galactic), keyboardist Robert Walter (Greyboy Allstars/Mike Gordon), bassist Andy Hess (Government Mule, Black Crowes), and guitarist Scott Metzger (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead) took the stage last night as the Brooklyn Bowl channeled its inner Jazz Fest. The group garnered its name as a tribute to the 55th Emerald Anniversary of Jazz Fest earlier this year, where they were formed to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Skerik and Moore’s first time playing the renowned festival together, and on the heels of Skerik’s 1998 debut solo album All Kooked Out. The supergroup treated Brooklyn to a rare and energetic performance on a very limited tour that included a stop in Anchorage, AK in September, and a pair of shows in Ardmore, PA and Denver, CO sandwiching last night’s Brooklyn offering.
And they came out swinging! Appropriately opening with “Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” the quintet got right to the funk, passing solos like a baton. Each musician announced his presence in a collective far greater than the sum of its parts.
“Sprung Monkey” followed, a familiar song that already had the crowd deep into a groove that would never let up. Walter’s solos tickled the crowd while his fingers tickled the black and whites, held down all the while by the best rhythm section in recent memory with Hess’s bass lines and Moore’s funky driving beats. Then Metzger’s turn with the baton, straight ahead guitar solos, no pedals, no effects, purity at the nexus of rock and funk, a touch of his signature blues, taboot.
How do you follow that? By passing the baton to Skerik of course, a powerhouse saxophonist with not only the chops to pick up where Metzger left off, but probably a large part of the reason why each member of this band pushes each other’s boundaries in all the right ways.
While most of the two-plus hour set was just straight ahead ass-shaking funk, there were moments of delicacy and patience mingled throughout. These intensely brief intervals of darkness, always pulled back by a signature Stanton beat, only served to make the light that much brighter – a true testament to the familiarity and trust shared amongst these musicians. The band was intently listening and reacting to one another, improvising while simultaneously appearing extremely well practiced. Even Peter Shapiro, owner of the Brooklyn Bowl, was on hand, an eager fan like the rest of us, but with an aura of proud papa as he, too, wore a grin from ear to ear.
“Humdinger” was an early highlight from Metzger’s Wolf! Catalog. James Casey, saxophonist (Trey Anastasio Band) joined the stage for a duelling sax number with Skerik that visibly melted the crowd, wrapped up with a spontaneous long note competition that had Skerik checking his watch while he showed off his impressive lung capacity. “Don’t Chin the Dog” highlighted both Robert Walter’s songbook and Metzger’s unbelievable talent. A cover of The Band’s “Ophelia” gave the crowd it’s only chance for a singalong before the set closing “Funky Mule.” “Who Took the Happiness,” also played by Galactic in the New Orleans tradition, was the first of a two-song encore kept the crowd grooving past the two-hour mark.
For those smart enough to be there, this was a truly special night in Brooklyn. Top shelf musicians pushing and validating each other, listening and reacting, smiling and having fun, appreciating the rarity of the occasion and the delight of the crowd in equal measure, for what may very well be one of the year’s best sets.
Setlist (via Robert Walter): Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Sprung Monkey, Aquafresh, Humdinger, Chalk Giant, Calm Down Cologne, Ironic Twist, Don’t Chin the Dog, Ophelia, Funky Mule, Who Took the Happiness, Kickin Up Dust.
This past weekend, October 25-27, saw the annual Voodoo Music and Arts Experience took place in the city of New Orleans. The festival, in its tenth edition, boasted a genre spanning lineup that included Guns Nâ Roses, Beck, Post Malone, BrandiCarlile, The National, Interpol, Big Gigantic, and Young theGiant. The three-day weekend married the close of the 2019 festival season and featured some creepy crawly Halloween festivities.
In what seemed to be a Voodoo tradition the first day was plagued by a great deal of rain, leaving the grounds of the beautiful City Park under water and a swampy mess. The dismal weather did not deter the voodoo faithful from kicking off the weekend festivities costumes and all. Sets from up and coming artist Hobo Johnson & The Love Makers, and the amazing Bishop Briggs paved the way for a rainy serenade from Brandi Carlile, and an absolute heater from Guns Nâ Roses. The world-famous rockers treated a wet and rowdy crowd to a three-hour career spanning set culminating with a perfectly timed November Rain as the light mist turned back into a steady rain shower.
As day two arrived so did the sunshine as if summer was peaking in one more time before the winter months took over, allowing festival attendees to dawn their best costumes. This was a full music day that included sets from Young the Giant, The National, and Bassnectar with the ever-talented Beck closing out day 2 with his unique dance party sound. He paid homage to hometown favorites The Meters with a soulful version of Cissy Strut showing just how much love so many musicians have for the city of New Orleans.
The final day of the festival featured an array of new bands and artists that certainly should be on any music fan’s radar. Temples, a psych rock band from England, proved that British rock is still alive and thriving, blending multiple different styles to create a unique hard rock sound. Minnesota native Hippo Campus brought their billowy melodies and concisely written songs for an amazing afternoon performance on the main stage. The array of great music culminated with a powerful performance from Post Malone. The 24 year old rap star closed this amazing weekend with such stage presence and cockiness. Closing the festival with his hit song “Congratulations” exclaiming to the NOLA faithful âLive your life, live your dream, live your truth, be what you want to be, donât ever let anyone fuckinâ stop you.â A perfect motto for the attitude that the gritty city of New Orleans exudes everyday.
Bass player ‘Ray’ Beatty is very straightforward when talking about his band Lullwater: “we’re a really loud rock band.” Add their love for Seattle grunge (Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden) and a “take no prisoners” rock ‘n roll stage presence – you get the DNA make up of this 4 piece band from Athens, Georgia.
Together for 10 years, Lullwater is comprised of John Strickland on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Roy ‘Ray’ Beatty on bass and vocals, Joseph Wilson on drums and vocals; and newest member, as of two years ago, Daniel Binnie on lead guitar. I sat down with Ray and Daniel before their set at The Chance Theater in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The band was finishing up a month long, five band tour, with headliners Sevendust. It was a cold, but sunny afternoon with plenty of snow on the ground as we sat inside the band’s tour van and got down to business.
John Strickland
Mickey Deneher: You’re on month long tour with Sevendust, what’s that been feeling like?
Roy ‘Ray’ Beatty: It’s great. It’s an awesome tour to be on. It’s not just Sevendust. We have Tremonti, Cane Hill, and we got Kirra. Every band on this tour is really awesome. Not to discredit any of the bands we have been on tour with before, but as far as from start to finish, this tour lineup is just totally stacked. Almost every show has been sold out. Crowds have been really rockin’ and we get to watch the machine that is Sevendust. Not just the band, but the crew and everything. Seeing an operation on that level is inspiring. It’s like, oh; that is where we aim to be with our professionality, it’s great.
They’re like hanging out with us, allowing us to hang out with them. Sort of taking us under their wing a tiny bit. It’s a great experience all around. It’s inspiring. It’s very inspiring. You can see how bands that do this for a long time find and maintain success. Manage to do that through hard work.
Lullwater at The Chance Theatre.
With the tour winding down, the band was preparing for the release of their 3rd and most adventurous studio album, Voodoo. A recording the band calls “a bigger, more intricate and layered, digitally-recorded sound.“ Recorded in New Orleans, the band engaged Jacob Hermann (Anthrax, Machine Head, Amaranthe) to take the reigns as producer. Recorded over a year ago, the band worked hard on the required business details so it would hit the market with full impact.
2019 released ‘Voodoo’ album art.
MD: The new album is coming out, that has to be an exciting thing.
RRB: It is exciting.
MD: You’ve done a couple of studio recordings and some live stuff. Did you go in with songs written and ready, or did you just go in and feel it and make it happen?
RRB: We had the majority of the songs written. But we went in and took the first week of our studio time just looking back at all of our songs; arranging things and changing things. So it’s like we re-wrote the whole album. But we had a lot in. Like 70 to 80% kind of like rough framework were there.
But Jacob, he came in and cracked the whip a little more and made us buckle down more then we have in the past. Made us be more reflective and honest about things that we were trying to make and were the things that we wanted really suiting the song that we wanted.
Roy “Ray” Beatty – Lullwater
Joseph Wilson
MD: You say we looked back, you had them ready, but let me make sure they were there?
RRB: Well, we did maybe a month or two of just practice in our basement leading up to it. Of us, just writing all these songs and playing them. But neither of our producers were able to be there with us. So when we went down to the studio we wanted to get them in on the vibe and also get their input and just make sure everything was the best that it could be. ‘Cause we’ve done albums. Like the previous album, we really didn’t write almost anything before we went in. And that was cool too. But we just really wanted to make this one stand out.
MD: Jacob Hermann?
RRB: Jacob (reiterated with a Swedish accent)
MD: He had some great creds coming in. How was it working with him?
RRB: It was great. It was a little daunting. It was a big step up. Not to say that our other producer, Justin, isn’t also great to work with, and he is. But he kind of goes along with our vibe and we are all very collaborative. But Jacob, he came in and cracked the whip a little more and made us buckle down more then we have in the past. Made us be more reflective and honest about things that we were trying to make and were the things that we wanted really suiting the song that we wanted.
Daniel Binnie: He was extremely critical.
MD: But that’s good.
RRB: It was good.
DB: In a good way.
MD: His name is on there also. It’s a collaboration.
RRB: It is. I think people probably don’t realize, that people that don’t make music, or don’t record their music with producers; don’t realize how much of an impact that those producers have on the album; the sounds that are happening, how the sounds all fit together, a lot of the arraignments and stuff. Your always like “Hey Justin,” “Hey Jacob,” “does it sound good?” “Does it suck or not?” When I personally go into the studio I try to, you know I have all these ideas that we have and I want things to be a certain way, but unless I absolutely am worried something’s going to not turn out good, I try to just give up worrying about anything. Saying the power to veto a sound or to confirm ‘does this sound good,’ is in the producer’s control.
Roy “Ray” Beatty
MD: You (as a band) present it, you play it, you created it, but you need that extra set of ears to help you.
RRB: You defiantly do. If you don’t all do that, it gets to be a to many cooks in the kitchen kind of scenario with everyone saying, “NO, we got to do this riff,” ‘That didn’t quite work, we have to redo it.” It’s like CHAOS. In order to serve the final product, you have to remove yourself a little from it.
MD: The song “Empty Chambers” a first release. Talk a little about it.
RRB: It’s just a loud rock song. Actually, that was the first one we started writing for the album, I think. I was traveling and I had my guitar in my car and I knew that we had our studio session booked and I was kind of freak’n out because nobody had been sending in riffs. ‘Cause usually, the way our writing process works is, other people are coming up with some of the riffs and I‘ll try to arrange them and we’ll all try to arrange them and write. We write together. But for this one, I was just in my hotel drinking and I was like; man, we need songs. So I just wrote that first riff and we just kind of came together and made a song out of it.
Daniel Binnie
You can take kind of what you want from the lyrics. John (Strickland, lead vocals and rhythm guitar) doesn’t like to be super direct with explaining his lyrics in interviews, so I kind of respect that. But you listen to it; you can kind of hear what it’s all about.
Daniel Binnie: I wrote the rhythm for the chorus. Don’t for get me (laughing!)
RRB: Binnie did write the chorus of “Empty Chamber.” Totally wrote that. We took that from a song he made. So it really came together.
MD: What was it that drew you down to NOLA (to record)?
RRB: Jacob had worked in that studio and he said that was the place to go, so we said ok, we trust you.
MD: New Orleans is such a music place.
RRB: It is a music place.
MD: The vibe is a NOLA vibe. Did any of that seep in a little?
RRB: The album is called Voodoo. We where there for Halloween. (Laughing) It definitely influenced the album. It seeps through. You be able to hear it in the final product.
Lullwater
DB: Musically of course, we got some horns and strings and stuff from local musicians on the album. So you got that. As far as the vibe of the town, there is a lot of pain and suffering on that album.
RRB: There is. I feel that like that is the theme of the album overall, everything falling apart and then getting back together.
The band hit the stage at The Chance Theater to a very appreciative and packed house. With 2019 in front of them, Lullwater will be releasing an acoustic EP, containing songs from their last two albums, in late spring or summer. The band is now finalizing tour dates for the rest of the year, so look for Lullwater out on the road in support of their latest release.
