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A country soul musician, Arkansas jug band players and an English post-punk band walk into a bar. Or something along those lines? <\/p>\n
This week’s Fresh Picks<\/i>, by Music Director Kari Hedlund and Host\/Volunteer Coordinator Dan Gannon, gets an assist from our Audience Engagement guru, Julia Schrenkler, and we are better for it! <\/p>\n
Check out this week’s suggestions, which includes new names in the music scene, Big Benny Bailey, and familiar voices and players, like Billy Strings and Swamp Dogg.<\/p>\n
Melissa Carper is omnipresent in today\u2019s old-school country scene, where jazz and blues music has as much influence as fishin\u2019 and drinkin\u2019. With Sad Daddy, she rolls out with a crew of Arkansas-based musicians: Brian Martin on guitar, Joe Sundell playing banjo and Rebecca Patek on fiddle. Together, they recorded a timeless amalgamation of ballads (\u201cLet’s Go Fishin\u2019 \u201d), jug band songs (\u201cDid We Turn Off the Stove?\u201d) and up-tempo swingers (\u201cDon’t You Take My Dollar Bill\u201d).<\/p>\n
Recorded at the all-analog Nashville studio The Bomb Shelter (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff), Ozark Shine <\/i>sounds like a back porch hootenanny with some of your coolest musician friends. The musicianship and vocal harmonies are top-notch, but Sad Daddy also uses humor, whimsy and kazoos to great effect. “Did We Turn Off the Stove?” is a prime example of the sly cleverness Sad Daddy brings to their music while also being completely relatable. Who hasn’t left the house wondering if all the necessary things were turned off, locked up, fed, put away, etc.? -DG<\/p>\nSwamp Dogg – Swamp\u00a0Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n
At 83 years old, the cult musician Swamp Dogg is finding new audiences for his second, third and maybe fourth time? Since the beginning, he has seen life through a clever and funny lens and has incorporated that outlook into his music. While musically high energy and incredibly executed, the lyrics are focused on the end of life, delivered with humor.
The tone of the album is summed in the song \u201cPlease Don\u2019t Bury Me,\u201d a funky New Orleans number that doles out his organs and body parts to anywhere else but in the ground, with the last verse ending with, \u201cSend my mouth way down south and kiss my ass goodbye.\u201d However, the album is bookended with a truly contemplative side of Swamp Dogg in the lead and final tracks: \u201cSearching for Heaven\u201d and \u201cFinal Approach.\u201d -KH<\/p>\n