Grace Potter and the Nocturnals blow in from Vermont

by walter tunis — Contributing Music Writer

Posted: 10:08am on May 28, 2009; Modified: 5:46am on Apr 18, 2011

  • THE WEEK THAT WAS

    Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials at Red Miles Blues Festival: The spot-checking of artistic influences was abundant in the music that Chicago guitarist Lil' Ed Williams summoned to close the inaugural Red Mile Blues Festival. The syncopated groove to Housekeeping Job was coated with Peter Green-style Brit blues, and Woman, Take a Bow suggested Carlos Santana with a melodic hook that sounded — improbable as this might seem — like a light-funk interpretation of the 1973 Edgar Winter instrumental hit Frankenstein. But the lightning electric-blues jolt of Hound Dog Taylor, Elmore James and Williams' esteemed uncle, J. B. Hutto, really fueled the performance. When Williams leaned heavily into the roadhouse cheer of those elders during the sly blues shuffles Pride and Joy (not the Stevie Ray Vaughan tune of the same name) and Take Out Some Insurance, or the densely patterned grind of Hold That Train, the Blues Imperials summoned a roaring juke-joint fire. The music sounded like the work of an honest-to-goodness blues band instead of the usual tired blues outfit siphoning rock 'n' roll for cheap, accessible thrills. Especially impressive was how keen, clean and mean Williams' slow blues excursions sounded. Even the semi-novelty tune Check My Baby's Oil, with all its cheesy lyrical innuendo, sounded quietly urgent. Like the entire show, this slice of underplayed Chicago blues served with playful menace sounded very sweet indeed.

    Uncle Woody Sullender at Land of Tomorrow: The brittle passages at the core of this brief 40-minute set by Brooklyn banjoist Sullender possessed a stark, ancient air that seemed to predate bluegrass. Of course, this was in no way a traditional music program. Pedal effects and laptop-guided electronic enhancements created progressive, often otherworldly harmony. At times, the electric accents rose like voices in another room. Or mounting waves of static chatter. Or chimed bells at a dance. Or chattering insects. Or a lone, chirping bird. None of this made the performance seem like a novelty act, though. What was continually absorbing was how the natural timbre of the banjo would dissolve even as the electronics would continue to react against — or, more often than not, harmonize with — the tense strums and plucks pronounced on the strings. On Violence of Volk, especially, the electronics entered like a squall that rode shotgun to Sullender's more agitated playing. Of course, the real ingenuity of this music came not from the rise or fade of the electronics but with the cunning Sullender displayed as a soloist. On Where the Flowers on the River's Green Margin May Blow, the effects took a breather so he could experiment with the banjo's given tone and temperament. At times contemplative, at others exquisitely giddy, Sullender's music was just as progressive when surrounded by pure acoustic solitude as it was when all the dizzy electric gremlins crashed the party.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

8 p.m. May 30 at The Dame, 367 East Main. $10 advance, $12 at the door. (859) 231-7263. www.dameky.com.

A big ol' pop Nor'easter heads to The Dame on Friday by way of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Although popular with jam-band crowds for years, the Vermont outfit designed its most torrential pop, rock and soul storm on a 2007 album called This Is Somewhere.

Preceding recordings certainly suggested Potter's way with a wailing, rootsy, even anthemic tune. But on Somewhere, the Nocturnals' sound fully arrived. Late into the album, there is a one-two punch that many bands spend their creative lifespans trying to mount. Here, Potter makes it all sound easy with a celebratory pop hullabaloo called Mastermind and a slide-savvy roots-rock workout, Here's to the Meantime, that follows.

There is irony, certainly, in the fact that a New England-bred songstress like Potter sounds so Southern on most of her songs with the Nocturnals. Her vocals often bring the blues-versed singing of Susan Tedeschi to mind. But there is also big, bright pop (Mr. Columbus), a neo-country requiem (Big White Gate) and even a bit of activist angst (Ah, Mary) within This Is Somewhere.

Now comes the fun part: watching Potter and the Nocturnals bring these often-stormy portraits to life within the confines of The Dame. Sounds like a cool Saturday night to me.

Skids and Straits

Two killer bands, both longtime regional favorites, team up to revisit the region twice this weekend. But you will have to hit the road to catch them.

The bill features the veteran roots-rock party trio Southern Culture on the Skids with the masked men of surf, twang and instrumental pop, Los Straitjackets.

Southern Culture on the Skids — SCOTS, to its fans — has not released a new album since the 2007 covers project, Countrypolitan Favorites. But that is a blast of a record if you haven't heard it, from Mary Huff's highly respectful cover of the 1961 Wanda Jackson B-side Funnel of Love to Rick Miller's instantly infectious country-a-go-go version of the 1967 Byrds hit Have You Seen Her Face.

Los Straitjackets might be known for summoning sounds of vintage surf and twang. But its newest recording, The Further Adventures of Los Straitjackets, displays its guitar-savvy sound in a lighter, warmer light with new original tunes like Cal-Speed, Fortune Cookie and Nocturnal Twist. The titles figure into the album's elaborate comic-style album art, as well.

The Skids and the Straits play Friday at Headliners Music Hall, 1386 Lexington Road in Louisville, and Saturday at Southgate House, 24 East Third Street in Newport. (9 p.m., $18 each night. Call (502) 584-8088 for the Louisville concert and (859) 431-2201 for the Newport show.)

Just for kicks

Terry Anderson used to make the regional rounds with an all-star Americana rock troupe known as The Yahoos. In recent years, though, the drummer/guitarist has been coaching a similarly spirited but not-so-subtly titled electric combo called the Olympic Ass Kicking Team — or, for more tender eyes and ears, the OAK Team. On the band's new album National Champions, Anderson and company are in splendid barroom form — especially on such no-regrets rockers as You Had Me at Get Lost. Among the album's highlights is an electric parable titled Willie Mays that probably won't find its way onto Barry Bonds' iPod any time soon. Anderson and the OAKs return to Lexington on Thursday to play The Green Lantern, 497 West Third Street. (9 p.m. $5. Call (859) 252-9539.)

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