If you like stripped-down and soulful Americana based heavily in the blues, then Porterdavis is your band. Tonight they played an outdoor venue for an hour, and although I don't think of their music as dancing music, they sure had a full dance floor on a Saturday night in Austin. Porterdavis is: Daniel Barrett on slide/electric/acoustic guitar and usually lead vocals, Mike Meadows on percussion, and Simon Wallace on harmonica. (Mike and Simon also sing backup.) And, they are three of the nicest guys you will meet.
Daniel has a grounding and authentic singing voice that lends itself nicely to the genre and makes a very nice complement to the rootsy propulsion of the harmonica. Daniel switches up his guitar and styles at times (slide, electric, acoustic) depending on the song, and Mike's percussion set-up is most interesting of all: For most numbers he sits on a bass drum (the kind that is usually hooked to a drum kit) playing the front of the drum with one hand, the rim with a stick in the other hand, and stomps a tambourine attached to his right foot. Occasionally he plays a djembe (a West African hand drum) with a brush (drumstick) and holds a shaker with the other hand. A+ for uncomplicated creativity.
Unabashedly proclaiming their connection to the blues, they opened with Robert Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen". Shameful me doesn't know the names to many of their songs, but two I recognized from FM radio airplay (hooray them, hooray local radio) are "Jaynie" and "Smack You Back". Simon, who hails from the U.K., also sang solo for what sounded like a potentially traditional number about a chain gang. That's the amazing thing about this band-- their sound is so rootsy, almost timeless, that it's hard to pull apart the covers from the originals. Their music has at times what I call the "Morlix swagger"-- a certain bottom-heavy backbeat that can be found in Gurf Morlix's own original work, as well as in the sound of the other musicians' albums he produced (Lucinda Williams, Slaid Cleaves). It is no wonder Gurf Morlix produced Porterdavis' latest self-titled CD.
Lots of folks in Austin feel the same as myself and the dance floor I was watching-- in 2009 Porterdavis won 3 Austin Music Awards: Best Roots Rock, Best Drums (Mike Meadows) and Best Instrument Miscellaneous (Simon Wallace, harmonica). I recommend checking out in person this already classic trio when the doctor calls for music with unfeigned character.
No comments:
Post a Comment