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Tank and the Bangas (Photo by Jeremy Tauriac)
New Orleands funk collective Tank and the Bangas are set to release their third studio album, Red Balloon, on May 13 via Verve Forecast. They have already launched a North American tour that will bring them to 9:30 Club on Monday, March 21.
Bettye LaVette (Photo by Marina Chavez)
“I call this my fifth career,” soul singer Bettye LaVette told the audience at The Hamilton Live recently, “because it’s stopped and started so much.”
Born in Muskegon, Michigan in 1946, she began her recording when she was just a teenager, in 1962. Over the years, she’s endured the failures of record labels and other career mishaps, only to achieve real breakthrough success around the turn of the century. The start of that “fifth stage,” she noted, came with a song written producer Dennis Walker, best known for his work with blues artist Robert Cray: “A Woman Like Me.”
Bettye LaVette (Photo courtesy The Hamilton Live)
Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the great soul interpreters of her generation”, Bettye LaVette is a vocalist who can take any type of song and make it completely her own. To quote the late, great George Jones, “Bettye is truly a singer’s singer.”
Hear Bettye for yourself in her next DC performance at The Hamilton Live on Wednesday, Feb. 16.
Tedeschi Trucks Band (Photo by Caitlin Moore)
Following a very challenging yet creative year, Americana roots and soul powerhouse, Tedeschi Trucks Band, eagerly returns to the road in 2022. Highlights include a series of multiple-night residencies in Washington DC (6), Nashville, TN (4), Chicago, IL (4), Red Bank, NJ (3), Port Chester, NY (3), and a two-night engagement in New Orleans, LA. Led by renowned guitarist Derek Trucks and singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi, these shows will feature the full, reunited 12-piece band including new drummer Isaac Eady.
Daryl Hall (Photo by Stuart Berg)
Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release BeforeAfter, the first-ever solo retrospective from Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Daryl Hall, as a two-disc set and across all digital platforms, on Friday, April 1.
On the same date, Hall will also embark on his first solo tour in a decade, performing on historic stages like NYC’s Carnegie Hall and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, with special guest and fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Todd Rundgren supporting. The show arrives in the DC area at MGM National Harbor on Saturday, April 16.
Vanessa Collier (Photo by Bob Liddycoat)
Acclaimed soulful blues singer/saxophonist Vanessa Collier makes her triumphant return to The Hamilton Live in DC on Saturday, Jan. 22.
Curtis Harding (Photo courtesy ANTI- Records)
(Editor’s Note: This show is being postponed due to concerns related to COVID-19. Stay tuned for a new date!)
Atlanta psychedelic soul artist Curtis Harding recently released his new album If Words Were Flowers via ANTI- Records. On the heels of that release, Curtis performs at Black Cat on Wednesday, Jan. 19.
Jacob Allen leads Puma Blue in a performance at the Miracle Theater in DC on Nov. 20, 2021. (Photo by Casey Vock)
Musicians have such an arsenal of effective ways to reach potential supporters these days that genres and categorization become afterthoughts. And today’s resources are empowering a tremendous wave of artists who set out with no intention of adhering to any sort of conventions in the pursuit of their own organic sound.
London-bred singer songwriter Jacob Allen found his through making recordings in his bedroom, and he didn’t even need to leave the comfortable space to create a following. Since cutting and sharing a track called “Only Trying 2 Tell U” on SoundCloud back in 2014, he’s been able to steadily build that fanbase via his musical vehicle known as Puma Blue.
Oh He Dead perform at 9:30 Club on Sept. 25, 2021. (Photos by Mark Caicedo)
“Poppy enough for ya…bitch?”
Those words, spoken in jest years ago between Oh He Dead’s CJ Johnson and Andy Valenti, actually signaled a dogged determination to never compromise on their dream. Saturday night, during their headlining 9:30 Club debut, the two Oh He Dead (OHD) founders related the story of demoing one of their new songs, only to be told that it wasn’t “pop” enough. That long ago, unnamed producer might be a little humbled to find that OHD has amassed an exhaustive repertoire of original and cover songs, has legions of fans around the world, and this past Saturday played to a packed 9:30 Club (only the first, no doubt, of many such appearances to come).
And judging by the crowd of swaying, dancing, and singing fans, not a single one would accuse OHD of not being “poppy” enough.
Oh He Dead (Photo courtesy 9:30 Club)
DC indie band Oh He Dead “recalls the danceability of Earth Wind and Fire, the pop genius of Prince, and the seductive, soulful groove of Sade,” said Parklife blogger Mark Caicedo in his last review of this funky quintet.
Experience that sound for yourself and catch Oh He Dead live at 9:30 Club on Saturday, Sept. 25.