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Monday, February 1, 2010

Booker T. Wins GRAMMY for Potato Hole

Booker T. won a GRAMMY in 1997 for his work with Booker T. & The MGs, taking home honors for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. He was named a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient ten years later, also for his work with the MGs.

But on Sunday night at the 52d Annual GRAMMY Awards, Booker T. scored his first-ever GRAMMY as a solo artist, winning the Best Pop Instrumental Album trophy for his April 2009 release Potato Hole (Epitaph/ANTI-). Potato Hole, on which Booker is backed by the blistering Drive-By Truckers, was Booker T's first new album in nearly two decades, and the lead single "Warped Sister" had been nominated for Best Rock Instrumental (the legendary Jeff Beck took home that award.)

On the Friday just prior to the GRAMMY ceremony, Booker T. appeared at the MusicCares benefit event honoring his old friend Neil Young--who contributed guitar work to Potato Hole . As part of what Rolling Stone called "a true power trio" (along with Keith Urban and John Fogerty) Booker T. played keys on a rousing rendition of “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Potato Hole and two tracks from the album, "Hey Ya" and "Space City," were all included in The Village Voice's annual Pazz and Jop poll, which tablulates the votes of over 697 music critics' in an attempt to distill the most important music of the prior year. Potato Hole was also recognized by No Depression in its Top Albums of 2009. Finally, yet another Potato Hole track, "Pound It Out," will be prominently featured in Ken Burn's forthcoming "Tenth Inning," an epilogue to the filmmaker's acclaimed nine-part "Baseball" documentary series.

Following the GRAMMY's, Booker T. left California for the Pacific Rim, where he has a whirlwind tour of Japan slated, prior to returning to the States to work on his as-yet-untitled follow-up to Potato Hole.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Booker T. Nabs Best Pop Instrumental GRAMMY


Booker T. won the award for Best Pop Instrumental Album at the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards in Los Angeles earlier today.

(Photo: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue Hit Both Coasts This Winter

Following a Mardi Gras throwdown at Tipitina’s in New Orleans on February 14th (with Rebirth Brass Band and special guests to be announced), Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue will tour both the East and West Coasts in February and March.

TS&OA hit the East Coast in February 2010 for a 12-date headlining run through nine States, including a February 19th date at the Highline Ballroom in NYC and ending with an appearance on NPR's Mountain Stage.

The band will then tackle Colorado and the West Coast in March 2010 on a co-headlining tour with The New Mastersounds. Salvador Santana, Carlos's son, opens that run of dates.

The tour with the UK-based New Mastersounds kicks off a Mile-High in the Rockies at Denver's Ogden Theater March 6 and slides down to sea-level in San Diego on March 10, where the band was last seen blowing away the Street Scene festival this past summer. After a show in L.A. March 11, Shorty visits Santa Cruz March 12 and San Francisco on March 13, returning to the cities of three sold out New Year’s run shows at the end of 2009. Dates in Portland and Seattle round out the seven-date run. Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue will also headline Colorado dates in Steamboat Springs March 7th and Breckenridge on March 8th without the New Mastersounds or Salvador.

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue have been busy recording their upcoming record with Ben Ellman from Galactic producing. The record is scheduled for an April 2010 release.

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is also a guest on Buckwheat Zydeco’s GRAMMY-nominated Lay Your Burden Down, is heard in the opening song of Disney's The Princess & The Frog and performs on forthcoming albums from Eric Clapton, Galactic, and Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue Winter 2010 US Tour Dates:

1/21/2010--Athens, GA @ The Melting Point
1/22/2010--Atlanta, GA @ Smith's Olde Bar++
1/23/2010 --Atlanta, GA @ Smith's Olde Bar++

2/6/2010--Alexandria, LA @ (Private Event)
2/14/2010--New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina's
2/16/2010--Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
2/17/2010--Northampton, MA @ The Iron Horse
2/18/2010--Cambridge, MA @ Regattabar
2/19/2010--New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom
2/20/2010--New Haven, CT @ Yale University - The Commons
2/21/2010--Bondville, VT @ Red Fox Inn
2/23/2010--Richmond, VA @ Jazz Composers Alliance
2/24/2010-- Baltimore, MD @ The Eight by Ten
2/25/2010--Falls Church, VA @ The State Theatre
2/26/2010--Wilmington, DE @ Big Chief's
2/27/2010--Pittsburgh, PA @ The Rex Theater
2/28/2010--Charleston, WV @ Mountain Stage

3/6/10--Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre***
3/7/10--Steamboat Springs, CO @ Ghostranch Saloon
3/8/10--Breckenridge, CO @ three20south
3/10/10--Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up***
3/11/10--Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre***
3/12/10--Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst***
3/13/10--San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore***
3/14/10--Sacramento, CA @ Venue TBD
3/16/10--Sisters, OR @ Sisters HS Auditorium
3/17/10--Portland, OR @ Berbati's Pan***
3/18/10--Seattle, WA @ Neumos***

++ w/ The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
*** w/ The New Mastersounds & Salvador Santana

For more information, please visit http://www.tromboneshorty.com.

(Photo: Trombone Shorty at The Independent, December 31, 2009. Photo © 2009 Anna Hiatt, http://www.annahiatt.com)

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Mavis Staples, Booker T Score GRAMMY Nods

525 Worldwide clients Mavis Staples and Booker T Jones have each been awarded Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Awards, Mavis (with the Staple Singers) in 2005 and Booker T (with the MGs) in 2007. Wednesday night, they showed they aren't about to stop there, as each was honored with nominations for the 52d Annual GRAMMY Awards, to be held January 31, 2010 in Los Angeles.

Booker T received two nominations for his April 2009 release Potato Hole, including Best Pop Instrumental Album. The track 'Warped Sister' from the album was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental. Potato Hole was Booker T's first new album in nearly two decades.

Mavis, a multiple past-nominee for duets and guest appearances, received her first-ever nomination for a solo project, as her November 2008 release Live: Hope at the Hideout (the first live concert release of her 50-plus year career) was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Mavis also has a track on the album O Happy Day, nominated for Best Traditional Gospel Album. She sings 'Waiting for My Child to Come Home' with Patty Griffin on that set.

Both Potato Hole and Live: Hope at the Hideout were released by ANTI- Records.

Trombone Shorty, a 525 client co-managed with The Rosebud Agency, also appears as a featured guest artist on Buckwheat Zydeco's album Lay Your Burden Down, nominated for Best Zydeco or Cajun Album.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Mavis Live Set Named to 'All Time Best' List


Mavis Staples Live: Hope at the Hideout, the 2008 record that is the first-ever solo live recording of the singer's 50-plus year career, was named to Amazon.com's list of the Top 100 Live Albums of All Time. The record checks in at no. 45, just ahead of Muddy Waters: Live at Newport.

The Amazon editors write: "Chicago is Mavis Staples' hometown so she is in exceptionally fine spirits on this 2008 live set, her first solo concert recording, at the Windy City's Hideout venue. Backed by a stripped down yet phenomenal three piece band of veterans featuring guitarist Rick Holmstrom, drummer Stephen Hodges and bassist Jeff Turmes along with a trio of backing vocalists, Staples comes to 'bring joy, happiness, inspiration and some positive vibrations.' Mission accomplished."

Check a really cool 2008 album review from Time Out here.