BRASS | Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
w/ New Breed Brass Band
Thurs. Sept. 10
8 p.m.
$25/adv., $28/door
Music Farm
When the television program Treme premiered on HBO in April of 2010, creator David Simon had in mind a TV show that would introduce America to a Katrina-ravaged section of New Orleans and the proud people that inhabit it. In attempting to boost both public perception and tourism dollars in the city, Simon also shone a light upon a new generation of jazz musicians that were coming up in the Crescent City. While jazz fans were already familiar with many of the artists on the show, such as vets like saxophonist Donald Harrison, Jr. and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, none shone brighter than a young trombonist named Troy Andrews, better known as Trombone Shorty. Shorty had been playing trombone since the age of four and was the latest member of a musical family — Andrews is the grandson of singer and songwriter Jessie Hill and the younger brother of trumpeter-bandleader James Andrews — that had been influencing New Orleans culture for nearly a century. Shorty quickly made a name for himself in areas where jazz isn’t an embraced form of entertainment and has been performing in front of sold-out crowds of casual fans ever since. With Treme now off the air, Shorty has lost a huge amount of free advertising, but he remains on the road, showcasing his band’s brand of hybrid funk-jazz behind the strength of their 2013 release, Say That to This. —Isaac Weeks THURSDAY
NOSTALGIA ROCK | Secret Guest
w/ ET Anderson, Dear Blanca, and Sweatlands
Sun. Sept. 13
9 p.m.
$5
The Royal American
Secret Guest is probably maybe definitely the name of Brett Nash’s new band. “We’ve been Alanis Morisette, Thin Lizzy, Fizzy Boys, Suffering Boys, Party Trash, Sweatlands II, and Gulf Shores,” says the local singer-guitarist-drummer. Though you can also often find Nash doing his Ned Brash solo act or backing up bands like Dumb Doctors and Southern Femisphere, he takes the lead with Secret Guest. “I had been playing solo one-man-band things for a little while last year, so I had some kind of outlet when I realized my old band Boring Portals was probably not going to really be a band anymore,” he explains. “The solo thing was cool, but it started getting to the point where I was having weird existential crises at every show about any of my songs being any good or me being good.” Because of his self-doubt, Nash found himself ending songs prematurely, and he realized he was better at committing to others rather than to himself. That’s when his friends — Michael Milam, Andrei Mihailovic, and Dorian Warneck — stepped in and Secret Guest was born. “Next thing you know I’m bringing my shitty songs in, and, like true alchemists, they’re spinnin’ ’em into gold,” Nash says. “I probably carry the least musical weight in this band and just let them do all the work.” As for their sound, Nash says their songs are inspired by classic ’90s bands. “I’d like to think there’s a little more to it than that, but a case could be made otherwise,” he says. Tonight (Wed. Sept. 9) the band will post an in-depth interview at 10 p.m. at soundcloud.com/secretguest that will include some pretty big announcements. “Also, here’s a fun trivia fact,” Nash adds. “Secret Guest has band superlatives: Michael is the worst, Dorian is the best, I’m the cutest, and Andrei’s the drunkest.” —Kelly Rae Smith SUNDAY
GRIT ROCK | Blackfoot Gypsies
w/ The Mackie Boles Band
Sat. Sept. 12
9 p.m.
$5
The Royal American
Nashville’s Blackfoot Gypsies play a gritty, swampy style of rock that people don’t seem to make anymore. Their groove on the new Handle It album is heavy but hypnotic, accented by a distortion-coated harmonica wail and matching fuzz-toned vocals and guitars. It’s an album reminiscent of the Faces at their most electric, with a bit of the Black Crowes’ Southern Harmony & Musical Companion thrown in. It’s also the band’s first album as a quartet. Singer-guitarist Matthew Paige and drummer Zack Murphy worked as a duo for their previous three releases before bringing in bassist Dylan Whitlow and harmonica player Oliver “Ollie Dogg” Horton. “We never really decided to be a two-piece,” Murphy explains. “We wanted to be a band, and we just didn’t find the right one or two or 10 other people right off the bat. It seemed to work well with just the two of us, and we got a lot of mileage out of it.” But it’s not that they had hit a wall and given up. “We just found two other people that fit really well with what we were already doing,” he says. “If they had come to us in the beginning, we would’ve been a four-piece the whole time.” Murphy says the difference in the band’s sound as a duo and as a quartet can be heard in the details. “We can reach higher highs and lower lows. We’ve increased our dynamic range 10-fold, at least,” he says. “As a two-piece, we always felt like no matter how much you were putting out, it wasn’t enough. If we played a quiet song, it was lacking a dimension. It needed to get fuller. It’s like, if you have a blow-up doll and you don’t blow her up enough, she looks kind of flat.” —Vincent Harris SATURDAY
AMBIENT BLUES | Lonnie Holley
w/ Ben Sollee & Infinitkiss
Sat. Sept. 12
8 p.m.
$15/adv., $17/door
Charleston Music Hall
The music of Lonnie Holley is rootless. It seems to have elements of 1970s free-jazz, ambient electronica, spoken-word, and early 20th-century blues, all at once. In short, it’s new art from existing sources, which is somewhat fitting, since Holley is also a visual artist who creates some of his work from recycled material and found objects. Holley’s backstory is as fascinating as his music. He claims to be one of 27 children, and says he was traded by his adoptive mother for a pint of whiskey at age four. Holley’s movement into visual art didn’t begin until he was almost 30 years old, and he began making home demos of his recordings several years later, more for himself than for wider release. His songs are just as personal and as idiosyncratic as his artwork; the musical structure is nebulous, guided by Holley’s wailing, soulful vocals instead of percussion or guitar. Working primarily with keyboards and recording equipment discovered in flea markets, Holley has created a genre of his own simply by following his own muse. And it’s a sound that’s caught on, despite the fact that Holley has only released two albums (2012’s Just Before Music and 2013’s Keeping a Record of It), and the first one came out when he was already over 60 years old. He’s made the year-end top-10 lists of the Chicago Sun-Times and Washington Post, collaborated with members of the Black Keys, Arcade Fire, and the Shins, and he’s toured with super-producer Daniel Lanois. —Vincent Harris SATURDAY
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