Tue, July 24 SHOW 8:30pm / DOORS 7:30pm
w/ guest TBA
***Tix on-sale Sat, May 12!
San Francisco’s Ambassadors of Gypsy Rock after a sizzling hot wintertime barn burner show!
GEN. AD 21+ $8ADV/$10DOOR
https://www.facebook.com/#!/DiegosUmbrella
Diego’s Umbrella are San Francisco’s Ambassadors of Gypsy Rock. Internationally known and revered, their lively stage show, great songs, antics and humor have garnered them a cult following around the world.
With a mix of Eastern European tradition, pop sensibility and punk rock energy, they have had crowds going wild for years. ‘Where Gogol Bordello meets Muse. These underground heroes will soon be international superstars.’ (ap press)
Born in the fiery cauldron of Babylon, Diego’s Umbrella started rising on the Northern California coast in 2000. With the seed planted by Vaughn and Tyson, DU slowly grew to the monster it is today. While its home base is in the San Francisco Bay Area, the troupe has managed to solidify worldwide acclaim and has toured internationally for years.Violinist Jason came on board early in the project, followed by Singer Benny, Drummer Jake, and finally Marcus on the bass.
The Group has released 3 albums, and a host of independent recordings. They have been featured in major motion pictures, Network Television, and numerous documentaries, in addition to countless worldwide radio and print.
Sun, Aug 5th SHOW 8:30pm / DOORS 7:30pm
w/ guest TBA
***Tix on-sale Sat, May 12!
GEN. AD 21+ $18ADV/$20DOOR
Former Drive-by Trucker singer/guitarist. “Here We Rest is Jason Isbell putting it all out there, leaving nothing in the tank, and stretching his limits.” –
savingcountrymusic.com
Here We Rest: The first motto of Jason Isbell’s home state got changed in the early part of last century to a Latin phrase that translates to “we dare defend our rights”. What starts out as peaceful idyll descends into a defensive posture with the threat of bellicosity just beneath the surface. That’s what tough times will do to a people.
Jason Isbell’s home is northern Alabama, a region that has been hit especially hard in the recent economic downturn. “The mood here has darkened considerably,” says Jason. “There is a real culture around Muscle Shoals, Florence and Sheffield of family, of people taking care of their own. When people lose their ability to do that, their sense of self dissolves. It has a devastating effect on personal relationships, and mine were not immune.”
The characters that populate Here We Rest are wrung out. In “Alabama Pines”, the protagonist has found himself on the outside of the life he once knew. He is living in a small room and in a state of emotional disrepair – estranged from the woman that he loved, as well as friends (“I don’t even need a name anymore/When no one calls it out, it kinda vanishes away”). He is beginning to recognize that his own remoteness and obstinacy has played a large part in his current state of affairs, and longs for “someone to take him home through those Alabama pines.” He’s not quite clear how to get back there himself.
Place plays a prominent role in the songs on Here We Rest. Jason was home considerably more this year, having toured less in 2010. After being on the road for 200 or more days for more years than he cares to count, he stayed home mostly to write and record this album. “I could probably live anywhere, but I love it here,” says Jason. “Being home is very different than being on the road. You learn a certain discipline that has its entire context within the touring lifestyle. This was the first time that I’ve been an adult in my own house, in my own community. Plus on the road, you have your whiskey waiting for you when you get to the gig. Here you have to go get it.”
Spending all that time around his hometown, he could reacquaint himself with the locale and immerse himself with the rhythms of life in northern Alabama. “Being able to sit on my stool at D.P.’s, a bar in the building I live in, talk to my friends, and hear the problems that they have helped inform some of these songs.” Sometimes, people in that bar grow tired of hearing others bitch when they themselves were on the edge, and it would sometimes lead to fights. “Save It For Sunday” grew out of one of those experiences. A bar patron, unsure of the solidity of his relationship, tells his fellow bar patron that “we got cares of our own,” and suggesting that the he save his sorrows for his “choir and everyone” at his church.
Our military draws disproportionately from areas that economically depressed, and northern Alabama has more than its share of those that have served, not only out of a deep sense of patriotism, but also because of shrinking employment options. In “Tour Of Duty,” Jason writes of a soldier that is coming home from war from the last time, and will try, more than likely in vain, to assimilate back into civilian life. His soldier is voracious for normalcy. He admits to not knowing or caring how his loved one has changed and dreams of eating chicken wings and starting a family. But there’s a subtle sense that this craving for normalcy will cause him to suppress the damage done to him during wartime: “I promise not to bore you with my stories/I promise not to scare you with my tears/I never would exaggerate the glory/I’ll seem so satisfied here.” Seeming satisfied is not being satisfied, but it’s the best he can imagine.
The time off from the road also had an effect on the musical sensibilities that shaped this album. Jason was able to collaborate with more artists (he played on the latest albums by Justin Townes Earle, Middle Brother, Abby Owens and Coy Bowles), which broadened his ideas about how he could present his own music. “I always felt like certain things, like my guitar playing, had to be perfect, and when I was in the studio environment, I could make sure that it was. But looking back, it might have robbed the music of a certain amount of spontaneity. There’s more out and out rock and roll guitar on this album.” In addition, Jason embraces a more acoustic, more tradition al country music sound to a degree that he had been reluctant to in the past. “When you come from Alabama, that country soul music is in the water. I’ve always loved it and been proud of it, but there’s always been this sense of proving that you were capable of more than just that. If I was going to create an album that gave listeners a sense of the place, I felt it was important to let the songs go there if they wanted to.”
The time at home has also had an effect on the lyrical point of view of the album. Because of the subject material of the album, Jason wrote from a more empathetic point of view than ever before. “I tried more than ever to get out from behind my own eyes and see things through others’ eyes,” he says. In “We’ve Met,” Jason puts himself in the place of a person that was left behind in their hometown and, with a tinge of bitterness, remembers the one who went away better than they are remembered (Jason says, “I’m quite sure that I’ve been the person that didn’t remember before, and I hate it”).
As with the last album, the 400 Unit shines. Keyboard player Derry deBorja, guitarist Browan Lollar, bassist Jimbo Hart and drummer Chad Gamble play with either the ferocity or subtlety that the songs call for. Having played over four hundred shows together as a band have given Jason and the guys an innate sense of one another; they are gelling into a truly great band.
The original state motto was written by Alexander Beaufort Meek, a former Alabama attorney general, in his 1842 essay outlining the history of the state. The last lines of that history say: “We have shown the condition and character of our population; the Red Sea of trials and suffering through which they had to pass; the fragile bark that floated in triumph through the perils of the tide….From such rude and troublous beginnings, the present population of Alabama, acquired the right to say, ‘Here we rest!’” The times are indeed rude and troublous again in Alabama, and Jason Isbell’s inspired album offers both documentation and the same fervent hope that his people will find their rest.
Sunday, October 21st, 2012 at The Egyptian Theatre
Show time is 8:00 p.m. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.
Tickets are $27 in advance. $30 day of show.
***Tickets available this Saturday, April 28th at 10:00 a.m. at The Record Exchange, The Egyptian Theatre box office or online at egyptiantheatre.net. Or call 208-287-1273 Tuesday-Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to charge by phone.
Reserved seating. All Ages. Beer and wine served with I.D.
The Egyptian Theatre is located at 700 W. Main St. in downtown Boise.
Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam who recently released his own album of ukulele songs had this to say about Jake: “Jake is taking the instrument to a place that I can’t see anybody else catching up with him.”
“Forget everything you know about the ukulele…and go do a Google search. The first video that pops up won’t be some grainy clip of Tiny Tim or George Formby but a performance by a hair-gelled 34-year old Hawaiian named Jake Shimabukuro.” – Time magazine feature
It’s rare for a young musician to earn comparisons to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis. It’s even harder to find an artist who has entirely redefined an instrument by his early thirties. But Jake Shimabukuro (she-ma-boo-koo-row) has already accomplished these feats, and more, in a little over a decade of playing and recording music…on the ukulele.
Yes, the ukulele. In the hands of Shimabukuro, the traditional Hawaiian instrument of four strings and two octaves is stretched and molded into a complex and bold new musical force. On his most recent album ‘Peace Love Ukulele’ (which debuted at #1 on the Billboard World Album Chart), Jake and his “uke” effortlessly (it seems) mix jazz, rock, classical, traditional Hawaiian music, and folk, creating a sound that’s both technically masterful and emotionally powerful…and utterly unique in the music world. No less than the New York Times recently noted his “buoyant musicianship” and “brisk proficiency,” adding, “the innovation in his style stems from an embrace of restrictions: the ukulele has only four strings and a limited range. He compensates with an adaptable combination of rhythmic strumming, classical-style finger-picking and fretboard tapping.”
Energy, imagination, and innovation have been Jake’s keys to success. He plans to continue recording, performing, collaborating, and staying happy. “I love what I do. I’m forever thankful for music.”
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyitDzW7OLY&feature=player_embedded
For more information about Jake Shimabukuro:
http://jakeshimabukuro.com/home/
