Holsapple & Stamey "hERE aND nOW", OAK Team on the road!

I re-connected with an old college roommate yesterday via Facebook. He was an upperclassman at East Carolina University during my freshman year. We were both music majors and at the time shared some musical interests. I remember he had a Monkees Model Gretsch that I wanted, plus a silver face Twin-Reverb and a very nice Guild acoustic. Mike is an excellent musician... sax and clarinet, guitar too when he used to play it... I think he gave it up. I should have! He spent quite a few years touring with "The Dukes Of Dixieland" (2nd incarnation) and lived in New Orleans until he and his wife decided to have kids and thought there might be better places to raise them. He eventually got back to North Carolina and is still here, on the coast in Wilmington.





So I was checking out his profile and in the box where some people put a phrase or a quote Mike wrote "I miss the days when we listened to complete recordings & absorbed them over time." I made me think about where "music" is today as an industry and how people get their new music and how they listen to it. I know myself that I rarely do that when I get an MP3 download. I'll skip around, find the tunes I like and forget the others. The ability to do this has always been around but with a computer it is so easy. Maybe there is a time aspect to it too. Everyone is so pressed for time that maybe the opportunity to sit in one place for 45 minutes or so and focus on an album isn't possible. In my case I have been spoiled by "the hits" as that is what my industry, radio, focuses on. I thought about "The Wad's" quote a few time. I even mentioned it to my wife. Now we did sit and listen to the entire OAK Team CD "National Champions" all the way through the day we got it. But I can't remember another one in a very long time. I made a mental promise to do that more often. Then I walked to the mailbox where a surprise was waiting.





I had pre-ordered Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey's CD hERE aND nOW a few weeks ago but wasn't expecting it until June 9th or later as the receipt plainly stated it would not be shipped until then, the official release date. But here it was... sitting in the mailbox. Did someone make a mistake? Did I get it early because of the little Internet radio station? Am I special? Probably yes, no and NO! Nevertheless I had it and it was the perfect night to put it in the CD player, sit on the deck and listen to the whole thing.... Which I did.



It should be noted that any thing I write about members of Arrogance, The Fabulous Knobs/Woods/OAK Team or The dB's and their music might ought to be taken with a grain of salt as I have always been huge fans of all three. However if something REALLY sucked I would probably point it out.





This was the perfect setting to listen to hERE aND nOW. A nice late spring night on the back deck as the sun was setting... and a cool old tune by "Family","My Friend The Sun", kicks off this CD. The recording is very open from a production standpoint. Very nice to listen to. Some great hooks and lyrics. The musicianship is fabulous. Then again I would expect no less from these two. A REAL reviewer, Fred Mills, commented the that harmonies were "Everlys-Worthy" and I couldn't agree more. However Peter and Chris always have always had great harmonies. Their voices compliment each other nicely. The record has an acoustic feel to it but is not totally acoustic. Very tasteful!



Track 2, "Santa Monica", does feature all four members of The dB's. Branford Marsalis plays on a couple of tracks, "Here And Now" and "Begin Again". A nice addition, especially on "Begin Again", Track 8.



This is a nice CD. Even though tempo wise I usually prefer up-tempo songs this has a nice balance. Just when I was ready to hear the pace pick up it did. There is something to be said for sequencing a record. I'm not sure some of today's artists and producers get the concept sometimes but these guys definitely do. It's helps to have good songs to sequence and they certainly do on hERE aND nOW.



So I got two nice surprises with "Big Easy" connections on the same day!!



Order this CD today. You won't be sorry. And if you do get it before the June 9th release date please don't tell me. That way I can feel special for a few more days!



Hey... speakin' of the Oak Team they are hittin' the road for Kentucky and Ohio so go see them if they are playing near your town. The new CD is getting some great reviews which Terry is posting on his blog. I'm telling you... If you don't have this CD you are missing some great tunes.



As always cuts from both of these Cd's are playing now on Comboland Radio! Listen and please tell AT LEAST 5 people you know.

Addendum! There is a great interview with Peter on the Lehigh Valley Music Blog.