Soundcheck

Actor, author, and comedian Steve Martin released his debut album as a banjo player in 2009, but he first picked up the instrument as a teenager and later incorporated it into his hit stand-up act during the 1970's. He joined us back in 2011 with his band from North Carolina, the Steep Canyon Rangers, playing songs from his Grammy-nominated album, Rare Bird Alert, in this session from the archives. (Recorded live in The Greene Space)

Banjo player, comedian, actor, and musician Ed Helms has combined music and comedy in an online show for the pandemic era, The Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, presented by The Bluegrass Situation. He joins John to talk about making old-timey magic, with music performed by the featured artists like Aubrie Sellers and her mother Lee Ann Womack, multi-instrumentalist Robert Ellis and his glorious robe, and Helms himself. Plus, a discussion of that scene of Helms playing the sitar in the Christmas party episode of The Office.

The Whiskey Sour Happy Hour benefits MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and personal protective equipment and supplies through Direct Relief. Future guests include Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, Jerry Douglas, and more surprises in store. The Whiskey Sour Happy Hour airs at 8PM EDT via YouTube on May 13. The previous three episodes (April 22, 29, May 6) are also archived on The Bluegrass Situation's YouTube channel. 

Pioneering drummer Tony Allen, who was called “perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived" by Brian Eno, has died in Paris, at the age of 79. Allen was the longtime drummer and musical director for the Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti where his unique, propulsive, funky, innovative drum patterns helped to define the style known as Afrobeat. He was self-taught and said that he created that signature sound through listening to recordings of Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and Max Roach. A legend among drummers -and musicians of all styles from all over the world- Tony Allen and his band played a few tunes in-studio from his record Secret Agent, back in 2011.    

Set list: "Elewon Po," "Secret Agent"s

The late funk and R&B singer Charles Bradley’s life story was one filled with poverty, struggle and unappreciated talent. But after catching the eye of a Daptone Records agent (while doing a James Brown routine in a Bushwick club) Charles Bradley put out several singles and several full-length releases on Daptone. His debut record was called No Time For Dreaming, and the soulful singer was in-studio to sing some of it live, back in 2011.

Parquet Courts exploded into New York music fans’ collective consciousness in early 2013, with the release of their blistering post-punk LP, Light Up Gold. They formed in Brooklyn, in 2010, but its members all met in Texas years before. Lean and urgent like the best of the early punk rock bands, Parquet Courts’ output is of mostly short and spunky songs, written by guitarists Andrew Savage and Austin Brown. They performed in-studio for us, back in early 2013.

Set List:

Songwriter, pianist, and singer Regina Spektor was born in the then-Soviet Union and moved to the States on the cusp of her teenage years. She began playing small cafes and clubs, before moving up to big arenas, and in 2019, a run of shows at a Broadway theater. Her songs are full of charm, wit, and surprises, and very often portray an outsider trying to make sense of things. This session from 2012, was around the time of her release What We Saw From the Cheap Seats. Here’s Regina Spektor, in-studio to play a few songs from that record.

Set list: "Firewood," "Oh Marcello," "Ballad of a Politician"  

Pianist, composer, and bandleader Jon Batiste comes from a long line of New Orleans musicians, and got his start playing in his family’s band as a percussionist when he was just 8. Now based in New York as the musical director for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, we sometimes forget what a formidable musician he is. Jazz, funk, R & B, even classical music – he plays it all. It’s clear that most chances he gets, he’d gladly lead a parade just about anywhere with his “mouth piano,” but for this archival edition of the podcast from 2011, Jon Batiste (Jonathan, as he was known then) and Stay Human performed in-studio.

In his four decades writing songs and playing them alone or with friends, the English-born Nashville-based singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock has earned a devoted fan base. His songs can mix gleeful surrealism, sexual frustration, drinking, death, sadness, spiders, snakes, and the occasional movie quote. Never one to be at a loss for words, and possessed of the greatest patterned shirt collection in all of folk-alt-psych-pop-dom, the singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist Robyn Hitchcock visited the WNYC studios back in 2006 with his then brand-new electric band, the Venus 3 (REM's Peter Buck and Young Fresh Fellows' Scott McCaughey and the late drummer Bill Rieflin (formerly of Ministry and Revolting Cocks.) Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 play songs from the record, Olé! Tarantula, and waltz, nay tango, around conversation for this edition of the Soundcheck Podcast (from the archives.) 

For many years, the late, great soul singer Sharon Jones played wedding gigs while working as a corrections officer. Then, in her forties, for her second act, came a record deal and a partnership with the Dap-Kings, a band whose resume includes work with such artists as Amy Winehouse and Al Green, Sturgill Simpson, Kesha, and Mark Ronson.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings became known for their roof-raising shows, fiery horn section, and of course, the defiant yet vulnerable vocals of their singer Sharon Jones, who died in 2016 from pancreatic cancer. As we go through the archives during a time when our performance studio is dark, we look back to 2010 when Miss Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings joined us to celebrate the release of their fourth album, I Learned the Hard Way, in a live performance from The Greene Space.

In 2005, the band Art Brut burst upon the indie rock scene with an album of hilarious, half-spoken stories and manic, melodic punk. For this archival podcast, revisit a performance from the Berlin-based post-punk art rock band, Art Brut, who had just released the 2009 album Art Brut Vs Satan. They joined us to play live and talk about putting the fun back in rock’n’roll.

P.S., try their 2018 album, Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out!