Dave Matthews Band (Full Set Every Night)

O.A.R. first began to develop their unique sound in drummer Chris Culos’s basement while in high school in Rockville, Maryland. The band released their first album, The Wanderer, prior to graduating and stayed together throughout college with all members attending The Ohio State University. Recording two additional albums before leaving Columbus, the band began pursuing their musical dreams full time in the summer of 2001. By the end of 2008, the band had released six studio albums and three live double disc CDs.

To date O.A.R. has sold more than 1.8 Million albums and 1.7 Million concert tickets, including two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. With the release of their sixth studio album, All Sides, O.A.R. reached several career milestones. The album was their highest debut to date, landing at #13 on the Billboard 200, and the album’s first single, “Shattered,” was the band’s first single to be certified Platinum by the RIAA and spent fifteen weeks on VH1’s Top 20 Countdown. O.A.R. continues to tour throughout the country and they are currently finishing up the recording of their seventh studio album.

With THE RAINWATER LP, Citizen Cope offers the clearest distillation yet of his distinct musical approach, a laidback gumbo of acoustic blues, singer/songwriter rock ‘n’ roll and deep soul grooves. Born Clarence Greenwood, but known to friends and fans as simply “Cope,” the Brooklyn-based artist has crafted an album redolent of such classic tunesmiths as Randy Newman and Stevie Wonder – both major touchstones for his emotively penned songs. As such, it’s virtually impossible to put a finger on Citizen Cope’s idiosyncratically inimitable sound.

“The only way to explain my music is to say you gotta listen to it,” Greenwood says. “I don’t think there is any easy description of it. Somebody once said something about ‘urban folk,’ which I wasn’t mad at.”

THE RAINWATER LP comes nearly four years after Citizen Cope’s acclaimed 2006 third album, EVERY WAKING MOMENT. Not that Greenwood wasn’t busy – the hard-touring troubadour spent much of that time on the road, introducing fans new and old to his already substantial body of work.

“It was longer than I’d expected between records,” he says, “but it was like a culmination of all the records getting into peoples’ psyche. I just kept on touring, doing songs from all three records, and then I started getting ideas for songs. I got inspired to make another album and put it out myself.”

Since making his official debut, Cope had released three fine albums on three different labels, an experience which proved frustrating, to say the very least. Having been through the industry mill, this time Greenwood was determined to take the bull by the horns and release the album himself.

Just like keyboardist Neal Evans' two hands—simultaneously pumping out the low end and reaching for those oscillating high notes—organ trio Soulive has spent the last decade balancing a reverence for the past with a conviction to push music into its own funky future.

When brothers Neal and Alan Evans first invited guitarist Eric Krasno to get down at their Woodstock, NY studio (a session that led to the trio's break-out record Get Down! in 1999), it was out of mutual love for the great soul-jazz organ trios of the '60s and '70s (Jimmy Smith, Groove Holmes, Brother Jack McDuff). Now, a decade into the band's career, which has seen forays into hip-hop, reggae, R&B, blues, rock and soul, eras featuring horns and a vocalist, and collaborations with artists as diverse as Derek Trucks, Joshua Redman, Robert Randolph and Talib Kweli, it was another shared love that brought the trio to drummer Alan's Playonbrother Studio to record their latest, Rubber Soulive.

"We've always been big Beatles fans," says Krasno, who had been working on an arrangement of "Get Back" for his recent solo record Reminisce when all those remastered Beatles records came out last year. The stuff was on heavy rotation in the van when the band found itself with four days off mid-tour. For Halloween, they'd made a crazy show at the DC zoo even crazier by trying out an all-Beatles set and decided the material was so fun it had to be put to wax. "We thought about doing all of Rubber Soul," Krasno says, "but that band has so many great tunes. We picked the ones that lent themselves well to our sound, and others where we could add the Soulive flavor."

The first two cuts, "Drive My Car" and "Tax Man" sound like they were written for the group, deep-pocket grooves featuring dirty drum parts and Krasno's buttery guitar leads. The process, Krasno says, was pretty spontaneous. The band would consult the song's lyric sheet to get the feel right and then track the whole thing live for that up-in-your-grill energy. "Something" and "In My Life" are deft instrumental interpretations of the sentimental balladry Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were famous for penning.

"Eleanor Rigby" is the big surprise though, with Alan pushing charging syncopation into the backbeat and Neal covering a full string section with his two hands.

Handling most of the melodies on guitar, Krasno's all over the record, but he tears the whole thing open on tracks like "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and, naturally, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Covered in what Krasno calls the "great crunchy, dirty sound" of Alan's digital/analog studio, Rubber Soulive takes its place in a lineage of funky Beatles tributes, including those by George Benson and Booker T. and the M.G.'s.

Following last year's Up Here, Rubber Soulive finds the band pushing on with its original trio formula. After 2006's No Place Like Soul, which saw the addition of vocalist Toussaint Yeshua, Soulive decided to scale it back again and focus on the trio. This doesn't mean, though, (to paraphrase Ringo) that the three don't still get high with a little help from their friends. Their new artist run label Royal Family Records is home to plenty of the band's longtime coconspirators like the Shady Horns (Sam Kininger and Ryan Zoidis) and Nigel Hall, and all the Soulive side projects, including Lettuce, Fyre Dept, Chapter 2, and Adam Deitch's Break Science.

Creating Royal Family Records was like coming home for the band, who has spent years jumping from one legendary label to the next. On the heels of 1999's Turn It Out, Soulive was signed by Bruce Lundvall to esteemed jazz label Blue Note Records, where they took their place in a legacy that includes Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. Doin' Something and Next followed, featuring collaborations with Fred Wesley, Dave Matthews and Black Thought. Jazz heavyweight, Concord Records nurtured the band's love of R&B with 2005's Break Out, a record that found the band backing soul legends Chaka Khan and Ivan Neville. And when celebrated Memphis soul label Stax Records (Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave) decided to get back in the game in 2007, Soulive was the first band they signed. Now, with Royal Family, Soulive has been as prolific as ever, releasing Live In San Francisco last fall and Live at the Blue Note Tokyo this spring.

One decade young, Soulive is not a band to look backward, but when they do they look way back. With a quiver full of Beatles tunes and the lineup that put them on the forefront of the soul jazz revival, Soulive is grooving harder than ever. And with a fall tour on the horizon, it looks like things are starting to, ahem, "Come Together" right now all over again.

Traveling down Linden Blvd towards JFK Airport, Vieux Farka Touré had a realization. Having just left The Bunker recording studio in Brooklyn, he was discussing the sessions with his manager, Eric Herman. A newly constructed song, played in part by his father—the great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré—came on over the car stereo, and Vieux said, “This is what we call ‘the secret of the blues.” The two friends laughed, though it quickly dawned on him that his off-the-cuff remark was a perfect summation of his third album. The Secret (Six Degrees Records) was born.

“To make this album I had to dig deep into the secrets of my own history and my country’s culture in order to move the music forward,” Vieux said, back in his native Mali. Indeed the song, which is pulled from the last session Ali cut before heading to a French hospital (he would die of bone cancer shortly thereafter), will be instantly recognizable to fans of the elder’s classic albums, such as Niafunke and Talking Timbuktu. “The Secret” is the young Farka Touré’s attempt at blending generations, making it difficult to surmise where Vieux begins and Ali ends. Including a beautiful flute section by Cheick Diallo, Ganda Tounkara on n’goni and Vieux on guitar, there is no doubt that he succeeded.

Recorded largely in Mali’s Studio Bogolan before being carried to Brooklyn, The Secret was produced by Eric Krasno, a versatile guitarist and founder of jazz futurists Soulive. Originally conceived of as an extended family-style project, Krasno says, “Initially we wanted to have a lot of guests, but in the end we narrowed it down to just a few, and that lent itself to the strength of the album.” Still, when those musical relatives include people like Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, John Scofield and Ivan Neville, the sonic DNA is going to be heavy and the sessions are going to run deep. Given his recent accomplishments—including a successful collaboration with South African rock band BLK JKS and a performance in front of a billion people during the 2010 World Cup—Vieux’s time to break through to larger audiences has arrived.

“I feel so grateful to have Dave Matthews on this album,” says Vieux, finishing with a laugh, “his voice is diabolical!” Ironically, Matthews felt nervous after Krasno had sent him the initial blueprint of “All the Same.” Matthews’ native South Africa is a long ways from Mali, yet his contribution is arguably one of his best moments in music. His trademark nonchalant vocals hang effortlessly over Vieux’s mellow guitar and drummer Tim Keiper’s laid back beat. The vocalists trade lines gorgeously, a sentiment both men shared in the end. “After my first listen to his part, I knew that this guy was African,” adds Vieux. “He understands the music so well and he knew exactly what to do. Dave Matthews knows the secret!”

Powerful lyricism aside, this is a guitar-driven album. Derek Trucks, who cut his teeth with the Allman Brothers Band, is revered as one of today’s best electric slide guitarists. His addition to “Aigna” makes the catchy number jump from the speakers. “I was not sure how he would respond to the Malian sounds I threw at him, but he was in tune with it right away,” Vieux says. “It’s humbling. He is a true master of the guitar. I play his track for people in Mali and they can’t believe their ears (laughs).” Krasno, who brought Trucks into the session, adds “I knew that track was for Derek the moment I heard it.”

A full generation before Trucks picked up a six-string, John Scofield was collaborating with artists like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Charles Mingus. Vieux knew little of his work prior to this album, but was immediately enthralled by his searing efforts on the driving, pulsing sounds of “Gido.” Scofield adds an Eastern flavor to the upbeat track, coloring the urgent beat with airy introspection. “His concentration was so deep but his heart was light the entire time,” Vieux concludes.

Perhaps the greatest departure from his previous records is “Lakkal (Watch Out),” the only song recorded entirely in Brooklyn. The jazzy intonations conjure the vibe that Krasno has created in Soulive and Lettuce, and features the producer on guitar, Ivan Neville on organ and Eric Herman on bass. Krasno credits Vieux with the idea, however, affirming that his off-the-cuff style is not limited to keen observations like album titles, but generally defines his entire studio dynamic. “He likes to just start playing and hit record; he really likes to catch the groove and go,” Krasno says. Cut in one take with minor overdubs pieced in later, “Lakkal” best captures Vieux’s live show, which is a must for any fan of this fascinating young guitarist.

Being introduced to Vieux through his management company, Krasno was blown away when he saw him perform at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco. A longtime fan of his father’s work, he immediately accepted when asked to produce The Secret. The feeling was reciprocated on Vieux’s end, who says, “Eric Herman told me that Krasno wanted to produce my new record and I knew immediately that this would be a good idea. He is very easy to work with and he understands the balance between traditional and modern music. That was very important to master in order to succeed with the sound of this album, which bridges the past and future.”

And that is what Vieux Farka Touré today represents to fellow Malians, not to mention the world beyond: a generational bridge connecting American and African blues music and culture. While fellow Malians were initially confused when Vieux broke free from the genre his father helped define, they quickly realized his role as a global ambassador, carrying on and sharing his African culture with the planet, while taking in the sounds of this planet—an opportunity his father truly never got to explore—and bringing them back to Africa. A tireless artist, Vieux’s 2011 itinerary is already filled with shows across America and Europe.

It’s simply impossible to burden Vieux with old associations. When you hear that guitar rip over those blues progressions, when you hear the electric buzz of his rock-influenced solos, you don’t stop to think what nation the man is from. You simply become engulfed in the music, which for Vieux is something beyond understanding with words. Speaking of his evolutionary struggle of his country’s tradition, he becomes reflective: “My music is more mature now, more evolved. It digs deeper into the past and pushes harder into the future as a result. This is a hard thing to explain, but hopefully the music speaks for itself. Do you want to know the secret? You have to listen to the album.”