The Whiskey Gentry - LIVE FROM GEORGIA - Music & Performance - CD

I love the adventures that come with making music in the Goose Creek format...we get to travel to classic venues, hang out with new and interesting people, and capture great music on audio and video. We didn't make the final arrangements for recording the Whiskey Gentry's Georgia mini-tour until the crew was in the car and on our way to the Georgia Theatre. Luckily, Athens-based producer and engineer John Keane was taking care of the audio recording (and sitting in for some tasty pedal steel!), so we only had to get the camera gear up and going, and focus on the show as it happened. Wow, what an experience...the Georgia Theatre is one of the country's premier music venues, and it has recently undergone a fantastic renovation. They saved the classic brick walls, and installed a rooftop bar and restaurant that is a perfect place to spend a Georgia summer evening as the world cools down. We got there about 6pm to set up the center camera and stake out territory in front of Stage Left and in the balcony. The band went on at nine, so we headed to the roof to grab some dinner and a beer, then wandered down and stepped behind the cameras. The Whiskey Gentry can swing AND rock....and more. "Dixie", which catches me now the same way Asleep at the Wheel did at the Lawrence Opera House on my 21st birthday...way too many years ago. It's the kind of tune that makes you think of soldiers-on-leave and cowgirls dancing in a 1950's Kansas roadhouse, but it's a brand new song with a modern arrangement and sounds. The first of our Goose Creek Live videos in the Live From Georgia series, I've heard this recording of 'Dixie' hundreds of times, and my foot still taps every time it's on. To be honest, The Whiskey Gentry are just laying back on Dixie - the energy level rises substantially once they get going. There are so many influences in their music, it's hard to sort them all. Price, the drummer, has a Punk heritage. Mix that with Country, Rockabilly, Celtic, and Classical, add 2 full cups of Gypsy from the Bluegrass contingent, and Sammy Griffin's on-the-money bass...and you get the medley of "Eula Mae" and the instrumental "Comrade." I still watch our Goose Creek Live video of Eula Mae/Comrade all the way through every time. The solos are on fire...it's a great ensemble performance that showcases everyone. After the show, we hung with the band and the crowd, and listened to Seven Handle Circus play cuts from their just-released album. As ever, Georgia is filled with gracious and interesting people, and it would have been fun even if the band HADN'T nailed it. And they did nail it...just watch the videos, and there's more on the album. The next night, we recorded audio-only Center Stage in Atlanta...the recordings from this hometown CD release show reflect the band having a great time in front of enthusiastic fans bouncing the energy right back at them. - Mike Pugh, April 2014 The Whiskey Gentry was initially a quintet formed by husband and wife duo Lauren Staley and Jason Morrow. The band's debut album in 2011 Please Make Welcome became a critically-acclaimed success, quickly launching the Atlanta-based ensemble into markets from Tampa to NYC, and at festivals priding themselves as the first to showcase the next best thing. They have since expanded on both a physical and geographic level, with the Live in Georgia album featuring a septet that includes Chesley Lowe on banjo, Sammy Griffin on bass, Price Cannon on drums, Michael Smith on mandolin, and Rurik Nunan on fiddle.