Winter creeping ’round the corner?
You need a DejaDog to keep you warmer
Before the holidays and family drive you nuts
Come whet your whistle with us!
Nelson Nolan, Bradley Cole Smith, Morgan Baruzzini, John Willingham of Olde Dog
We are very excited to announce a special pre-holiday jam we call “DejaDog!” The DejaBlue Grass Band team up with our special friends Olde Dog at the Red Light Cafe in Atlanta, Friday Night, November 20th!
If you’ve never Olde Dog, you are in for a treat. Excellent instrumentation, and there isn’t a better voice in all of Alt-Country music than Bradley Cole Smith.
OD goes on about 8, DjBGB about 9ish, and then stick around for a special jam set with both bands. The place will sell out quickly so get there early and stay late. We promise a great time just in time for the holidays!
We open for Trampled by Turtles on Friday night at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta. Really looking forward to hearing these guys. I’ve heard a lot about them, and actually got wind that I should give’m a listen from a guy in Zac Brown’s band in casual conversation on the tarps in Telluride this Summer when we were at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. They’ve got this great frenetic energy and Appalachian-rooted sound that reminds me of Old Crow Medicine Show meets the Del McCoury Band. Young guys makin’ it happen on the bluegrass scene…most of the time sitting down as best I can tell. Fabulous sound, and a different approach. Sign me up! I love discovering great new bands and these guy fit the bill for sure.
How ’bout the DejaBlue Grass Band and oh, say, 170 world-class beers to choose from? That’s what we promise if you join us for HOToberfest Atlanta 2009, this weekend, Oct 3rd. This is sure to be one of Atlanta’s best festivals. How could it not be? Killer Fall weather in a funky in-town neighborhood, with a fabulous musical line up, in a people watching paradise, and like I said, while you trip the light fantastic in the biergarten for $30 bucks. Atlanta needed a internationally reknowned Beer festival, and this is it. The DejaBlue Grass Band goes on about 2PM or so. Join us won’t you? Meet us in the biergarten and the first one’s on us.
We had a blast in Asheville! What a fabulous festival. ‘Course, how can it not be with 40 breweries, killer live music from some great bands, including Dehlia Low, Black Lillies, Blueground Undergrass, and Jim Lauderdale, set in the Smoky Mountain crown jewel of Asheville…and best of all NO RAIN! It poured all Friday,and all Sunday on the drive home, but for whatever reason, on Saturday it was a clear as summer pilsner.
About an hour after we finished out set, unlaxed from the Brewgrass stage, and began sampling all the deliciously hoppy goodies being poured about the festival, it came to our attention that Barley’s Taproom had already advertised that we were to be their feature band that night. Good thing we got word when we did. A little more “sampling” time, and it might’ve been curtains for the DjBGB. I have no idea how we got that gig, but the place was packed when we got there. Since no one know us, we felt like we needed to hit’em with a sing-a-long to get us off on the right foot, so we played “Wagon Wheel” by OCMS, and on cue, about 150 people began belting it out with us at the top of their lungs, from the first syllable to the echo of the last note. So loud I could barely hear myself sing. Even though it wasn’t one of our songs, it was quite a thrill, and it made me wonder what it must be like for a crowd to sing one of our original songs. I plan to make that happen. It was as good as it gets. I think we plan on being there next year, even if we don’t play!
After a month off, the DejaBlue Grass band cranks it back up and hits the road this week to play the sold-out Asheville Brewgrass Festival on Saturday, September 19th. We have all been pulled in completely different directions over the past 30 days, and haven’t so much as picked up an instrument for more than just a little livin’ room pickin’ here and there. We’re gonna hit the streets on Friday night and jam in the downtown streets and alleys and hopefully get a good groove going, then after a brief rehearsal on Saturday morning, hit the stage on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, the venerable Kitty Ray Jones will bring her soopabad photo and video equipment to make us look like rockstars, and we’ll post some fun stuff about the weekend.
Decatur is without a doubt, the coolest hamlet in the city…the baby bear of Atlanta: Not too small, not too big, not too far, not too close, not too uptown, not too downtown, just beautiful in every way. I wouldn’t live anywhere else. So it was a thrill for the DejaBlue Grass Band to play Decatur’s BBQ, Blues, and Bluegrass Festival. After we worked out a few songs and sound kinks (gonna happen at a tightly scheduled festival setting…no sound checks) we rolled for 50 minutes or so. Great music preceded and followed. That’s a fabulous festival, and I hope we’ll be invited back.
In case you missed it, please join us this Saturday,8/22. We’ll be headlining the Cliff Valley Bluegrass Festival not too far down the road! (Off Clairmont Road in North Decatur). Hope to see ya’ll there!
Join us for the Decatur BBQ, Blues, and Bluegrass Festival this Saturday at Harmony Park in Oakhurt Village. To promote the festival, the DejaBlue Grass Band was onFox 5’s “Good Day Atlanta’ this morning. Watch us! Click on the “Good Day Atlanta” Tab, then the Road Warrior: Decatur Blues link. I would post the video here but WordPress must not be able to accept the flash player they have on their website. We played “Little Bit of Life”. I’ll try to post the video some other way, but as of now, I can’t figure it out!
Saturday will be a good time. Lot’s of good barbecue and music, even vegetarian selections, so ya’ll c’mon!
SRO! The DejaBlue Grass Bandpacked the RedLight last night (7/16) and boy, did we have a good time! Lots a familiar faces and many new friends as well. We broke out 3 new tunes, 2 original DjBGB material, all well received.
We are at such a fun place right now as a group. We’ve now got enough original material to seem “legit” and we’re only beginning to hit our stride on our own songs. Last night the response to “Mountain Man” was overwhelming. The crowd really seemed to connect with that piece of music. We’ve got great local support from our friends and fans in Atlanta and last night it really showed! Thanks to everybody who came out…
Telluride is such a great time, it takes me a good 3 weeks to get over the longing in my gut when I return. Yeah, well…I sorta dropped the ball on the whole Telluride blog thing. Joey was back in Asheville tending to brother John’s recovery from a pretty horrific biking accident, so he and Beth were sorely missed. It seemed pointless to post since our man JB wasn’t there, so technically there was no DejaBlue Grass Band in Telluride. There were no pictures or video to be taken, of us making music, at least. Not that there weren’t some magical musical moments, though.
Mark and I (and the entire Atlanta crew) got invited to this killer after-hours party on Saturday night where many of the Telluride Troubadour contestants were song swapping in the round. Jonesy and I joined on the fun, but the real magic happened when some members of Sam Bush’s band came by for a little jam session…and we joined in! Quite an experience to say the least. Guitarist Stephen Mougin and banjo picker (and one of Mark’s personal heroes) Scott Vestal came sans instruments so we quickly gave up our lot and put our equipment in the hands of some real pickers. They did not disappoint! Phenomenal to say the least. I gave up my mando to Sam’s sound engineer (wish I remembered his name…super nice guy and one HELL of a mandolin picker!) and he shredded it with ease. They quickly busted into “Little Georgia Rose” and then took off for solo after breathtaking solo. After a few more tunes, Mark, Kyle Caldwell, and I chimed in with a DjBGB original tune, “Gold Paper Sides”…quite a thrill! Unfortunately the lighting was so dark, and flashes were not allowed, so we don’t have any pictures of the event, but it was one of the better musical memories I’ll ever keep with me.
We’re cranking up for some musical memories ourselves and hope you’ll join us, July 16th at the RedLight Cafe in Atlanta. We’ll start right about 8pm. We could use a big crowd, so drag a friend or 3 when you come!
Our suitcases are swollen with the anticipation of another Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I can smell the white-bark aspen trees already. We leave Tuesday morning. What a difference a year makes. It’ll be quite a different vibe this year.
Last year at this time, having just released our first CD, we were feverishly prepping for the pressures of the band competition (all while Dr. Jones was shackled to his study guide, cramming for the patent bar exam. One morning, Kyle Caldwell and I were in line with Jonesy for the famous tarp run duty. It was 5 in the morning, and about 40 degrees, and he’s huddled up in a toboggan with his books and a flashlight under the only streetlamp available near us, looking a lot like the unibomber plotting his next move).
At a pre-party, about a week before we left, we staged 8 or 9 songs and let the collective 20+ Atlanta crew decide what 6 songs sounded best. Everybody was “bought in”. Upon arrival in Telluride, we rolled into Blue Pointe for a raucous pre-celebration dinner party with toasts and good cheer abound. Kyle stood for the possibility that we could win it, while the “Angry Toastmaster” admonished us with cranky goodwill. Kitty Ray was filming away on our soon-to-be-but-quite-possibly-never-released rockumentary about the whole experience. Man, we and we were wound up tighter than a snare. But, mission accomplished. We played the mainstage at Telluride!
This year, we’ll have a much smaller crew and it’ll be a more relaxed vacation. We will definitely miss the first family of the TBF, The Bowers, but we’ll have to carry on the tradition and hold their place until next year. We’ll enjoy our friends and, while there are only two of the band members there, we’ll find time to take on some other musicians and busk in the streets. We’ll update this blog a lot while we’re out there, and post whatever kind of trouble we get in and give you a look-see.
How ’bout the DejaBlue Grass Band and oh, say, 170 world-class beers to choose from? That’s what we promise if you join us for
Our suitcases are swollen with the anticipation of another Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I can smell the white-bark aspen trees already. We leave Tuesday morning. What a difference a year makes. It’ll be quite a different vibe this year.