How Do We Win The War? - Slo-Mo and his Steel Summit - That's How!
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Artist:
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Album:Smokey Mountain
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Track:How Do We Win The War?
The producer of my new covers ep, Songsmiths, is a masterful lap steel player named Mike Brenner, aka Slo-Mo. He's got a genre bending party band of the same name based in Fishtown Philly. They're an alt country, rock n roll, r&b, hip hop gumbo. Very unique stuff.
A few weeks back he arranged an amazing night at World Cafe Live, Slo-Mo's Steel Summit. It featured four acts, all with unique approaches to an instrument that always pulls on my heartstrings. The Sacred Steel act, the Campbell Bros. ended the evening and Chuck simply blew everyone away. I have never seen a man own an instrument like he did that pedal steel.
Sacred Steel is a rare music tradition rooted in the African-American Holiness-Pentacostal church aka the House of God. It consists of using the steel guitar to mimic voices and sing lines of hymns to push the congregation to a deeper spiritual place.
Damn, I wanna crash one of those services!
Anyway, here is a tune off Slo-Mo's new record. I really dig this vocal. He nailed it while looking damn slick in that white suit of his; something I'm told Robert Randolph swiped from him.
Oh well. We musicians, just like politicians, are all thieves, some bolder than others.
Here is a fantabulous anime vid for a tune off their last record, My Buzz Comes Back, called Cuidado. Gives ya a sense of just how diverse these guys are.
Comments (4)
"Care" - MOFO - that's awesome...
Yeah, I like this. You're right, he's got a fine voice and an impeccable delivery. The song is honest & forthright, expressing the anxieties & fears & questions that boil beneath the surface. Edgy without vitriol, observant & keenly insightful.
Cuidado is, as vannatta has opined, awesome. And as you (boasted?, observed?) the genre-blending/convention bending is evident, confident & very refreshing.
Nice.
"Edgy without vitriol, observant & keenly insightful."
That's a hard thing to do and you're right, he accomplished it.
And I like that Mic Wrecka, the rapper on it, doesn't sound angry, just observant and detached.
Damn, was it something I said Neil? You did spike your coffee this morning ! Love love love it! Cool as Nick Cave and his Bad Bad Boys!
Thanks!
INdy x