Early in the pandemic, I went down a rabbit hole of surveys of music genres and scenes. One of the most captivating books I encountered was SKA: the Rhythm of Liberationby Heather Augustyn. It was a fantastic book the traced the evolution of Calypso and Ska music and how it came from the songs of enslaved people in the Carribean. “Watina” is a song that may not have been from this period, tells the story of the Garifuna people, a people that were forced into slavery and many of which were forced to migrate to the Americas. It’s performed by Calypso Rose, the 82 year old Calypso music legend that has been steadily releasing records since 1969!
You can enjoy “Watina” in all the usual places here. It’s the first single off Forever, which is due out on August 26th!
The powers-that-be behind BottleRock Napa Valley never fail to impress me. This year’s festival lineup was announced this morning, boasting so many exciting artists it made my head swim a little: Imagine Dragons. Logic. OneRepublic. Sylvan Esso. Jenny Lewis. AJR. Anderson East. The Dandy Warhols. Neon Trees. Just Loud. Shannon Shaw. Flora Cash. And that’s just day one!
Days two and three add to the excitement, with Neil Young + Promise of the Real, Pharrell Williams, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Gary Clark Jr, Cypress Hill, Elle King, Sir Sly, Mumford & Sons, Santana, Bishop Briggs, Skylar Grey, Houses, and so many more. Also, anyone who watches Top Chef may have noticed that this year’s winner will have a slot on the culinary stage, which is always a fun place to check out between sets.
It’s hard not to look at this list and know you’ve got to be there. I think the hardest part will be, as usual, determining how to get from point A to point B in such a way that you catch at least parts of all the acts you don’t want to miss! Until BRNV releases an actual schedule, however, there’s not much to do but listen to these bands and look forward to May in eager anticipation. To help you do that, I made a little playlist: I’ve included some of my favorites from the artists that are generating the highest levels of impatience. Let’s hope these next 4 ½ months fly by, and I’ll see you this summer in Napa!
Even this band was way better than The Grateful Dead.
Unless you are living under a rock, you’ve heard that The Grateful Dead are playing a pair of “farewell shows” in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. There is an obscene amount of hype over these shows, and they’ve sold about 8 trillion tickets for them. Not bad for a band that NOBODY knows any songs by unless you are a fan. The Dead were a huge cult band, but really didn’t do much to change popular music has a whole. The 60’s were a great time for music in the Bay Area, and there were a lot of bands that were way more important, in my own humble opinion. Feel free to get angry, but here’s a list of 10 undeniably talented bands from the Bay in the 60’s.
