{"id":119037,"date":"2022-04-13T15:14:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T20:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=119037"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:24:10","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T20:24:10","slug":"lettuce-live-at-duling-hall-in-jackson-mississippi-friday-april-29-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/lettuce-live-at-duling-hall-in-jackson-mississippi-friday-april-29-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Lettuce Live at Duling Hall in Jackson, Mississippi Friday, April 29, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

General admission tickets are on sale now here<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDealing with the pandemic, being in separate places, trying to survive without our best friends, without touring, not to mention the political divide in this country,\u201d says Lettuce<\/strong> drummer Adam Deitch<\/strong>. \u201cWe really needed to unify.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here it is, right on time. Unify<\/em><\/strong>. The eighth studio album from Lettuce, it\u2019s also a third consecutive record made at Denver<\/strong>\u2019s Colorado Sound Studios<\/strong>, completing a loose trilogy starting with 2019\u2019s Grammy<\/strong>-nominated Elevate<\/em>, and continuing with 2020\u2019s Resonate<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s, as well, a benchmark moment for the sextet: Adam Deitch (drums), Ryan Zoidis<\/strong> (saxophone), Adam Smirnoff<\/strong> (guitar), Erick Coomes<\/strong> (bass), Nigel Hall<\/strong> (keyboards\/vocals), Eric \u2018Benny\u2019 Bloom<\/strong> (trumpet). Approaching thirty years since its humble Boston<\/strong> beginnings, the relentlessly soulful funk outfit has essentially lived on the road, embodying, night after night, the sly wink of its moniker: Let us play!  <\/em>And now, endorsed on Unify<\/em> by none other than the legendary icon of funk, Bootsy Collins<\/strong>, singing and playing bass on \u201cKeep That Funk Alive\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe dreamed this up when we were teenagers, and here we are. We\u2019re doing it,\u201d says Zoidis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roots of Unify <\/em>took hold several years back, when Lettuce assembled at Colorado Sound to begin work on Elevate<\/em>. Armed with dozens of songs, the band tracked enough material for that record, its successor, and then some (including a vinyl-only, 45-minute, live-in-the-studio, one-take improvisation, Vibe<\/em>). A pandemic-abbreviated European tour schedule in 2021 further inspired, as the group traded ideas for more new material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combined with some stellar pre-existing tracks held over from the prior two albums, Lettuce was now primed for a third. The group decamped to the Denver studio and reunited with its esteemed engineer, Jesse O\u2019Brien<\/strong>, mixing alongside O\u2019Brien, and, once again, self-producing the finished work. And, rather than extensively road-testing the songs\u2014fleshing out the repertoire in countless performances on tour before being recorded\u2014this time the band discovered the music as much as made it; essentially debuting the new material as they tracked it live in the studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A totally collaborative effort, there were exciting cuts full of brilliant lyrics and arrangements from Hall (whom Coomes calls \u201cone of the greatest singers ever\u201d). And fiery horn parts from Bloom. Plus, the tantalizing prospect of unveiling it all on the upcoming tour. \u201cIt\u2019s very, very exciting. Our audiences are going to hear how we end up interpreting these songs for the first time, in the live form, and then for the 300th time; they\u2019ll get to hear right along with us how the songs will morph and evolve,\u201d says Smirnoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Coomes, \u201cWe\u2019re just getting tighter and tighter. Really, these are the first records made with the six of us as a team, and it\u2019s the best the band has ever been: live and in the studio; the funkiest and the most fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epitomizing the funk and the fun, it\u2019s impossible for \u201cKeep That Funk Alive\u201d not to be a focus track, even on a 16-song album full of highlights. Inspired by a buoyant Bootsy Instagram post, and an irrepressible groove crafted around it. The venerable Parliament-Funkadelic<\/strong> bassist dug the hybridized creation, laying down low end and vocals on the proper track. \u201cIt\u2019s such a dream to have one of the inventors of funk music bless this album. We are all still<\/em> in awe!\u201d exclaims the band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This album is an expression that is pure Lettuce. Unify<\/em> will teleport you to a funky galaxy far, far away, where all life coexists as one in peace, love, harmony, and music!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

General admission tickets are on sale now here<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General admission tickets are on sale now here \u201cDealing with the pandemic, being in separate places, trying to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":119040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21168],"tags":[21160,21162,6720,21166,7326,21159,21165,21163,366,21167,7899,5,21164,21161],"class_list":["post-119037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-adam-deitch","tag-adam-smirnoff","tag-ardenland","tag-bootsy-collins","tag-concerts","tag-duling-hall","tag-eric-benny-bloom","tag-erick-coomes","tag-jackson","tag-jesse-obrien","tag-lettuce","tag-mississippi","tag-nigel-hall","tag-ryan-zoidis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2022-04-29-Lerruce.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}