WEBVTT 00:00:18.350 --> 00:00:22.190 Welcome back to Shecky's Jam Bands. I'm Shecky. 00:00:22.289 --> 00:00:24.809 Quick question for you before we get into it 00:00:24.809 --> 00:00:29.429 today. What does CBDB stand for? I've been asking 00:00:29.429 --> 00:00:32.310 around, reading interviews, scouring the internet, 00:00:32.789 --> 00:00:36.469 and here's what I found. Nobody knows. The band 00:00:36.469 --> 00:00:39.390 doesn't say. They've never officially explained 00:00:39.390 --> 00:00:43.289 it. It's four lowercase letters and a complete 00:00:43.289 --> 00:00:47.259 mystery. And somehow... is the most perfectly 00:00:47.259 --> 00:00:51.439 on -brand thing about one of Alabama's most interesting 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:56.380 bands. Today we're talking about CBDB, the self 00:00:56.380 --> 00:01:00.640 -proclaimed purveyors of joy -funk from Tuscaloosa, 00:01:00.659 --> 00:01:04.159 Alabama. And by the time we're done, you'll know 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:07.379 everything about them except what the name means, 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:10.640 which honestly makes them even more interesting. 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:14.140 Frontman and guitarist Sy Simonton graduated 00:01:14.140 --> 00:01:17.219 from the University of Alabama, spent some time 00:01:17.219 --> 00:01:20.340 back in Georgia, and then returned to Tuscaloosa 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:25.219 in 2011 with a specific purpose, set up a band. 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:28.939 He'd heard a guitarist named Chris Gottlieb playing 00:01:28.939 --> 00:01:32.439 at a local jazz fusion outfit, walked up to him, 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:36.180 started a conversation, and discovered that Gottlieb 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:39.299 had already been playing with a few other musicians 00:01:39.299 --> 00:01:44.519 around town. described it simply, I heard Chris 00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:47.959 playing in a jazz fusion thing and we just struck 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:50.680 up a conversation. He'd been playing with some 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.079 of the rest of the guys, so we basically put 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:56.959 it all together like that. That's it. That's 00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:00.319 the formation story. A conversation between two 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:04.599 guitarists at a Tuscaloosa jam session. Saxophonist 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:07.620 and keyboardist Glenn Dillard was already part 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:11.439 of that orbit. And Dillard is arguably the most 00:02:11.469 --> 00:02:16.330 distinctive element in CBDB's sound, a multi 00:02:16.330 --> 00:02:19.629 -instrumentalist who gives them a tonal dimension 00:02:19.629 --> 00:02:23.030 that almost no other jam band in the southeast 00:02:23.030 --> 00:02:27.009 has. Drummer and bassist roles evolved over the 00:02:27.009 --> 00:02:30.469 years with the current touring lineup anchored 00:02:30.469 --> 00:02:34.990 by Blake Gallant on bass and Chris Podichick 00:02:34.990 --> 00:02:39.310 on drums. One booking agency described them with 00:02:39.310 --> 00:02:42.129 this line and I love it. Filtered through the 00:02:42.129 --> 00:02:46.370 water of Alabama's Black Warrior River, a great 00:02:46.370 --> 00:02:50.270 jam band emerges from the muddy depths. The Black 00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:54.490 Warrior River runs through Tuscaloosa. That description 00:02:54.490 --> 00:02:59.229 is poetic and it's also accurate. CBDB sounds 00:02:59.229 --> 00:03:02.949 like somewhere specific. They sound like Alabama. 00:03:04.830 --> 00:03:07.129 So, we've established that no one knows what 00:03:07.129 --> 00:03:10.800 CBDB stands for. And I want to sit with that 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:13.900 for a second, because in a world where every 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:17.379 band wants to explain itself, where every name 00:03:17.379 --> 00:03:22.599 has a story attached to it, CBDB just does not. 00:03:22.939 --> 00:03:26.219 Four lowercase letters. Take them as you find 00:03:26.219 --> 00:03:30.580 them. What the band does explain, loudly and 00:03:30.580 --> 00:03:34.500 proudly, is their genre. And their genre is JoyFunk. 00:03:35.340 --> 00:03:38.139 They coined it themselves. They own it completely. 00:03:38.569 --> 00:03:42.650 and Simonton's own definition of it is the best 00:03:42.650 --> 00:03:45.530 explanation I've heard for what a great live 00:03:45.530 --> 00:03:49.050 show actually is. He said, there's that back 00:03:49.050 --> 00:03:51.830 and forth between the crowd and the band when 00:03:51.830 --> 00:03:55.129 everyone is into it and dancing and completely 00:03:55.129 --> 00:03:59.250 in the moment. That's JoyFunk. JoyFunk is not 00:03:59.250 --> 00:04:02.669 a sound, it's a state. It's what happens between 00:04:02.669 --> 00:04:05.629 the band and the room when everything clicks. 00:04:05.930 --> 00:04:08.650 It's the energy exchange that every great jam 00:04:08.650 --> 00:04:13.430 band lives for and most can't name. CBDB named 00:04:13.430 --> 00:04:17.050 it. And then they titled their second album with 00:04:17.050 --> 00:04:21.310 the perfect deadpan humor, Joyfunk is Dead, which 00:04:21.310 --> 00:04:25.610 is, they made clear, a fictitious title. Joyfunk 00:04:25.610 --> 00:04:30.110 is very much not dead. It was a joke from a band 00:04:30.110 --> 00:04:32.569 that has a great sense of humor about itself. 00:04:33.350 --> 00:04:36.480 Their influences confirm the range. Humphreys 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:41.420 McGee, Phish, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan, The Funk 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:45.379 Meters, Kendrick Lamar, Widespread Panic. That 00:04:45.379 --> 00:04:49.540 is genuinely unusual combination. Steely Dan 00:04:49.540 --> 00:04:52.199 and Kendrick Lamar in the same breath, which 00:04:52.199 --> 00:04:54.920 tells you everything you need to know about why 00:04:54.920 --> 00:04:58.819 CBDB sounds like nothing else on the Alabama 00:04:58.819 --> 00:05:03.699 circuit. My one song for CBDB is Slow Foxes. 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:08.959 from their 2012 debut album, Phone Keys Wallet, 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:12.139 which is also a great album title, by the way. 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:15.060 The thing you check for before you leave the 00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:19.699 house, the essential three. Slow Foxes was CBDV's 00:05:19.699 --> 00:05:23.000 breakthrough moment. It hit 30 ,000 plus plays 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:26.519 on Spotify back when 30 ,000 plays actually meant 00:05:26.519 --> 00:05:29.779 something for an independent band in Tuscaloosa, 00:05:29.779 --> 00:05:32.620 Alabama, and it earned every single one of them. 00:05:33.520 --> 00:05:36.120 Here's why Slow Foxes is the right entry point. 00:05:36.500 --> 00:05:40.399 Most jam band songs ask you to be patient. They 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:43.300 build, they stretch, they reward you for staying 00:05:43.300 --> 00:05:46.540 with them. Slow Foxes does something very different. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:49.920 It hooks you immediately. The melody is in your 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:54.160 head with the first eight bars. Simonton's lyrics 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:58.360 have what the Crimson White call empathetic maturity. 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:01.620 The kind of writing that sounds like a person, 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:05.899 not a character. Glenn Dillard's saxophone adds 00:06:05.899 --> 00:06:10.139 warmth and jazziness that turns a good rock song 00:06:10.139 --> 00:06:13.019 into something more dimensional. Okay, I want 00:06:13.019 --> 00:06:16.920 to tell you about a day in July 2015 that produced 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:20.500 some of the best music CBDB has ever made. And 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:24.990 it happened in 13 and a half hours. Now... Regular 00:06:24.990 --> 00:06:27.649 listeners of this podcast will remember that 00:06:27.649 --> 00:06:30.490 we covered The Stoos in the last episode, and 00:06:30.490 --> 00:06:33.250 I mentioned that The Stoos recorded their first 00:06:33.250 --> 00:06:37.610 EP at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, 00:06:38.029 --> 00:06:40.829 the legendary room where Aretha Franklin cut 00:06:40.829 --> 00:06:44.129 our first sessions, where Wilson Pickett recorded 00:06:44.129 --> 00:06:47.649 Mustang Sally, and where Otis Redding and Etta 00:06:47.649 --> 00:06:50.810 James and dozens of the greatest names in America 00:06:50.810 --> 00:06:55.139 music. made history. I said the Stoos were shocked 00:06:55.139 --> 00:06:59.879 they can even get studio time there. Well CBDB 00:06:59.879 --> 00:07:05.819 got there first. On July 2015 they booked one 00:07:05.819 --> 00:07:10.100 day, a single day, at Fame Studios and in 13 00:07:10.100 --> 00:07:13.279 and a half hours of continuous recording they 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:17.879 cut four tracks that became the Fame EP released 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:21.959 that September. Think about what 13 and a half 00:07:21.959 --> 00:07:25.279 hours in a studio means. You arrive in the morning 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:28.279 with your instruments and your ideas, the clock 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:32.379 starts, there's no tomorrow, just today in this 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:36.740 room with these mics and this console and walls 00:07:36.740 --> 00:07:39.819 that Aretha Franklin stood in front of you. You 00:07:39.819 --> 00:07:43.420 work, you push, you find what's there, and at 00:07:43.420 --> 00:07:45.740 the end of the night you have four songs that 00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:49.670 didn't exist that morning. The Fame EP captures 00:07:49.670 --> 00:07:53.949 CBDB at a particular creative peak, more adventurous 00:07:53.949 --> 00:07:58.129 than the debut, tighter than the sophomore record, 00:07:58.990 --> 00:08:02.129 with a sonic warmth that Fame's legendary room 00:08:02.129 --> 00:08:06.470 adds to every recording made there. The saxophones 00:08:06.470 --> 00:08:10.569 breathed differently in that space. The two guitars 00:08:10.569 --> 00:08:13.310 found pockets they hadn't found in other studios. 00:08:13.889 --> 00:08:17.639 The rhythm section locked in with confidence 00:08:17.639 --> 00:08:21.939 that came from knowing where they were and what 00:08:21.939 --> 00:08:26.040 they meant. Of all the recordings in their catalog, 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:29.759 the Fame EP is the one I come back to when I 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:35.799 want to explain CBDB to someone new. After Fame, 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:38.620 they went to Zac Brown's Southern Ground Studios 00:08:38.620 --> 00:08:43.840 in Nashville to record Out of Line in 2018. Fame 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:47.009 to Zac Brown's studio Aretha's room to one of 00:08:47.009 --> 00:08:50.610 the most successful country artists of the 21st 00:08:50.610 --> 00:08:54.850 century. Now that's trajectory. All right, a 00:08:54.850 --> 00:08:56.570 few things I want to share with you that are 00:08:56.570 --> 00:08:58.590 unique. One, they shared a stage with Colonel 00:08:58.590 --> 00:09:02.450 Bruce Hampton. Colonel Bruce Hampton, the legendary 00:09:02.450 --> 00:09:06.850 eccentric musician who founded the Aquarium Rescue 00:09:06.850 --> 00:09:09.909 Unit and inspired a generation of southern jam 00:09:09.909 --> 00:09:13.649 bands, shared a stage with CBDB. Hampton was 00:09:13.649 --> 00:09:16.669 one of the most revered figures in the history 00:09:16.669 --> 00:09:21.889 of music. His presence on a CBDB bill is a generational 00:09:21.889 --> 00:09:25.210 endorsement. Last fact is the saxophone makes 00:09:25.210 --> 00:09:28.570 all the difference. The Crimson White review 00:09:28.570 --> 00:09:32.629 specifically noted that CBDB earns extra jam 00:09:32.629 --> 00:09:36.389 points for having a flex saxophonist. Glenn Dillard 00:09:36.389 --> 00:09:39.389 plays both saxophone and keyboards, which means 00:09:39.389 --> 00:09:43.480 he can shift between melodic lead voice and harmonic 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:47.299 rhythm player with a single song. That flexibility 00:09:47.299 --> 00:09:51.879 could give CBDB a tonal range that most guitar, 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:56.419 drums, bass, jam bands simply don't have. The 00:09:56.419 --> 00:09:59.220 saxophone is a secret weapon. Here's what I land 00:09:59.220 --> 00:10:04.279 on with CBDB. They are a band that named a genre 00:10:04.279 --> 00:10:08.179 and then spent over a decade proving the name 00:10:08.179 --> 00:10:11.830 was right. Joyfunk. The state of being when everyone's 00:10:11.830 --> 00:10:15.250 into it, everyone's dancing, everyone's completely 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:18.509 in the moment. That back and forth between the 00:10:18.509 --> 00:10:22.070 crowd and the band makes a show feel like a shared 00:10:22.070 --> 00:10:25.210 experience rather than a performance. They built 00:10:25.210 --> 00:10:29.470 over 13 plus years in Tuscaloosa clubs and southeast 00:10:29.470 --> 00:10:33.649 theaters and a legendary muscle show studio session 00:10:33.649 --> 00:10:36.830 that lasted 13 and a half hours. They made a 00:10:36.830 --> 00:10:40.759 joke album title about their genre being dead, 00:10:41.100 --> 00:10:44.220 and then filled it up with more joy -funk than 00:10:44.220 --> 00:10:47.480 the first record. They recorded at Zac Brown's 00:10:47.480 --> 00:10:50.419 Nashville studio, they shared stages with Umphrey's 00:10:50.419 --> 00:10:54.740 McGee, Blues Travelers, The Wellers, and Colonel 00:10:54.740 --> 00:10:58.559 Bruce Hampton, and they never told anyone what 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:02.179 their name stands for. Start with Slow Foxes, 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:08.080 then find the Fame EP, then let Out of Lines 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:11.889 show you what they became when the muscle shows 00:11:11.889 --> 00:11:16.149 walls got inside of them. And if CBDB is playing 00:11:16.149 --> 00:11:19.730 anywhere near you, they tour the southeast constantly 00:11:19.730 --> 00:11:22.669 and they've been pushing further into the Midwest. 00:11:23.370 --> 00:11:26.149 Go stand in the room. Let the saxophone find 00:11:26.149 --> 00:11:29.889 you. Let the joy funk happen. You'll know it 00:11:29.889 --> 00:11:34.070 when it does. That's CBDB. That's Shecky's Jam 00:11:34.070 --> 00:11:36.710 Bands. Thank you for listening and I'll see you 00:11:36.710 --> 00:11:37.429 next time.