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In: BLOG POSTS, FESTIVALS, Lettuce, Lotus, Resonate Suwannee, Sweetwater 420 Festival

Resonate Suwannee is coming up May 15th-17th on the hallowed festival grounds of Spirit of Suwannee Music Park.  Once again, it’s a STS9 headlining event combining jamtronica, EDM, funk, reggae and aftro-cuban vibes into one amazing lineup. It’s a great vibe with minimal, if any, music overlap on the stages so you get to see as many of the acts as you want with plenty of time to chill as well. As usual, FunkCity.net, will be there soaking it in, predominantly at the live band stages. Here’s the rundown of where I expect to be at any given moment ofContinue Reading

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In: Album of the Week, ALBUMS, BLOG POSTS, Snarky Puppy

The recording sessions for “Somni” the new album from Snarky Puppy with the Metropole Orkest was the time of a lifetime. I was fortunate to be able to attend all 6 recording sessions, 2 per night for 3 nights, and it was an experience beyond my wildest dreams. And yes, ‘Somni’  from Catalan translates to ‘Dream’  in English so totally appropriate. First, some background before jumping into the actual recording session experience. So Snarky Puppy is 20 years old in 2025 (first album recorded in 2005 and published in 2006). Starting with their fourth album, “Tell Your Friends” in 2010,Continue Reading

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In: BLOG POSTS, Lettuce, Sweetwater 420 Festival

Sweetwater 420 Fest celebrates the two-decade mark this year, staying true to its roots with a fan-first experience that blends music, tasty beers, art, environmental awareness, and good vibes. I’ve been at most of the past 19 Sweetwater 420 Fests ranging from it’s days at Candler Park to the massive Centennial Park years. I attended last year’s event at Pullman Yards and got a taste for the newest era. This year’s 3-day fest has a solid lineup leaning towards bluegrass. blues and funk with a bit of everything in between. The daily lineups are solid from top to bottom soContinue Reading

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In: Amp Jam, BANDS, BLOG POSTS, FESTIVALS, Lettuce, The New Mastersounds

Bear Creek 2010 was my initiation into the new era of music festivals. For anyone that doesn’t know, that annual November festival based at the gorgeous Spirit of Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP), was renowned for it’s smaller, family-feel and specialized in jam and funk music across 5 or 6 stages including inside at the music hall. Bear Creek had an eight year run from 2007-2014. The 2010 schedule caught my eye because I had been looking for places to see Maceo Parker (James Brown, Parliament/Funkadelic) and funk band, Lettuce, that I was a fan of but had never seen beforeContinue Reading

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In: FESTIVALS, GroundUP Music Festival, Snarky Puppy

GroundUP Music Festival is back at the Miami Beach Bandshell in 2025 in a different but packed and stacked, star-studded lineup.  The Bandshell facility has been undergoing construction required a new, more intimate festival setting. The main stage area will also include a stage at the back of the bandshell for the bands so there will be minimal walking and maximum continuous music. If you’re reading this, you probably already know about the 5-time Grammy winning host band, Snarky Puppy. This will be the eighth GUMF event and I’m so excited for this 2-day program. In fact, we’ll get moreContinue Reading

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In: Aisle 5, BLOG POSTS, City Winery, GroundUP Music Festival, Lettuce, Smith's Olde Bar, Suwannee Hulaween, Terminal West, The New Mastersounds, Variety Playhouse, Whippersnap Music and Arts Festival

Here’s my 1st ever annual video recap of 29 live sets that I recorded this year. This is a sampling of the more than 80 videos I posted on YouTube this year, which is a subset of the videos that I recorded (some are not public), which is yet a further subset of the sets that I’ve actually seen or heard this year (since I don’t record every set). The videos are notable in one way or another, perhaps based on the quality of the recording, the circumstances of the recording or the uniqueness of the set. I’ll give aContinue Reading

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In: ALBUMS, Lotus, The New Mastersounds

2024 was a great one for recorded funk, jazz, soul and world music. This article covers the wide range of albums I enjoyed during the year from some perennial favorites like The New Mastersounds, Ghost-Note, Kamasi Washington, Lotus and The Greyboy Allstars to new and new-to-me artists like Diggin’ Dirt, Tatiana Eva-Marie and Kinga Glyk. These are the albums that I listened to the most – I wish I could include all the great albums that were shared with me during the course of the year — hopefully my coverage will increase in 2025. If you like what you read,Continue Reading

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In: Amp Jam, BANDS, BLOG POSTS, FESTIVALS, Lettuce, The New Mastersounds

Bear Creek 2010 was my initiation into the new era of music festivals. For anyone that doesn’t know, that annual November festival based at the gorgeous Spirit of Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP), was renowned for it’s smaller, family-feel and specialized in jam and funk music across 5 or 6 stages including inside at the music hall. Bear Creek had an eight year run from 2007-2014. The 2010 schedule caught my eye because I had been looking for places to see Maceo Parker (James Brown, Parliament/Funkadelic) and funk band, Lettuce, that I was a fan of but had never seen beforeContinue Reading

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In: BANDS, BLOG POSTS, Lettuce, Suwannee Hulaween, The New Mastersounds

Suwannee Hulaween is fantastic annual jam and electronic festival at the beautiful Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL.  It’s held close to the Haloween weekend and this year it was threatened by the Hurricanes which hit the area just three weeks earlier. The organizers, park, local team and volunteers worked tirelessly (well probably very tired) to clean up the part and prepare it for this festival that gets about 20,000 attendees. This recap has to start with a huge amount of gratitude to the team for pulling this off and to the organizers Paul Levine and MichaelContinue Reading