Atlanta Cafe Band

I Call It Workingman's Blues
band: The Atlanta Café Band
Album: Eponymous



The Atlanta Café Band



I Call It Workingman's Blues



“Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.”
~ Dan Louis Castellaneta

“Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses.”
~ Dale Carnegie

“The blues ain't nothing but a good man feelin' bad”
~ Leon Redbone

"Music is too important to be left to professionals."
~ Michelle Shocked


FORWARD

After posting this review, I got a phone call from Charlie. The more I listened to this band on headphones the more I heard how magically tight all the players were, and how they had that feeling of a BAND. I asked Charlie how long they had been playing together, and the answer is a shock. This band has been playing together off and on for 35 years. They are responsible adults playing the blues all that time, raising their families with their priorities where they should be. The sound they produce can't be duplicated by four well-trained young prodigies out to take over the world. In 35 years they have produced just one CD. These men didn't sacrifice their families to play music. Maybe if we celebrated bands like this more often, we'd get to hear music from responsible adults more often. Bands that sleep until 2:00 p.m. and call their children on their birthdays from the road write something different. This band plays the workingman's blues with authenticity and veracity. You just can't beat that with anything less.

THE REVIEW

There's this band in New Jersey called "The Atlanta Café Band that has the spirit. They have a six song CD with no cover art at all. They've been playing around town up there and have the word "Atlanta" in their name out of respect for southern rock and music from The Delta. There's a picture of them with Anthony Gomes, who may be the best new blues guitarist there is. They are workingmen who love to play music, write good songs, and play that blues because it makes them happy and audiences like them. They have no contract, no label, no manager and no cover art. I love this band.

My main contact with this band has been with Charlie Ohlweiler, who sent me an email some months ago about the band and asking if maybe I would do a review. He told me all the songs were written by the band. There's no grandstanding songwriter in the bunch, though I'd have to guess one guy generally writes the words. I don't know who that is for any of these songs, and that's the way Charlie likes it. This music reminds me of The Jefferson Airplane playing blues before they learned something and got plastic cards, plastic fantastic pillows, changed their name, built a city on rock 'n' roll, and wound up sounding plastic. This Voodoo band I'm writing about are workingmen, fathers and citizens playing the blues regardless of the chord progression. They may not have time to go to that Berklee College of Music, but they know how to sing a song people can relate to at a pace they can hear in a concert. What this band gets right is what many of the top performers have long forgotten: The shear, unadulterated love of the music and the meaning of the song. This is the kind of band you can hear in a local bar and walk away singing. I've been to a whole bunch of big deal concerts and walked away nothing more than impressed with the sound. I don't use the word impressed as a compliment. As W.H. Auden said in a poem, "Only your notes are pure contraption / Only your song is an absolute gift."

These men of the Voodoo Brotherhood love the songs they sing, and they present a song as an absolute gift. I remember big bands like that way back when the San Francisco Sound was new and I was living as a boy across the Bay from all that good music. The Grateful Dead, Blue Cheer, and even Country Joe played more blues than anything else and clearly listened to music from The Delta whenever they got a chance. Credence Clearwater used to play high schools, and some people laughed at them for being from New Orleans only in their minds. Back in the beginning, those bands were fun to watch because they were having fun. That's long before the contract battles and all that mess. Go back and listen to those guys, or the bands that came from your own neighborhood, and you will hear joy in their playing a lot like The Atlanta Café Band Voodoo Brotherhood. That spirit seems to have gotten lost, but it is alive and living in New Jersey. Don't take my word for it, click the image at the top of this review and go listen for yourself.

For my money, the song "Nancy" is a shining example of a band doing something important with music. Charlie's sister passed away. The band came together and made a song out of it. It's a quiet song starting with a closely m - Billys Bunker

AUGUSTA, NJ) -- Grammy winners, musical legends and authentic Louisiana home cooked cuisine awaits festival goers at Michael Arnone's 27th Annual Crawfish Fest, June 3, 4 and 5, 2016 at the Sussex County Fair Grounds in Augusta, NJ. This year's festival features 23 artists playing on four different stages, plus music workshops presented by George Porter Jr., Jon Cleary, Marcia Ball and The Atlanta Café Band.

New Orleans musical royalty headline the festival's lineup on Sunday as the funky Meters return. Meters Co-founders Art Neville and George Porter Jr. were at the very epicenter of funk since the mid 1960's, playing on many of the funk and R&B records that inspired generations of musicians. Grammy winner Jon Cleary and 5 time Grammy nominee Marcia Ball will each headline the Pavilion Stage.

A favorite thing about Jazz Fest in New Orleans is that a day of music outdoors is backed up by a night of music in the clubs. Crawfish Fest has similar special treats for fans that purchase camping tickets or King Crawfish Krewe tickets by putting on three sets of music at night on Friday and Saturday just for them. These sets are at the Pavilion Stage and in the Dance Hall, giving fest goers an intimate experience to go with their festival days. This year's sets include Bonerama, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Mike Zito and the Wheel, Flow Tribe, Naughty Professor and the Zydeco Revelators.

Michael Arnone's Crawfish Fest has always been known for a fantastic variety of Louisiana cuisine. All the dishes are priced at $10 or less and bring to New Jersey the great food dishes that are hard to find elsewhere in the Northeast. The Crawfish fest will be serving Jambalaya, Boiled Crawfish, Po-Boys, Crawfish Etouffee and Red Beans and more. Full Menu

Breakfast is available for campers to purchase from 6:00am-10:00am on Saturday and Sunday, and includes beignets and more

Alexis P. Suter will take you to Church with a Gospel set on Sunday. The Dance Hall stage will be rocking this year with Amanda Shaw, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas, The Revelers and David Greely Trio.

Rock and Roll and R&B are always big features at Crawfish Fest and this year you can hear From Good Homes, Cowboy Mouth, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, Papa Mali, King James and the Special Men and blues singer/guitarist Samantha Fish, whose explosive first appearance during a camper's set last year had the Fair Grounds buzzing!

Cha Wa provides a unique opportunity to see masking Mardi Gras Indians performing outside of New Orleans. Quimby Mountain Band opens the Pavilion Stage on Saturday and you can see brass band ambassadors, Brass-A-Holics on the Main Stage. Be sure to visit our Food and Trade Expo held during the fest. - NJ Stage