Walker and Dynamites blast onto the scene
Five decades into a career of early highs (opening for the likes of James Brown and Jackie Wilson) and later lows (long stretches of near anonymity), 63-year-old Nashville singer Charles Walker never expected to be here: hurtling down the highway in a van en route to another sold-out show with a hot funk band aptly named the Dynamites, most of whose members hadn't even been born when Walker was cutting soul sides for record labels like Chess and Decca. And Walker certainly never imagined he'd be talking to a reporter about his group's recent appearance at this year's Bonnaroo festival, where acts like the Flaming Lips and Wilco also performed.
"Man, it was a gas," says Walker by cellphone on the way to a gig in Baton Rouge as part of a headlining club tour that will bring the Dynamites to the Middle East Upstairs on Tuesday. "We came on at 1:30 in the morning and it was perfect. The place got filled up right away and we were rockin', man. We played outside and dust was flyin' everywhere. People were saying, 'Who are you?,' because they had never heard of us, I guess."
All that is changing, and quickly. Increasing numbers of people have become fast fans upon seeing this scorching, supremely versatile outfit born between Nashville and New Orleans, or upon hearing the Dynamites' debut CD, "Kaboom!" (out now on bandleader Bill Elder's own Outta Sight Records label). With Walker's gritty but supple vocals riding atop cold-sweat, JBs-like workouts ("Come on In"), slinking Sly Stone-esque grooves ("Can You Feel it?"), and Funkadelic-ized cosmic slop ("Way Down South"), "Kaboom!" comes across as nothing less than a new dictionary of old soul, hard funk, and vintage R&B. It's both an update of, and a throwback to, a bygone era -- even down to the disc's marquee-style billing as "The Dynamites Featuring Charles Walker."
More important, though, it is one heck of a party record, and it marks the latest irresistible chapter in what's being called a burgeoning "deep funk" or "super soul" movement led by a network of groove-savvy independent DJs and record labels. Elder says the model for his nascent Outta Sight label is Daptone Records, an indie imprint based in Brooklyn that specializes in old-school soul. Daptone's flagship act and house band, the Dap-Kings, backed rising British retro-soul star Amy Winehouse on her breakthrough CD, "Back to Black."
The demographic of the crowds who have been turning out for Dynamites shows in droves isn't the one Walker remembers from his days playing the Apollo Theater in Harlem during the 1960s and '70s. "The audience has changed a lot -- now it's mostly college kids," says Walker, who spent the late '80s and early '90s making his living singing standards as a duo with his now-deceased wife, a pianist, in England and Spain.
"One of the amazing things" about his full-fledged return to the stage, Walker notes, is that he's working up a sweat and belting ballads for an appreciative audience "that you think might want to hear rap or whatever. But they are really into this music, man. I guess they're pretty much fed up with all that cursing going on." Walker lets out a warm, hearty laugh of vindication.
"The thing about the music, I think, is it's for real," he continues. "College kids are pretty bright and they want to be involved with something like that -- that's what they say, anyway, when you talk to them. This music goes back to James Brown. That's why he lasted so long. I'm just happy that it's happening again."
Dynamites guitarist and leader Elder (who goes by the stage name Leo Black) believes that the growing popularity of the music has to do with "the general public being fed up with homogenized stuff. So much of what's out there -- at least in the mainstream -- just doesn't have that human touch, and soul is the greatest example of real music. Real music speaks to people. It always has and it always will."
Elder claims he had the idea for the Dynamites percolating for a while, but wanted what he calls "an authentic voice" to sing the songs he had been writing and hearing in his head. A friend who had helped organize an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame titled "Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970" recommended Walker, one of the show's performing participants. The two men met and hit it off fabulously.
"People know me as the black guy trapped in the white body around Nashville," says Elder with a chuckle. "Honestly, I just wanted to do this for fun and put together a three- or four-night soul and funk revue. And then everything just totally snowballed. It's really been a whirlwind so far, and we all pinch ourselves every day because this is the music we absolutely love to do. Then, when people started asking for the record, I thought, 'Well, I guess we've gotta write a record.' "
BITS & PIECES Tonight: The Beatings' E.R. is at T.T. the Bear's. Tomorrow: The Stumbleweeds are at the Plough & Stars. Sunday: Cat Power is at Avalon. Monday: Duke Levine and Friends continue their Atwood's residency. Tuesday: Psychedelic Furs headline Avalon with the Fixx and the Alarm. Wednesday: Maximo Park plays the Paradise. Mirah is at the Middle East Downstairs. Richard Buckner is upstairs at the Middle East. Thursday: Eilen Jewell is at the Lizard Lounge for the first night of a two-night stand (which continues Friday) celebrating the release of her new CD. The Turpentine Brothers are at the Abbey Lounge.
