Clearwater’s Row Jomah is in Wilmington NC today (Saturday, May the 5th) at Jimmy’s at Red Dog’s. In addition to local shows, they’ll also hit Huc A Poo’s Bites and Booze in Tybee Island GA and be part of WMNF’s US Too Festival 35th anniversary show, celebrating the 1983 US festival. Row Jomah will reprise their outstanding Talking Heads tribute that simply stunned at the Dunedin Brewery Spring Beer Jam.
At the time, we wrote about that tribute:
Putting together a tribute to a particular iconic band is a huge undertaking. You can either play around the edges and interpret, or you can go for precision. I’d seen several excellent tributes to Talking Heads at festivals, but none was better than what Row Jomah offered to open Friday’s ceremonies.
Joe Roma
Joe Roma and band have always kept several Talking Heads tunes in their great repertoire, but this meant taking on more than a dozen of the band’s songs, most well known and a couple of gems included as well. The band was well up to the task. Now to secure the vocals. Roma first recruited Dave Gerulat, an oft-time collaborator who plays with shoeless soul, and his percussion was a nice side benefit.
Joe Roma, Mel Walsh, Miss Robyn Alleman, and Dave Gerulat
The icing on the vocal cake came in the form of the lady in black, Miss Robyn Alleman, wonderful singer with Holey Miss Moley, local funk juggernaut. The trio of voices pushed this superb set over the top. Roma commented, “The music is not that difficult; the vocals are very challenging.” Challenge met! Alleman added, “The Talking Heads set was one of the best things I’ve been involved with musically.”
Ike Stubblefield sitting in
Everyone there would agree. The courtyard was jam-packed with fans dancing, smiling, singing, and loving the set. Of course they began with “Psycho Killer!” When they got to “Slippery People,” they invited Mike Bryant up to do his Bernie Worrell synthesizer thing (Bernie played DunBrew in 2014). Mel Walsh had an excellent guitar solo as well.
Dylan Chee-A-Tow
And let’s not forget Vinny ‘Tina Weymouth’ Svoboda, replete with blond wig (which did not match the beard). Svoboda has worked often with Row Jomah as recording engineer and bassist; he plays with Displace, who would follow the TH tribute.
Vinny ‘Tina Weymouth’ Svoboda
“Take Me to the River” had that perfect cadence, and the vocal harmonies from Roma, Alleman, and Gerulat were off the charts (all night). Keyboard master Ike Stubblefield, one of the weekend’s main guests, sat in on “Girlfriend is Better.” We got lots of drummer Dylan Chee-A-Tow in “The Great Curve,” and Walsh had another fine solo on “Once in a Lifetime.” Austin Llewellyn was magic on keyboards all set, especially on “Naive Melody.”
Joe Roma, Miss Robyn Alleman and Dave Gerulat
The much-anticipated “Life During Wartime” had an interested cadence, great dancing from the band, and Llewellyn on melodica. Bryant returned for “Making Flippy Floppy.” The great uptempo set closed, as you might anticipate, with “Burning Down the House” (well, in this case, the courtyard tent). Joe Marcinek, another of the weekend’s featured artists, joined in on a fabulous encore of “Crosseyed and Painless.”
SPECTACULAR!
[ROW JOMAH: Psycho Killer, Born Under Punches, Slippery People, Take Me to the River, Girlfriend is Better, The Great Curve, Once in a Lifetime, Naive Melody, Life During Wartime, Making Flippy Floppy, Road to Nowhere, And She Was, Burning Down the House; E: Crosseyed and Painless]
Whenever Row Jomah takes the stage, they make new fans with their eclectic mix. Do yourself a favor — check them out!
ROW JOMAH
05/05Jimmy’s at Red Dogs | Wilmington NC 05/13Mad Beach Dive Bar | St. Petersburg FL 05/20Mandarin Hide | St. Petersburg FL (OBJ Decompression Party) 05/25Huc A Poo’s Bites and Booze | Tybee Island GA 05/26Hard Rock Cafe | Tampa FL (early) 05/26WMNF US Too Tribute | Jannus Live | St. Petersburg FL
