Covering Row Jomah and Tamayo Covering Great Music!
[If photos of the event surface, we will include them.]
We’ve all seen great bands on our scene play cover songs. Some, such as Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and Pink Talking Fish, do that exclusively (and brilliantly). We have also witnessed bands taking a night to play an entire set of covers. At Dunedin Brewery Saturday, May 11, we had the opportunity to see two of the area’s best do just that, and it allowed a glimpse into the incredible work required to pull off one of these sets, since they are often one-offs.
Both bands had performed Friday, playing their original music. Saturday, Tamayo (the Tamayo Band) performed the music of Garcia, Marley, and Santana. Row Jomah’s set was titled Royale with Cheese, a bow to songs from the movies of Quentin Tarantino.
Michael Tamayo and his crew were up first. He explained that they had chosen songs that Garcia, Marley, and Santana are associated with, although not necessarily the authors. They dove in with a fine rendition of The Grateful Dead’s “Franklin Tower” before shifting to the reggae vibe with Bob Marley’s “Coming in from the Cold.” Tamayo on bass and drummer Kevin Fitz provided the perfect platform for guitarists Trevor Zwaan and guest Dillon Long to do justice to Garcia, Marley and The Wailers’ guitarists, and Carlos Santana. The icing on the cake was the great keyboard work by Kelsey Sharp.
They next chose “Evil Ways,” Santana’s first hit single, drawn from their first album. It was a hit for Latin jazz star Willie Bobo the year before (the band’s first three singles were covers!). This one featured a dynamite jam in the middle. The group shifted next to a tender version of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released,” one of Garcia’s go-to songs. Tamayo got the packed crowd dancing with “Jammin’,” the entire room along for the ride.
Sharp was the brilliant star as she sang “Maria Maria,” the beautiful hit song from the 1999 album Supernatural, her keyboards also superb. Determining how much time they had left, Michael said they would play “a long one.” He admitted later that, if he could time-travel, he would go back to the Woodstock era; appropriately, they closed with a power-packed “Soul Sacrifice.” Dave Gerulat, drummer and percussionist in numerous area bands, most notably shoeless soul, often plays with Row Jomah, and he was there for the entire Tamayo set, adding great color; he and Fitz shone here with great flair. Zwaan and Long also offered their best shredding, with Sharp killer on organ. Michael was dynamite on bass all night, and his smile is absolutely contagious.
[TAMAYO: Franklin’s Tower, Coming in from the Cold, Evil Ways, I Shall Be Released, Jammin’, Maria Maria, Soul Sacrifice]
Joe Roma had selected audio cuts from Tarantino’s movies to accompany each and every one of the 13 songs on the setlist. In addition to the regular quintet, the aforementioned Gerulat was in on percussion and vocals, Brian Doss sat in on several tracks with tenor saxophone, and Pam A Lama Songstress sang backup on many and had two solos later in the set.
How are you NOT going to start a Tarantino set with “Jungle Boogie”? Gerulat and Songstress were singing, with Roma making the grunts and groans and Doss blowing sax. Next was the remarkably obscure George Baker Selection with their first hit song, “Little Green Bag.” (Second hit song? “Una Paloma Blanca”!)
After the set, Jessica Majeski noted that Roma had a remarkable vocal range and finds songs that he absolutely nails, such as “Undun,” the magnificent 1969 hit by the Guess Who. I saw them in 1970; Roma brought tears to my eyes with his brilliant rendition. Equally fine were “Strawberry Letter 23” and then, in a complete direct shift, “Magic Carpet Ride.” Every song seemed perfect for Roma.
Then it was the Melbourne Walsh show; the truly under appreciated guitarist killed on “Miserlou” and then the riotous “Woo Hoo” by The Rock-a-Teens, with LOTS of “Woo Hoo”s! Roma always does a great job with songs by Donny Hathaway; here he did equal justice to Bobby Womack with the band’s rendition of “Across 110th Street.”
There was no flow to the actual setlist (there couldn’t possibly be). No matter how it tilted and twisted, Vinny Svoboda (bass) and Dylan Chee-A-Tow (drums) and Gerulat kept everything on a (reasonably) even keel, with Austin Llewellyn using all of the different functions of his keyboard (maybe more).
It was Pam A Lama time, and she stepped up for a big take on Dusty Springfield’s smash “Son of a Preacher Man.” Llewellyn starred on barrelhouse piano during the “You Never Can Tell” dance contest. Appropriately, a woman who had been dancing up a storm all evening was the winner of the not-so-gigantic trophy (Roma said it looked bigger online!). The group offered up a tender “I’m Still in Love with You,” and then the fireworks started.
We need to have a discussion about “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down),” the song Cher first sang in 1966. Tarantino used an equally whimpy Nancy Sinatra cover in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, but what Pam A Lama sang was not Cher’s nor Sinatra’s. In 1968, incendiary rocker Terry Reid performed the definitive version of this song; equally powerful is a version by Monophonics from 2012. That’s the version she sang. She brought the house down, my favorite performance of the night. The crowd roared when she let it all out at the end. BRAVA! And the band CRUSHED the changes.
Gerulat handled lead vocals on the final song of the set, the great Stealers Wheel song (and Michael Smerconish theme song) “Stuck in the Middle with You,” everybody in the place singing along. Final song? You must be joking! The crowd were not going to let them leave without “one more song.” Roma said (approximately): “We don’t have any more Tarantino songs, but there is one song that I/we love to play and that everybody seems to enjoy.” And, with that, “Sledgehammer” and another singalong!
I continue to be amazed at how much work each band who plays such a one-off cover set has to do to make this go off flawlessly. If there were any flaws Saturday, I assure you none of us heard them!
[ROW JOMAH: Jungle Boogie (Kool & the Gang), Little Green Bag (The George Baker Selection), Undun (The Guess Who), Strawberry Letter 23 (The Brothers Johnson), Magic Carpet Ride (Steppenwolf), Miserlou (Dick Dale and the Del-Tones), Woo Hoo (The Rock-a-Teens), Across 110th Street (Bobby Womack), Son of a Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield), You Never Can Tell (Chuck Berry), I’m Still in Love with You (Al Green), Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) (Cher/ Terry Reid), Stuck in the Middle with You (Stealers Wheel); E: Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)]