Shak Nasti Added to Lineup for Suwannee Amp Jam #1

Shak Nasti Added to Lineup for Suwannee Amp Jam #1

[Thanks to Steve Bazley and Daryl Wolff for audio; thanks to The Sober Goat for video.]

Many writers work to cover events objectively, keeping their opinions to a minimum. I have never been one of those. When I write about bands that I truly love, that lack of objectivity is clearly on display. Case in point:

So Suwannee Amp Jam #1 has added my beloved Shak Nasti to the lineup. There is no band I have seen more often than this trio from Orlando. They are spectacular in every way. My history with them goes back to 2007, so I have been hooked on them for most of the two decades of their existence.

Then Paul Levine upped the ante:

We attended our first Bear Creek Music & Arts Festival in part because Levine selected Shak Nasti for the opening set at The AMP. (Of course, the rest of the lineup was mighty fine as well.) Levine has always made superb choices for opening bands for Purple Hatter’s Ball, Bear Creek, Suwannee Rising, Resonate Suwannee, and other events such as the Roosevelt Collier Getdowns.

The core of Shak Nasti has always been the trio of Tim Turner, Matt Lapham, and Rion Smith. Turner plays guitar and sings lead; Lapham is bass player extraordinaire; Smith is a polyrhythmic machine on drum kit. They have a number of studio albums to their credit (two of them available on Spotify), and there are dozens of live shows available on archive.org.

The trio played often with Roosevelt Collier, with Bobby Lee Rodgers, with Thomas Wynn & the Believers, and with Anthony AC Cole. The band has at times expanded to include Ito Colon, percussion; Keegan Matthews, keyboards; and Syoma Klochko (Flora Flora), guitar.

Click here for Shak Nasti at Bear Creek 11.13.09 and here for Shak Nasti at Bear Creek 11.14.09.

One additional note about Lapham. I have reiterated often that he is my favorite bass player on the planet. He often toured with the Roosevelt Collier Trio. Lapham was also part of a stunning group called KAMANI, a collective with Nikki Glaspie (The Nth Power), drums and vocals; Nigel Hall (Lettuce), keyboards and vocals; Kat Dyson (Prince, Cyndi Lauper), guitar and vocals; and Matt Lapham (Shak Nasti, Roosevelt Collier Trio), bass. For the group’s second round of shows, the late Shaun Martin took Hall’s place on keyboards. THAT was an amazing band.