25
Mar/13

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “NEVER DON’T STAY” BY KEVIN BOWE

25
Mar/13

Minneapolis native Kevin Bowe decided to become a musician after seeing one of the Replacements’ earliest gigs, blown away by the beautiful reckless abandon of the legendary Minnesota band. Years later Bowe, who wrote songs, produced, and/or played with Leiber and Stoller, Etta James, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jonny Lang, Alison Scott, Leo Kottke, Peter Case, John Mayall, the Proclaimers, Robben Ford, the Meat Puppets, and Freedy Johnston, got to become a Replacement, joining Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson on a four-track covers EP recorded this past September to help raise funds for former ’Mats guitarist Slim Dunlop, who suffered a stroke in February 2012. Now Bowe is back with his longtime band, the Okemah Prophets, on tour with their new disc, Natchez Trace, the follow-up to 2003’s Angels on the Freeway (Crosses on the Road) and 1999’s Restoration. The sixteen-song disc, made with Prophets Pete Anderson on drums and Steve Price on bass, along with contributions from Westerberg, Johnston, Chuck Prophet, Scarlet Rivera, Tim O’Regan, and Nels Cline, is a collection of countrified indie rock, pop, and blues, with such highlights as the rollicking “In Too Deep” and “Devil’s Garden,” the driving “Haven’t You Heard,” the horn-heavy “Everybody Lies,” the foot-stompin’ “Waitin’ for the Wheel” and “Just Restless,” and the Westerbergian “Never Don’t Stay” and “Gutters of Paradise.” (You can check out all the songs and more here.) Kevin Bowe + the Okemah Prophets will be at Rockwood Music Hall on March 26 at 7:00 (free), preceded by Jonathan Powell and followed by Caitlin Canty, and at the Rock Shop in Brooklyn on March 27 ($10) with Dear Comrade and A Is for Atom.