Dan DeLuca’s Mix Picks: Robbie Robertson’s ‘The Band’ movie, Pink Sweats, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Waylon Payne
Music Critic Dan DeLuca's weekend picks.
Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band. Director Daniel Roher’s documentary is based on guitarist Robertson’s 2016 memoir Testimony. It’s his side of the story — as opposed to the late Levon Helm’s — of the group that backed Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan before releasing two brilliant late-1960s albums as the Band. The music is wondrous, Robertson is a fabulous storyteller, and wife Dominique Bourgeois, Bruce Springsteen, and Eric Clapton are illuminating talking heads. Keep an eye out for Tony Mart’s, the Somers Point bar where the group played during the summer of 1965. Playing at the PFS Roxy Theater.
» READ MORE: Robbie Robertson on The Band, Bob Dylan and his Shore days
Waylon Payne. Talk about being born into the country music business: Waylon Payne’s father was a guitarist in Willie Nelson’s band, his mother is 1970s Outlaw country star Sammi Smith, and yes, he was named after that other Waylon. After he toured in Shelby Lynne’s band through the early ’00s, his struggle with addiction nearly cost him his life. But in recent years, he has landed songs on Ashley Monroe and Miranda Lambert albums, and his own highly anticipated set, called The Prodigal, is due out later this year. Sunday at Boot & Saddle.
Pink Sweat$, “17.” Sincere Philadelphia balladeer made his name — which derives from his preferred attire — last year with his R&B hit “Honesty.” The singer, whose given name is David Bowden, was a standout performer at the 2019 Made in America festival and is following two EPs with a debut album due this summer. In this tender love song, which is the first taste of it, he pledges his heart will be as true at 71 as it is at 17.
Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The modernization of the New Orleans brass band tradition began with Dirty Dozen albums like 1984‘s My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now that livened up the Second Line strut with funk, rock, and jazz. Three and a half decades later, the Dirty Dozen are old heads in the flourishing genre, but still an unstoppable party band. Thursday at City Winery.