Dan DeLuca’s Mix Picks: Samantha Fish at the Hard Rock, Chuck Prophet two times and Kool & the Gang at the Dell
Plus, recommendation of music from unsung heroes Richard Swift and Henry Butler, who both died this month.
Samantha Fish. Former teen blues prodigy Fish is now a 28-year-old mature artist, not just a hotshot guitar player but an increasingly effective songwriter, as well. Evidence aplenty of that is found on last year's Belle of the West, produced by the North Mississippi All Stars' Luther Dickinson. Free. Monday at Hard Rock Cafe at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
Richard Swift. The producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who died last week at age 41 was an unsung hero in the indie rock community. He was a member of the Shins and the Arcs, toured with the Black Keys, and produced many artists including Damien Jurado and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nights Sweats. Swift, who was mourned by members of the War on Drugs and Dr. Dog, among others, was also a pop classicist who made several highly recommended solo albums, including The Novelist (2003), Dressed Up for the Letdown (2007) and The Atlantic Ocean (2009).
Chuck Prophet & the Mission Express. In terms of consistency of high-quality song craft over the long haul, Chuck Prophet is like an indie rock Tom Petty. The San Francisco songwriter has been at it since Gas Food Lodging in 1985 with Green on Red, and his 13th solo album Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins is one of his best. Tuesday at Sellersville Theater and Wednesday at Concerts at Haddon Heights.
Henry Butler. The great, blind New Orleans musician who died last week at age 68 was one of the last of the great champions of the Crescent City piano tradition associated with Professor Longhair and James Booker. Butler was a fearless creative explorer — he also was a photographer, taking pictures of scenes friends described to him — who toured and recorded tirelessly for decades. As good a place to start as any is Viper's Drag, his 2014 collaboration with trumpeter Steven Bernstein & the Hot 9 that brings glorious life to Butler originals as wells as Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller.
Kool & the Gang / En Vogue. The 1970s and '80s funk and R&B band from Jersey City was founded by Robert "Kool" Bell and his brother Ronald whose long list of party-starting pop perennials include "Jungle Boogie," "Hollywood Swinging," and "Celebration." 1990s vocal group En Vogue, which is now a trio featuring two original members in Terry Ellis and Cindy Herron, opens the show. Thursday at the Dell East.