Listeners can’t help but move around a bit when listening to Shady Deal, including those who are too cool and usually remain on their bar stools the entire night. Shady Deal, sure to attract a large crowd during Super Bulldog Weekend, will perform tomorrow night at Whiskey Blues with the opening band Cool Papa Bell – also known to cause some boogie action.
Missouri natives and now Oxford based, Shady Deal has paved its way in the music scene through a nationwide tour including a performance at Wakarusa, a four-day music and camping festival in Kansas. They’ve also split the stage with the North Mississippi Allstars, the Black Crowes, Stockholm Syndrome and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Members of the band include Jesse Hammock (lead vocalist/rhythm guitar), Austin Marshall (drums/vocals), Jake Curtis (lead guitar) and Mason Watkins (bass).
“What I consider our most memorable performance was by far when we opened for the Black Crowes,” Hammock said. “We could see ourselves on the big TV screen, and we were laughing our asses off.”
Interestingly, the name Shady Deal actually derived from a “shady” experience the band encountered. While in their hometown of Sikeston, Mo., they played at an annual event. At that time the group had no name. Someone stole more than $1,000 from them during the event, and that was “shady, man,” Hammock said.
Since then, Shady Deal has produced two studio albums with the help of the legendary Jim Dickinson – the first titled The Lift and the second album The Ringer. Despite the first album’s sound of standard blues and “crazy jam-band stuff,” Hammock said The Ringer brought out their true roots – Southern rock. This makes perfect sense when one considers that their first album was recorded in Memphis surrounded by taxi cabs, beeping horns and noisy streets. Their second album, however, was recorded on Dickinson’s ranch in the country, where they were able to relax in the woods, drink beer and find out who they really were – Southern rockers, for sure, Hammock said.
“Working with Jim is always cool and laid-back,” Hammock added. “He’s a very spiritual guy, but not in a religious way. I’ve done some shows with Cody and Luther (Dickinson’s sons and members of the North Mississippi Allstars), but I’m much better friends with Jim. If I ever have a problem, I can always call him. He’s kinda like a father figure to me.”
Taking the stage before Shady Deal is Cool Papa Bell, comprised of Paul Bresnahan (bass), William Gates (drums), Robby Peoples (harmonica/vocals) and Chris Wheeler (guitar/vocals). The combination of Bresnahan’s bass lines with Gates’ energetic drumbeats and Wheeler’s nonchalant skill (which he makes look so easy) is topped off with Peoples’ passionate harmonica tunes, scruffy voice and energetic personality he conveys to the crowd by constantly jumping around stage. Although Cool Papa Bell formed only eight months ago, the members hide it well by performing rapidly their sound of “folk mixed with blues,” as Wheeler described it.
Members of Cool Papa Bell Wheeler and Peoples have both shared the stage with Shady Deal, including Peoples’ summer tour with them in California where he was considered their “sixth man,” he said.
“We’re all really close to the members of Shady Deal,” Wheeler said. “We feel as if we’re both represented in the same group as far as the Southern music scene goes.