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The Revivalists: modern band, old soul
By John Benson
For any outsider to New Orleans whose image of the Big Easy is one big melting pot of musicians — or even to a viewer of HBO series “Treme” — the way David Shaw ended up discovering his bandmates in relatively new rock act The Revivalists is apropos.
“I moved from Hamilton, Ohio, to New Orleans four years ago,” Shaw said. “Our guitar player, Zack, was riding by on his bicycle when I was playing a song on my front porch. He stopped and said, ‘Hey, I like what you’re doing there. You sound pretty good.’ So we struck up a musical friendship.”
That happenstance meeting led to the formation of the sextet, which has grown from a fledgling outfit into its current position as critical darlings. In addition to opening for the likes of The Black Crowes, Dr. John, Trombone Shorty, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Soulive and Galactic, the act released its 2010 full-length debut, “Vital Signs,” which included the rocking “Catching Fireflies” and the acoustic-folk “Not Turn Away.”
Now The Revivalists are looking toward their sophomore effort, which is being produced by Galactic sax player Ben Ellman.
“We’re pretty much done with the next album which is called ‘City of Sound,’” Shaw said. “The first album was a little more like a collection of songs and with this next album there is slightly more of a cohesive sound. Stylistically, it showcases our band is really coming together. The sound is becoming more cohesive and it’s more of an album instead of a collection of tunes.”
Billed as a rock ’n’ soul act, The Revivalists boast influences that range from Bill Withers and Led Zeppelin to Chuck Campbell and Beck.
“We’re a modern band with an old soul,” Shaw said. “We’ve got a song called ‘Criminal,’ which is a pumping rock song that will get that butt moving. The album also has a song called ‘Pretty Photograph’ that’s a love ballad, which has been receiving some pretty good response.”
The six-piece act plans on playing those tracks and even a surprising cover of Dr. Dre’s “Forgot About Dre” at the band’s Youngstown-area debut tonight at Champion Beach House & Bar in Warren. Considering the group’s jambalaya approach to music, does Shaw consider The Revivalists to be a jam band?
“No, we’re not a jam band, we’re a band that jams,” Shaw said.
“Somebody wrote a quote that sums us up perfectly: ‘There’s a fine line between a jam band and band that jams.’ They said we we’re the latter, just because we can do the jam thing but we really pride ourselves on writing songs and keeping the story intact and not noodling around too much.”