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I had a chance to see Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers at a theatre near here. From the posts below saying that a lot of the female singers today sound alike, I'd have to put Lavay Smith and the band in a class by themselves. It's rare that the band with a singer such as Smith has the clout that they did as soloists. I will not say they worked as an ensemble with the singer as 'another voice' since Lavay Smith is the star of the show. But the band showed its chops and that was a major part of the enjoyment of the event. Have any of the readers here "met Miss Thing"? :-)
Excellent post! Let me ask you, is this group a local phenomenon. I went to the website and have recognised many musicians that have been very scarcely visible lately as well as lotsa new labels. I'm on my way to Tower right now to check 'em out. Thanks for the update. Can you say who played that night? Some of these guys are from wayback and if you don't here of them you tend to forget them. And forget about radio in the NYC area nothing new there!
Lavay Smith et al was the big name to come out of the Swing Revival of the late 90's. I followed this movement closely and bought a lot product then and went to shows that featured the music. I have Chris Siebert who plays piano and does the arrangements listed but not a full roster. A mail to him at the website would get you the artist list. But these were all young players though: mixed racially and gender. I have a fascinatiuon with all-girl bands of the 40's and other periods so was glad to see a young woman named Caroline who lives in Beloit on one of the tenors. The notes I have are from the program put out by the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts. The Meyer Theatre in Green Bay is a fully restored playhouse (from Vaudeville)/ movie theatre. This is an excellent setting for smaller draw acts. From the program notes, there's lots of awards and Jazz Fests listed that the band has played but this was my first experience of them. Some of the things I was buying during the Swing Revival were Indigo Swing, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Blue Plate Special plus a reissue of Joe Jackson's Jumpin Jive from the 80's which made it to cd. There were lots of compilations too, most notably the Swing This Baby ! and Swing This Baby Too collections. That was an exciting time for music but it faded with the onset of techno. And it's more complicated than pop music so was treated like a fad. One last note about things on radio. They broadcast Riverwalk Live From the Landing on our Public Radio here and you should be able to find that. Riverwalk is mostly Dixie but a couple weeks ago they did a feature for Women's Month in March on the International Sweethearts of Rhythm: an all-girl band from the 40's. Plus there's a tribute tour forming by someone named Kit McClure is which the Sweethearts music will be performed for live audiences again. Posts, espcially longer ones like these can blow up in my face, so I'll supply some links below.
Re: Live music Lavay Smith Riverlwalk link to The International Sweethearts of Rhythm
Here's Riverwalk with the specifiv archive of the Sweethearts show. I do service as a volunteer at our own Performing Arts Center so I sent these links to the management in hopes that they would get the Kit McLure Tour to come here. Scroll down to program #13, the March 27 entry. Riverwalk Sweethearts show promo
Re: Live music Lavay Smith : link to Kit McClure/Redhot records
Hereis the the link to the Sweethearts project Red Hot Records
Re: Live music Lavay Smith: Meyer Theatre
I'm including this because up in Green Bay Wiscossin, they seem to be doing all the right things as far getting acts and making great performance spaces. a feature on the fully restored Meyer Theatre