Grateful Useless followers liked Oteil Burbridge lengthy earlier than Burbridge liked the Grateful Useless.
An ace jazz, rock, and funk bassist in his 20s, Burbridge landed a spot in Col. Bruce Hampton’s Atlanta-based jam band Aquarium Rescue Unit within the late ’80s. It was the daybreak of a jam band renaissance that included acts akin to Phish, Blues Traveler, and Widespread Panic.
“The one people who got here to our exhibits have been Deadheads, different musicians, and freaks,” Burbridge instructed the Herald with amusing. “So the Deadheads adopted me earlier than I understood their factor.”
Burbridge now understands their factor in addition to anybody.
After logging 17 years with the Allman Brothers, Burbridge was a sensible choose for the bassist spot throughout Useless & Firm’s decade-long run. As a result of Useless & Co. guitarist John Mayer had injured his vocal cords and misplaced some vary, Burbridge turned the Useless’s go-to man for ballads. The extra ballads he did, the additional he fell into the magical, mystical world of the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter catalog.
“I don’t suppose I actually perceive music till I study it and play it,” Burbridge stated forward of his Oteil & Associates present on the Home of Blues on Oct. 16. “If I simply hear one thing, I could not even prefer it as a result of I’m listening with prejudiced ears, listening for what I wish to hear and deciding prematurely that I don’t prefer it. However while you study one thing, you get deep inside it and go, ‘Whoa, that is what everyone loves about this music.’ ”
Proper as Burbridge discovered a love for the Useless, he skilled a sequence of devastating losses. His brother, Kofi, died, his dad died, a sequence of mentors handed away — Col. Bruce Hampton, Gregg Allman, Butch Vans, and theologian Jim Barnette. Out of the blue, the music of Garcia and Hunter meant greater than ever.
“It was ‘China Doll’ and ‘Excessive Time’ and ‘To Lay Me Down’ and ‘Stella Blue,’ these ballads the place the ache in them is kind of evident, they usually assist, they assist with life,” he stated. “When my brother died, I might be enjoying Grateful Useless round the home, not finding out it, simply within the background, then Jerry’s voice or his guitar would simply attain out and assist me via actually, actually robust moments.”
Final yr, Burbridge made the daring resolution to make a solo album of Useless ballads. No epic jams, no rockers, “Pretty View of Heaven” is a hushed and intimate file recorded in Iceland, in December, with the Northern Lights shining on the studio (“We made the elves very completely satisfied,” he stated). “Pretty View of Heaven” options lots of the songs he sang with Useless & Co and lots he didn’t together with “Stella Blue,” “Mission within the Rain,” and two variations of “Excessive Time,” one with Kofi’s flute overdubbed on it.
“It wasn’t a thought out resolution,” he stated with a chuckle. “After I got here time to do it, I stated to myself, ‘Man, you’ve by no means sung lead on a whole file ever and also you determined to do all ballads, are you out of your thoughts?’ I began to get actually scared proper earlier than, however, you understand, I really feel it a lot, I’ve such a robust reference to these songs, I needed to put that worry apart.”
As Burbridge prepares for a Boston present that can probably be full of Deadheads, different musicians, and freaks, he now is aware of its fan base is completely satisfied to take a break from the jam and fall right into a therapeutic ballad.
For particulars and tickets, go to oteilburbridge.com
