HT faves The Ryan Montbleau Band and ALO’s co-headlining tour came to a close in Boston on Sunday and as with all shows on the run, there was collaboration between the two acts involved. Last week we told you about the bands cover of Graceland and today we’ll hip you to ALO and Montbleau’s cover of one of the best songs ever written.

[Photo by Andrew Blackstein]

Starting last week ALO and Montbleau started collaborating on a cover of This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads. The California-bred act and the Boston-bred singer continued to tackle the tune at each of their last gigs together including the Sunday night finale in Boston. Montbleau and ALO’s Zach Gill share lead vocals and their cover ends in a pretty cool doo-wop breakdown.

We couldn’t find a complete version on YouTube, but if you pair the two clips that follow together, you’ll get the idea. Plus, we’ve got audio of the whole tune. Check it out…

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American Babies, ALO & Ryan Montbleau Band @ Highline Balllroom – April 24

Words and Photos: Andrew Blackstein

The Ryan Montbleau Band, ALO and American Babies entered the Highline Ballroom on April 24th with an apparent excitement to be playing before a New York City audience. This Wednesday night gig saw the American Babies open the bill. Led by Tommy Hamilton’s insightful songwriting approach, the Babies showcased a vibrant mesh of thick drum driven improvisation that displayed David Butler’s versatility. The 55-minute opening slot allowed guitarists Nick Bockrath and Hamilton to feed off each others’ parts with great energy and precision. The Babies are working on a studio record that will be out this fall, the new tunes should be a welcome addition to their already impressive live show.

[All Photos by Andrew Blackstein]

After a quick turnaround, California’s ALO was greeted by many audience members who shared their recent Jam Cruise vacation. Overhearing a dozen different requests to “get back on the boat” or “I can’t wait ’till next year’s Jam Cruise” proved that the power of music and a shared experience can long after be recalled for present pleasure. ALO shined on this night from the opening notes of Maria to their cover of Prince’s 1999. Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz’s acoustic guitar work has the ability to range from a Grateful Dead styled funk, to a Beach Boys infused rhythm. Zach Gill and Steve Adams sported smiles as they took turns on lead vocals. Having the first few rows of fans singing along probably helped those smiles move wider as well.

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HT faves the Ryan Montbleau Band and ALO are currently on the road together for an eight-show tour that visited the Highline Ballroom in New York City last night. We had a feeling these groups would collaborate on stage and we haven’t been disappointed. At the first few shows the entire Ryan Montbleau Band has guested with ALO to cover Paul Simon’s Graceland.

On this version from last Friday night in Minneapolis, taped by Cliff Morse, Montbleau and ALO’s Zach Gill duet on the vocals, while Lebo adds tasteful pedal steel flourishes. Both bands aren’t afraid of improvisation, so a call-and-response segment turns into a furious jam. Take a listen…

In what we think is a fantastic fit, two HT faves, California’s ALO and the Ryan Montbleau Band out of Boston, will hit the road together for a two-week co-bill tour of the Northeast and Midwest this April. All in all, the groups will play eight shows together as well as a few select headlining shows of their own.

The tour kicks off on April 18th in Milwaukee and runs through a April 27th date in Philadelphia. Along the way, the two bands will hit Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, NYC and Syracuse. Both groups play a mix of funk, roots and rock music and we’re expecting/hoping for many sit-ins.

ALO + Ryan Montbleau Band Tour Dates:

4/18 — Turner Hall, Milwaukee, WI
4/19 — Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN
4/20 — Double Door, Chicago, IL
4/21 — Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
4/23 — 8 x 10, Baltimore, MD
4/24 — Highline Ballroom, New York, NY
4/25 — Westcott Theater, Syracuse, NY
4/26 — Some Kind of Jam 8, Schuylkill Haven, PA*
4/26 – Putnam Den, Saratoga Springs, NY^
4/27 — The Blockley, Philadelphia, PA
4/28 — Brighton Music Hall, Brighton, MA*

* ALO without Ryan Montbleau Band

^ Ryan Montbleau Band without ALO

Everyone we talked to who attended Jungle Jam in Costa Rica earlier this year raved about the experience, so we’re happy to see organizers are bringing the event back in 2013 with nearly the same lineup. From January 17th – 20th, Max Creek, BK3 (Bill Kreutzmann, Scott Murawski and Oteil Burbridge), Zach Deputy and the Ryan Montbleau Band will take over Doce Lunas Resort in Jaco Beach, Costa Rica for “four magical nights.”

Unlike many destination musical events, the organizers focus on more than just the music. During the day attendees will have many options of adventures to enjoy such as flying across zip lines in the rain forest, boat cruises to see crocodiles, surfing lessons, day trips to Manuel Antonio National Park and much more. Here’s a clip from last year’s event…

Head over to the Jungle Jam website for complete travel packages.

Last month we mentioned that David Lee Roth had dipped his toes into the world of social media by launching both a Facebook and Twitter account. There hasn’t been much action as both to this date still have the same message to followers – “Get Ready…”. As we’ve been waiting for some sort of follow-up to just what that statement meant, it’s looking like the Grammy Foundation have let the cat out of the bag, as last week they sent out this rather obvious tweet -

Who do u predict the reuniting band will be @ #GRAMMYnoms? http://t.co/hsmoaep6 Does this hint make u wanna “Jump” & “Dance the Night Away”?

Thursday, November 3, 2011 8:45 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@TheGRAMMYs

The GRAMMYs

While there are plenty of people that will be excited about the reunion, we know one person that isn’t as the group’s one-time lead singer, Sammy Hagar, told Rolling Stone he wasn’t interested in playing with his former band mates, saying “First of all, we (Hagar and Mike Anthony) wouldn’t be invited and second of all, if we were invited, we probably wouldn’t do it. If Eddie is in the same condition he was the last time I saw him, I don’t want to step onstage with him.”

Stay tuned for the latest in the As The Van Halen World Turns soap opera.

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Finally, this past summer when HT faves The Ryan Montbleau Band stopped by eco-friendly clothing company Life is good’s flagship store on Newbury Street in Boston, Mass. for an in-store performance, it wasn’t for the typical, truncated acoustic performance. Instead, the band took over the entire ground floor and played a full-on 90-minute show, a recording of which will now be released as their first ever live album.

The two-disc set, appropriately titled Live at Life is good, will come out on November 27, with a portion of the proceeds set to go to the Life is good Playmakers, which helps kids overcome violence, property and extreme illness. For an advance taste of the album Life is good Radio will air in its entirety on Thanksgiving Day at 10:00AM and again on Black Friday at 3:00PM.

We found out a nice tidbit of information this evening when Ryan Montbleau broke the news that he will be heading to New Orleans in May to record a new album with Crescent City musicians Ivan Neville, George Porter Jr., Anders Osborne and Simon Lott. This supergroup will feature ‘bleau and Anders on guitars, Neville on keys, Lott on drums with George holding things down on bass, aka a pretty bad ass lineup. In fact we suggest Pretty Bad Ass as a band name.

Montbleau, whose own group is currently in the middle of a huge transition, has been branching out of late. in addition to the upcoming recording sessions, the “pied piper of chicks” spent time writing songs with Soulive’s Eric Krasno on Saturday after packing the Brooklyn Bowl with the Ryan Montbleau Band the previous evening. Considering the RMB’s packed schedule next month, it looks like the sessions with the group we hope is called Pretty Bad Ass will go down the second week of May. Be sure to follow Ryan’s Twitter feed for his take on how things are going. We’ll keep you posted on more details about this new supergroup as they surface.

Update: Montbleau took to Twitter again this morning to share more details about this supergroup. The session was put together by Ben Ellman from Galactic, who will also handle production duties. Ryan also mentioned he has yet to meet any of the musicians he’ll be working with. Also, ‘bleu mentioned there are no plans for any performances at this time.

Ryan Montbleau Band

[Photo by Dave McWilliams]

A major change will take place with one of the hardest working bands in the scene as the Ryan Montbleau Band annouced violist Laurence Scudder will leave the group “to pursue other musical interests and take on the world as the rockingest violist around.” The RMB will add guitarist Lyle Brewer to the fold. This marks the first change to the band’s lineup in six years.

[Photo by Jon Mails]

After a rare few months off the road, the Ryan Montbleau Band returns to the stage with its new lineup on March 11 in Fall River, MA.

Earlier this week, we ran HT Photo Editor Jeremy Gordon’s recap and photos from what were thought to be The Radiators’ last performances in New York City. Turns out the New Orleans-based band has one final throwdown in store for the Big Apple. The Rads’ last NYC gig will take place at the Best Buy Theater in Times Square on June 3, 2011.

Tickets are on-sale now through the band’s ticketing service.

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Finally, HT faves the Ryan Montbleau Band stopped by the NPR headquarters last week to record a performance for All Things Considered. The road warriors taped six songs and chatted with host Mary Louise Kelly about their heavy touring schedule and much more. You can listen to the RMB’s performance here and read NPR’s article about the band here.

Last week, HT faves the Ryan Montbleau Band put out Heavy On The Vine – the group’s Martin Sexton-produced fourth studio album. Glide’s Shane Handler spoke with singer/songwriter Ryan Montbleau not only about the album but about the band’s recent tour with Sexton, his resilient nature and what it’s like enter Dave Matthews’ world.

Here’s an excerpt from Shane’s interview with Ryan Montbleau…

Has the acoustic guitar ever provided you any limitations in terms of storytelling or  songwriting and what themes or occurrences provide you the most inspiration  to pen new songs?

I don’t really play much else besides guitar, so it’s a blessing to have that by my side to make music.  And having the guys in the band to fall back on is also a blessing.  One song on the new record “Fix Your Wings.” I just had written completely a capella, the whole song start to finish.  It was never my intention to keep it that way, I just needed the guys to flesh it out.  As far as writing  tunes, it’s maybe about 50/50 for me: half start out on the guitar with  some little riff or some chords that I like and then I immediately hear  a melody for it, and half come when I’m away from the guitar,  just singing in my head.  A song can be about anything at all, you just have to be present enough to see and hear the inspiration whenever  it comes.  And then you have to really get to work.

CLICK HERE for the read the complete article. The Ryan Montbleau Band is currently touring the Midwest. You can catch them tonight in Newport, KY; tomorrow in Ann Arbor, MI and at Schuba’s in Chicago on Saturday.

The Ryan Montbleau Band’s next studio album, Heavy on the Vine, comes out on September 21st, but we don’t have to wait that long to get a taste of what we can expect from the Martin Sexton-produced disc. Ryan has shared two “homemade” videos featuring live versions of songs from the album including this clip of Carry that was filmed on Martha’s Vineyard…

Ryan Montbleau – Carry

While Ryan performs Carry solo acoustic, his band mates join him for an
“in-the-van” version of My Best Guess, also off of Heavy on the Vine.

This week’s videos feature bands you should check out at Bonnaroo…

For his latest tour, troubador Martin Sexton has been backed by HT faves the Ryan Montbleau Band. Sexton and the RMB have been honing their show over the past few months and are should be in fine form when they hit The Other Tent at Bonnaroo starting at 1:30PM on Sunday afternoon.

Martin Sexton w/ Ryan Montbleau Band – Failure

Cover Wars March Madness is officially over and we will offer one more congratulations to our winners Perpetual Groove. Now, the 2010-2011 Cover Wars Regular Season begins. For the first contest of the season, we look at four covers of the first track off the 1976 Wings album At The Speed Of Sound – Let ‘Em In. The song is written and sung by Sir Paul McCartney.

The Contestants:

Billy Paul: This ultra smooth cover complete with strings, horns, and an alternate list of people in the lyrics was recorded in 1976.
Source: Let ‘Em In

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A live version of unknown origin:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

With opening night and opening day behind us, we’ve got one more installment of our Baseball Preview to share. Ryan Montbleau of the Ryan Montbleau Band participated in our first Baseball Preview back in 2007 and we’re delighted to have him back. We spoke with Ryan about his beloved Red Sox, his predictions for the upcoming season and much more…

Hidden Track: What team do you think will win the World Series and what team will they beat in that final series?

Ryan Montbleau: I cannot not think that the Red Sox will win the world series. And they will beat Hurricane Ditka. No, the Phillies. Let’s say Red Sox beat the Phillies.

HT: Which pitchers do you think will win the AL and NL Cy Young awards?

RM: I’ll go with Jon Lester in the AL, although I bet Greinke could repeat. And Halladay could do it in the NL this year.

Hidden Track Baseball Preview: JoJo Hermann, Jeff Prystowski, Joel Cummins, Scott Rager,

HT: Which players do you think will win the AL and NL MVP awards?

RM: I’ll go with the young bucks here: Evan Longoria and Hanley Ramirez.

READ ON for more of our Baseball Preview with Ryan Montbleau…

The Disco Biscuits have had quite a week, but they made it through and Jon “The Barber” Gutwillig is at home resting up after successful surgery on his wrist. In addition to some music from Barber’s fill-ins, we’ve also got audio from Fareed Haque’s great world music ensemble, a John Mayer/Michael Franti collaboration, some recent goods from Perpetual Groove and a fantastic classic rock cover from the Ryan Montbleau Band.

Another week and another edition of the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast. If you want to take this week’s five selections with you, you now can.
Click here to download Last Week’s Sauce Podcast #3

[Thanks to J5Brock for this week's photo]

Artist & Title: the Disco Biscuits – Park Avenue
Date & Venue: 2010-03-19 House of Blues, Boston MA
Taper & Show Download: Matt Quinn

Before things went horribly wrong at the House of Blues last Friday, there was some fantastic music being made despite difficult circumstances. From the moment Chris Michetti took the stage for Park Avenue, I knew the Disco Biscuits had a good game-plan on how to attack that night’s show. tDB’s set at the Ultra Music Festival and their late night Tractorbeam set will go on as scheduled tomorrow with the help of Michetti and Tom Hamilton.

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Some great video of Helicopters from the Boston show:

READ ON for tracks from Fareed Haque, PGroove, The Ryan Montbleau Band