The Greyboy Allstars will release a new covers album, Get A Job: Music From The Original Broadcast Series Soul Dream, on April 1 through their Knowledge Room Recordings imprint. The band confirmed spring tour dates in support of the album that features the lead single, “I’ve Got Reasons.”
Get A Job marks the sixth studio album by the group made up saxophonist/flutist Karl Denson, keyboardist Robert Walter, guitarist Elgin Park, bassist Chris Stillwell and drummer Aaron Redfield. Recorded live in the studio for the 2021 nugs.net livestream series, the album captures 10 covers that have long been in the collective’s live repertoire. The record presents The Greyboy Allstars’ covers of songs by Gil Scott-Heron, The Beatles (George Harrison), Burt Bacharach, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Gene Ammons, Don Alford and others.
“We keep a running master list of around 70 tunes,” Walter stated. “From those I picked a mixture of tried-and-true live staples and songs that weren’t always in common rotation. Usually, for gigs I propose a list and then the other members edit and tweak it. For the taping, we wanted each episode to have a theme: two of them focused on originals and the other two were covers: live favorites, and music that came out on Prestige Records. The tunes on this release are the best of the covers.”
“The covers come from the tradition of the artists we love and how they would grab the pop tunes of the day, most likely to broaden their listening base,” Park added. “George Benson, Grant Green, and Kenny Burrell all did Beatles and Bacharach tunes. Also, everyone is coming with different levels of seriousness to the music at different times.”
The Greyboy Allstars Get A Job Spring Tour 2022 begins on March 9 in Asheville, North Carolina. Additional shows include stops in Charleston, South Carolina (March 10); Atlanta (March 11) and St. Augustine, Florida (March 12). The tour resumes in St. Louis (March 30); followed by shows in Milwaukee (March 31); Chicago (April 1); Covington, Kentucky (April 2); Columbus, Ohio (April 3); Pembroke, Massachusetts (April 5) and Woodstock, New York (April 6). A two-night stand will take place at New York City’s Brooklyn Bowl (April 7, 8) followed by gigs at Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia (April 9) and in Washington D.C. (April 10).
The tour heads west for two nights in Crystal Bay, Nevada (April 15, 16) and a show in Venice, California (April 21). They then travel to Denver (April 22) and Boulder, Colorado (April 23) before wrapping up in New Orleans during Jazz Fest (April 30).
Below, watch the video for “I’ve Got Reasons,” a “rare-groove, deep-cut originally recorded by Mary Jane Hooper” and written by Edwin Bocage and Al Scramuzza:
Get A Job: Music From The Original Broadcast Series Soul Dream Tracklist
- I’ve Got Reasons (Edwin Bocage, Al Scramuzza)
- Jug Eyes (Gene Ammons)
- Smokin’ at Tiffany’s (B. Watley, G. Barr, S. Weakley)
- Lady Day and John Coltrane (Gil Scott-Heron)
- Turn It On (Sonny Stitt)
- Taxman (George Harrison)
- I’ve Known Rivers (Gary Bartz, Langston Hughes)
- Play It Back (Dr. Lonnie Smith)
- Got to Get Me a Job (Don Alford)
- Walk On By (Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
