Though no stranger to the jamband world, Sharon Jones reached an entirely new audience this Halloween when she helped Phish interpret the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. The high-profile gig comes as the fifty-something, Augusta, Georgia-born singer prepares for the release of her next album, a new touring version of the Dap-Kings and the rarities set Daptone Gold. Below, Jones looks back on her recent Festival 8 appearance and gives us a taste of what’s in store for the Dap-Kings in 2010.
Let’s start by talking about the new Daptone Gold collection. It features a mix of outtakes, rare recordings, singles and other odds and ends. One of your contributions is a great version of Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Giving Up” from 2008. Do you remember that recording session?
That was pretty cool—I mean the purpose of doing that session I think was was for a commercial or something, and we ended up using it when we released the album 100 Days, 100 Nights. We played it at New York’s Nokia for those nights. I hadn’t heard that song since I was a kid and you can see all the people in the audience go “Oh yeah, that song.”
Daptone Gold also includes “Got A Thing On My Mind,” which was the very first Daptone release. According to the album’s notes, it was released as a 45 in 2000 and later on Dap Dippin.
Well, the first song I really recorded with them was “Switchblade,” which was for [label founder Gabe Roth’s] old label Desco. But “Got A Thing On My Mind” was the first song we did for Daptone. When I first met Gabe he was doing the Afro-beat thing [with Antibalas]. They were just doing 45s and trying to get an album together. Then they went through a funk phase and went with Lee Fields. Somehow they wrote this song “Switchblade” and they had wanted me to sing on it. He wanted three girls but I said, “Why get three girls when I can do all three part harmonies.” So I went in and did all the background. So on that song I do all the background female vocals. It was that one “Switchblade” and then “The Landlord” and then “Damn it’s Hot.” Those were all for Desco.
Then Desco evolved to Daptone?
Then we went and eventually did “Got a Thing on My Mind.”
Daptone Gold really highlights all the connections betweens the Dap-Kings, Budos Band, Antibalas, Lee Fields and all the other Daptone artists—the whole community’s on display on one disc.
That’s good. Keep a young label hungry [laughter]. That’s what we are all about, you know?
You’re working on a new album right now as well, right?
It’s certainly not finished, but the vocals are done, the music is done. It’s just a matter of them going in and doing their thing to get the job done. Everyone’s gotta do what they do. We’ve played a few of the new songs to show how strong they are. I’ve played like four or five songs off the album already. We have a variety of stuff coming up. I know we still have to sit down and pick some songs because I think we did maybe nineteen, and we’re probably talking ten or twelve songs on the album. I also wrote a Christmas song. It’s gonna come out on 45, and they gonna put it on an album. The name of it is “There Ain’t No Chimneys in The Projects.”
That sounds like an uplifting Christmas song.
That’s one of my first songs I got a chance to write, you know? Gabe helped me out with it. Me and Gabe wrote it together.
Is that going to be on the album or just on 45?
They are going to release it around the holidays on 45. We have a lot of 45s, and they were thinking about making an album of 45’s. Maybe that’s what they did with the Gold album, I think. Those guys put out so much stuff out, I don’t keep track.
c. taylor crothers © phish 2009 from the Festival 8 Express
You sat in with Phish at Festival 8 for Exile on Main Street and “Suzy Greenberg.” How familiar were you with Phish before that weekend and how did that collaboration come about?
Phish asked my manager Alex Kadvan for some horns and at first he was only going to send Saundra Williams and the horns to them. Saundra and I used to sing together in a wedding band. And then he called me up and asked me if I was interested and I said, “Sure.” They wanted me to play around with the songs, so I went on the website, and I looked them up. I had heard the name Phish come up over the years, but I was never into them. I saw their name and was like, “Oh yeah, oh yeah, these guys.”
Before the show we had two, three-hour rehearsals and went through the whole album, but they kept changing what they wanted. Trey has so much energy and he’d say, “I want you to do background on this too.” That happened up until the night of the show when they threw in “Suzy Greenberg.” I hadn’t heard “Suzy Greenberg” before that afternoon. We had the rehearsal that day at Noon or 1 PM, so we go into the hotel to get it ready, and I kept going “Saundra, what’s that melody—Suzy, Suzy Greenberg?” It was really fun.
I can’t believe you only had two rehearsals.
Two rehearsals—that was it. Well, I’ll say three because we did a third one the day of the show.
Were you familiar with Exile before you started rehearsals? Was that an album you heard over the years?
No, I was not familiar with that album. I was like, “Oh, the Rolling Stones.” One song or two songs I might have heard on the radio, but I was never into that rock stuff.
A few songs had a ring to them when I started singing them again—I mean there are some really great songs on that album like “Happy.” I loved watching the drummer of Phish when he was singing that song with his little dress. I was like “awww.”
He actually very rarely sings with the band.
I know. He was killing though. They had fun. They were just as nervous as we were. When we stepped up there and did the first two songs—the first one was “Tumbling Dice,” and the other one was “Sweet Virginia”—Trey looked up at us after we got through the first song and he gave us a wink. Suddenly he was alright. I wanted to make sure I didn’t step on anyone but he told us to just go off his energy, you know? That was fun. He let us loose.
Some Phish fans didn’t like it but you know…those people who had a problem with it probably don’t like anything. Let me tell you, I know that. Being on that stage I know it. I did a concert once and these people right in front of me were talking with their hand in their ears, frowning up. I was like, “soundman, maybe you need to turn me down because people have their hands in their ear.” It’s so annoying how that can annoy you, so I said to myself, “Sharon, forget those two. Look at all those other people here.”
I know Alex recommended the guys in the horn section, but a lot of the usual Antibalas guys were busy with the new Fela! musical. Had you worked with this particular horn section before.
The only Dap-King was Dave Guy. The others were Tony Jarvis and David Smith. I know the Phish guys called them Dap-Kings, but we had never played together before. I said, “You can call them anything you want, just call them back” [laughter]. They sound good together—it was like a crutch. For me, Saundra is my crutch. I think for Dave those guys were his crutch. We had to go to Mexico for some shows before [Festival 8], and we had other things to do, but Dave’s got this mind—when he hears something, and he plays it once, he knows it. With my mind I gotta write something down. But at least the stuff with Phish was pretty easy—I mean the background stuff. The toughest song for me, the one I had problems with, was “Let it Loose.” That one was really nerve wracking to me, so I had to really concentrate on that one. On the plane when I was in Mexico, I was thinking about it. Saundra had time to learn her part, so she was my crutch.
Chali 2na and Sharon Jones at the 2008 Jammys
You mentioned that you played with Saundra in a wedding band. What type of music did you play?
I was in this wedding band, an Italian wedding band, and then she left to start doing her career, and then the wedding scene got crazy. They started wanting me to sing Christina Aguilera, so I felt it was time to get the hell out of here. I like J. Lo, but when I had to sing her song I was like, “Ok, alright, time to go…” You know? Thank God that when one door closes, another one opens. That’s my blessing because it was hard…I looked at my bandleader, and I know he was hurt. I was with him what 13, 14—I was with him as long as I’ve been with Daptone and these guys here.
You know, I’m devoted to singing—that’s my gift, it’s what God gave me to do, and I enjoy doing it. I just feel like people shouldn’t get angry and try to hold me down—especially when you’re making money off it. Here it is you’re a singer and, meanwhile, you’re out here in projects living in a room with your mother, while people are making money off of you.
I mean, I chose to come out and help my mother. I’m like, “just get her out of here, get a house down south near everyone else that can take care of her,” and then I can go ahead with my career. Because I just think that in order to be happy in the next few years, I have to concentrate on myself, and I can’t do that with my mother worrying about me. You know that’s it—at least with the next album coming out, I’m expecting to really get out there and get on the road. This year was thrilling, but we didn’t go anywhere. We went to Canada, we went to a couple places, but we basically worked on the album, and the guys are really drained from the last few years. And I can understand that—[guitarist Tommy “TNT” Brenneck] has his own label now, and he’s got the Budos Band, Menahan Street Band and he’s working with Mark Ronson. He even has a hit with Jay-Z. We’re about to lose him—not lose him but he’s not going to be at every gig—and we’re gonna have to get another guitarist to be on the road.
It must be hard to be at the center of his band that is the lynchpin of so many other projects.
We have a large family, but a change is coming. I gotta get prepared. The Phish thing was right up my alley. I mean, I’m looking forward to doing more stuff like that. When I did the thing with Lou Reed Berlin it was different. Lou Reed is from a whole different world, and these guys from Phish were so down to earth. Then I realized I was older than these little guys, they’re only in their 40s or whatever. But they were so down to earth. I just can’t imagine anyone being as nice as these guys, and they have that kind of crowd—that kind of following. They have so much energy, but it is not drug-related energy, it’s all natural. They got their families, their wives and their children back there, and they’re all so humble and happy. It just made me feel so good to be around them and it was just a blast to do. I like working with different people and even that Michael Buble album that just came in October—I’m on that too.
As you said it’s all about positive energy
Yeah, it is like that show. Everyone in the front started looking, and I just let it go. And then I just got on and did my thing. Don’t stand there with your hand in your ears. If you don’t like it, then move and just come back later on. They taught me a lesson though: when I see that, don’t focus on it!
