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Hillbilly Funk All-Stars
February 26, 1999
By Chip Schramm

On Friday February 26, I traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to see a fine collaboration of musicians come together to play as the Hillbilly Funk All-Stars. Indeed, there were enough different musical influences on stage at the same time, you could have easily enough added jazz and blues to the title. T Lavitz, the current keyboardist for Jazz Is Dead, provided a wide range of inspired jams on his organ. Fiddle master and Nashville native Vassar Clements added a warm bluegrass feeling to the jams throughout the night. Vassar never fails to demonstrate his musical gifts no matter how many different kinds of musicians he's playing with. Kenny Gradney and Richie Hayward, the rhythm section of Little Feat, played bass and drums respectively. The frontman on vocals was a fiery bluesman named Catfish Hodges. I had never seen Catfish before this night, but he put on quite a show, himself. Despite being from different bands and musical influences, each musician has some kind of link with the others. I had the chance to discuss the band's musical roots after the tour ended with T Lavitz.

The Gibson Guitar company owns and operates the "Café Milano," which served as the venue for the show. It seemed more like a three-star restaurant than a café as full meals were served to most of the guests before the shows. There were two shows that night, one at 7:30 and one at 9:30. "You guys don't look like a bunch of Deadheads_." joked Catfish as the band walked onto the stage. He was right. The crowd at the show was definitely out for a night on the town. Lots of the people at the tables were in suits and dresses. There was no room to dance at the front, but that didn't seem to bother anyone. The serious mood of the Nashville scene seemed to belie the playful nature of the musicians that night.

They band played a wide range of musical songs, some composed by various members and others covered by other bands. They played "Easy to Slip," a little feat song early in the show. Richie and Kenny laid down some heavy beats and set the tone for the rest of the evening. They later covered an Elvis Costello song called "Pump it Up." Catfish sang a few original blues compositions and laughed and joked with the crowd in between songs. His facial expression and herky-jerky motion behind his guitar really conveyed his energy well. A few fans who had never seen him before the shows compared him to Bruce Hampton. T Lavitz also wrote a few of the songs the HBFAS played on their tour. When the band took a break and left the stage during the second show, T couldn't resist the temptation to play a solo "Cumberland Blues," showing off his Dead roots. Slicing his way through the jams with a bow and a smile was the ever-resilient Vassar Clements. After two shows in one night, he seemed like he had enough energy left to play a third. Since he lives in Nashville, he had to go home and pack for the rest of the tour, so the show would have to end at midnight as scheduled.

I caught up with T Lavitz after their tour ended with stops along the eastern seaboard. We talked a little about the roots of the band and his future plans with Jazz is Dead. What had started out as an interview turn into a sort of running conversation as T answered most of my questions before I could even ask them. The excerpts from that conversation follow.

C: I originally decided to catch up with you guys because of a Stir Fried CD I reviewed that featured Vassar Clements on fiddle.

T: Yeah, I know about them. We saw those guys last week. They came to see us play. That's actually what happened. That's how I ran into Vassar. I hadn't seen Vassar in a million years. After Jazz is Dead's last tour in November, I was looking to do something like this: a jamming thing on the club circuit. Bruce Hampton said, "Call Vassar. He'd do something like that." He gave me the number and I put it in my book. I didn't do anything about it. Then three weeks later I'm in Burlington, Vermont standing in the lobby and who do run into but Vassar Clements! I hadn't seen him in twenty years!

C: Was that the night you sat in with Widespread Panic?

T: Actually, it was. It was pretty cosmic. I told him Bruce said to call and Vassar said he'd love to do it. He was there that night with Stir Fried. So that is how that got happenin'.

C: I had never seen Catfish Hodges before. I remember he said he'd played with Vassar before. Had he played with you too?

T: Catfish and I had a band called the Bluesbusters. We were a jammin' band, too. It was with Paul Berrere from Little Feat, Freboe the bass player who used to be with Bonnie Raitt, and this guy Larry Zack on drums who was with Jackson Browne in the early 70's. So Catfish and I knew each other from that. When we heard that Richie and Kenny from Little Feat were available, there's no better rhythm section for that kind of stuff.

C: Had you worked with them before?

T: Well, the Dixie Dregs, the band I was with originally, toured with Little Feat. But that was about 18 years ago. We didn't play together, but we traveled together.

C: Who else played with you in Dixie Dregs?

T: Steve Morris on Guitar. Rod Morgenstein on drums, who's also going to play with Jazz is Dead. Different violin players: Mark O'Connor, the original guy was Alan Sloan, a guy named Jerry Goodman who was from the Mahivishnu Orchestra, he played with us too.

C: You got a few grammy nominations for some of that work, right?

T: Yeah, we got six.

C: I remember when you played in Nashville, Bobby Cochoran came out and played a few songs with you. What was his connection with the band?

T: Well, he played with Bobby and the Midnites, one of Bob Weir's old bands. Kenny Gradney played with him in that. I knew him through Billy Cobham [the original drummer for Jazz is Dead,] actually.

C: You auditioned for the open keyboard spot for the Grateful Dead around 1990. How did that come about?

D: Bruce Hornsby and I were old friends from college. We went to school together in Miami. They asked him and he said, "oh yeah, he would be great." Then somebody Bob Weir knew also mentioned my name. I guess they figured if they knew me from two different sources, they should check me out. They flew me up to their place in San Rafael, California. We jammed for a couple of hours and sat around a talked for a while. As I've mentioned, my singing is pretty much non-existent and they needed help on vocals. But I was king for a day, anyway.

C: I remember when I was younger, Wake of the Flood was my first real Grateful Dead album. When I was 16 I thought the song "Mississippi half-step" was written for me.

T: That's what we're gonna do with Jazz is Dead on our next tour - the whole album. We've asked Vassar to sit in on a few shows, too. I just now found this out. I've got to buckle down because we rehearse starting next week. Jeff Sipe of Leftover Salmon and Aquarium Rescue Unit and Rod Morganstein from the Dregs are going to come over and play. They're gonna each play two weeks of our next tour. We're talking about having both of them come out and play together when we do our summer tour in July.

Fans of Jazz is Dead can keep up with their tour plans on their website, not coincidentally, www.jazzisdead.com. In other related news, rumors are swirling about a possible summer festival tour with Jazz is Dead, Merl Saunders, Vince Welnick, String Cheese Incident and the Derek Trucks Band. Though nothing has been confirmed, a few musicians have expressed interest. All of these bands have some sort of website with e-mail feedback, so if this sounds like a good idea to you, send them an e-mail to voice your support!!