Jason Eskridge, Dave Yoke, Jared Stone, Matt Slocum, and Kevin Scott
Come Together as ‘The New Stew’ to Re-imagine Donny Hathaway’s Live Recording From 1972
Live at Nashville’s City Winery on Tuesday, September 13, 2016
$15 – $25; Doors 6pm, Showtime 8pm
www.citywinery.com/nashville/newstew091316.html
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The New Stew is a “super group” of a rotating cast of fine musicians from all genres of music. Select shows features Jason Eskridge (Zac Brown Band) on vocals, Dave Yoke (Susan Tedeschi Band, Dr. John, Scrapomatic) on guitar, Jared Stone (Stone’s Stew) on drums, Matt Slocum (Oteil and the Peacemakers, Col. Bruce Hampton & Aquarium Rescue Unit, The Lee Boys) on piano, and Kevin Scott on bass. This project was formed with one focused goal, to pay respect to those recordings that influenced the players and to re-imagine recordings that they feel should be heard and experienced in a live setting.
Let’s start with 1972. It was a defining year for American soul music. The New Stew is introducing their live version of Donny Hathaway’s 1972 Live recording in it’s entirely a Nashville City Winery this September. Live features traditional soul anthems including Hathway’s original “The Ghetto” ,” Marvin Gaye’s 1971 hit “What’s Going On,” Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend, and John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.” The original album was recorded at two concerts: side one at The Troubadour in Hollywood, and side two at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
“I’m a huge fan of Donny Hathaway.” Eskridge says, “His art is one of my primary influences as an artist and vocalist. Being able to deliver this collection of his songs live at the beautiful City Winery is an amazing honor.”
All Music Guide writes, “Donny Hathaway’s 1972 Live album is one of the most glorious of his career, an uncomplicated, energetic set with a heavy focus on audience response as well as the potent jazz chops of his group… ‘Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)’ is another epic (14-minute) jam, with plenty of room for solos and some of the most sizzling bass work ever heard on record by Willie Weeks.”
The first musical homage was paid, to much acclaim, in Spring of 2016 when The New Stew made its debut in select cities in the east playing the classic Bill Withers – Live At Carnegie Hall album from start to finish. It is more than a labor of love, it is a way to allow the public to experience something again or in many cases the first time and reconnect with these classic recordings over four decades since they released.
In a recent interview with Examiner, Jared Stone, the group’s founder, talks about the inspiration to perform these recordings, “So why Withers and the Carnegie Hall album? It comes from a personal place for Stone, who was on the road with Derek Trucks several years ago when he received word that his father had passed away. ‘We were going to have a memorial service when the tour was done,’ Stone recalled. ‘Derek came into the room with a set of headphones and a discman and a copy of that CD, a copy of Donny Hathaway’s Live recording and a Sly and the Family Stone record. And it just stuck with me for years and years. To this day, it’s one of my favorite live recordings of all-time.’”
To get a taste of what the audience is in for, listen to Jason Eskridge performing Live from Carnegie Hall with The New Stew in Annapolis live from The Ram’s Head this past May over on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jared-stone-16…/new-stew-rams-head-sb
The New Stew is continuing to perform the Withers classic at select shows and introducing the Donny Hathaway album into their repertoire this fall, starting with this special evening of entertainment of The City Winery Nashville.
For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/thenewstew
Meet The Players in The New Stew:
Jason Eskridge
Living in Nashville Jason Eskridge has worked either as a background vocalist or opening act for countless award winning acts such as Zac Brown Band, Lyle Lovett, Randy Travis, Jonny Lang, Keb Mo’, Nicole C. Mullen, Marc Broussard, Robert Glasper, and Toby Mac. He has also been featured as a guest vocalist on numerous projects. Jason has traveled across the country playing various venues for anyone who has a listening ear. He has also had the opportunity to take his music abroad to South Africa, Amsterdam, India, and England. Jason’s latest release is entitled Live in Nashville. He is currently touring as a background vocalist for Zac Brown Band. Jason’s desire as a musician is to create music that causes the listener to love themselves, love their fellow man, think harder, think deeper, think broader, laugh until they cry, laugh when they want to cry, try something new, remember something old, and ultimately live life to the fullest.
Dave Yoke
Dave Yoke taught himself guitar in his native Anniston, Alabama drawing on the blues enthusiasm of his older siblings. He launched his career as a founding member of the long-standing, regionally popular Second Hand Jive. In the mid-90s, Yoke moved to Atlanta and became an in-demand session player, joining forces with (Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown associate) Dr. Dan Matrazzo. Yoke was then invited to become a full-time member of the oft-GRAMMY-nominated Susan Tedeschi Band and the legendary Dr. John. He is also a permanent member of Scrapomatic, with whom he tours and has recorded three albums. As testament to his blues roots, Dave is regularly invited to sit in with the Allman Brothers Band, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and Americana artist Kristina Train.
Jared Stone
Jared Stone has done a few things. Played for country music stars, served in the USMC, drove minors across the country for merchandise %, studied music at universities, played a lot of jazz, made records, played on records, owned jazz clubs, built music venues, mended fences, promoted concerts and festivals, directed festivals and some other things that he is sure he can’t remember. He has a bad ankle from running in combat boots too long. He still plays the drums pretty good though and his band is Stone’s Stew.
Matt Slocum
Born in Newton, MA, Matt Slocum began his formal classical training at the age of 8, at the South Shore Conservatory of Music in Boston. At the age of 14 Matt moved to Alabama where he was accepted to the Alabama School of Fine Arts. In the summer of 1991, he attended the Berklee College of Music Performance Summer Program, and was rated among the top 10 musicians in the entire program. Matt is a keyboardist whose skills are predominantly in-demand with southern jazz, funk, fusion & blues musicians. Matt has been a member of the Oteil and the Peacemakers, Col. Bruce Hampton & Aquarium Rescue Unit, Jimmy Herring Band, Jeff Sipe Band, The Lee Boys, Susan Tedeschi band, and the Rich Robinson Band.
Kevin Scott
Born into a musical family in the heart of the Deep South, Kevin Scott takes the traditions of his upbringing and runs with it, forging a path and name for himself in today’s world of modern music. Currently based in Atlanta, Kevin has become the first-call bassist for a variety of performers, spanning many genres, in a city filled with generations of phenomenal players. Whether it be jazz, rock, funk, metal, R&B, hip-hop or any other art form that comes his way, Scott approaches every song with a deep pulse, bright spark, and ever-expanding tone in his playing.
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