Dig Deeper is a monthly 60's Soul Party in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn at the Five Spot Soul Food Supper Club ( 459 Myrtle Ave ). Hosted by Mr. Robinson and DJ Honky , on the fourth Saturday of the month, with the dancefloor primed with the finest funk and soul records anywhere in the world from their collections and a live performance each month at midnight from a legendary soul / funk artist that we particularly treasure. Past artists have included Don Gardner, Tami Lynn, Obie "Young" Jessie, Dean Parrish, Harvey Scales, Eula Cooper, the Mighty Hannibal, Garland Green, Delia "Dee Dee" Gartrell, Lee Fields, Renaldo Domino, and Lenis Guess.
We are incredibly excited to announce our end of summer blowout which we are putting on with our friend Eli "Paperboy" Reed - The Brooklyn Soul Festival on August 28 and 29, at , featuring:
Otis Clay, Barbara Lynn, Maxine Brown, Hermon Hitson, and Roscoe Robinson
Before and after the live sets, top soul DJs from around the world (Germany, Italy, LA, Georgia, and NYC confirmed so far) will spin the finest original 45s for the dancefloor. Stay tuned to the blog entry above for the complete details of who will be spinning.
In addition, from 11am-5pm on Saturday, August 29, come early for a record and vintage clothing fair, with vendors from around the world. No cover!
Tickets:
$15 advance tickets ($20 at the door if not sold out):
Day 1 - Ticketweb link
Day 2 - Ticketweb link
$25 special advance 2-day pass (limited quantity!):
Day 1+2 - Ticketweb link
Look forward to seeing you there! In the meantime, join us for a special DJ-only night at the Five Spot on Saturday, July 25, 2009, when DJ Honky and Mr. Robinson spin their usual soul and funk - as well as some of the garage and rockabilly 45s from their collections.
Has it really been a year since we started Dig Deeper? It was such a treat to host Lenis Guess at our anniversary party for his first show in over 20 years in his current hometown of NYC, backed by the truly Solid Set (who coincidentally backed Don Gardner at our very first Dig Deeper - nice how things came full circle!).
Lenis blazed through some of his classics like "Working for my baby" and "Just ask me", and performed for the first time ever in a live venue "For all you've been" and "Why, why, why'd she leave me?" (why this isn't known is beyond us - surely a funk classic in the making...track one down before the price goes up!).
Lenis is a true gentleman and a performer bar none - at soundcheck, he held the band in the palm of his hand, listening to his every word, and at the live show, he kept the audience enraptured. The world may never see his like again - all of us who caught this show got to witness something truly special. Another Dig Deeper exclusive.
Also, helping us keep the dancefloor jumping until the club closed at 4am were the Scorpio Brothers who spun a fantastic set of mostly Virginia soul and funk 45s. Keep checking the blog above - hopefully they'll be sending us their setlist soon! Thanks very much Marty and Troy - we had a great night!
Hearing person after person come up to Renaldo Domino after his set to tell him that the show they had just witnessed was the best live show they had ever seen was such a thrill. On May 23, 2009, Renaldo absolutely tore up the Five Spot with a massively expanded 12 piece version of the Sweet Divines Divine Soul Rhythm Band, complete with 4 piece brass artillery, conga, and strings. Hear for yourself - the first four tracks above were recorded live that night.
Hard to believe that this was only Renaldo's second show in 39 years, and first ever in NYC. It was a real treat to be the first people in the world to hear some of Renaldo's classic Mercury tracks which he had never before performed live - like "Don't go away" and "You don't love me no more". Renaldo, don't keep us waiting 39 more years to come back.
Thank you again to the Numero Group for all of their hard work on the truly phenomenal "Eccentric Soul: Twinight's Lunar Rotation" compilation, including rediscovering Renaldo. If you don't already have it, you should - it really is essential...and unless you have a turntable, it's the easiest way to hear some of Renaldo's classic 45s.
Once again, our friend Luke Ratray was at the show, camera in hand to capture images of that incredible night...hopefully some video will follow, too:
We literally had to stop by the Five Spot the day after our April Dig Deeper to make sure it was still standing following Lee Fields's absolute blowout performance to a full capacity crowd, his first solo show in the NYC area in roughly 5 years.
From the first note, he had the audience enraptured, absolutely nailing songs like "Tell her that I love her" from his very first 45, to the first live performance in over a decade of his classic "Take me back", to some of his contemporary house hits cut with French producer Martin Solveig, including the astounding, garage-influenced "Everybody" - all backed by the stellar Sweet Divines and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band who again made it known why they are one of the finest soul bands in the city.
Guest DJ Dave Griffiths (of Bumpshop and New York Soul Recordings fame) kept the dancefloor jumping with us until the wee hours - it was great to welcome him back to the Five Spot...home of one of his very first regular DJ spots many years ago! We hope to be posting all of our setlists (can't wait to see Dave's!) in our blog shortly.
Here are some fantastic photos and a video from our friend Luke Ratray - thank you again, Luke!
Also, here are a couple of videos from Rik at Rikomatic - first, a bit of "Take me back" (don't forget to stop the myspace player above first):
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And a bit of "Everybody" from the main set (the encore version is above in the myspace player):
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Thank you to everyone who joined us for a phenomenal night with Delia "Dee Dee" Gartrell on March 28, 2009 (from as far away as San Diego and Norway!), her first show in the NYC area in 25 years. There were so many great moments - the vocal break in "Fight fire with fire" was spine-tingling, her version of "See what you done done (Hymn no. 9)" was maybe even more heartbreaking than the record, and "Second hand love" and "If you got what it takes (they can't take what you got)" just plain smoked. As usual, the Sweet Divines and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band nailed it - it sounded like they'd been performing with Delia for years...
If you missed the show, or just want to reminisce, the first three songs on the myspace player at the top of the page were recorded at the show. You will have to stop the other yellow player in order to hear them. Photos from the night by our friend Jacob Blickenstaff:
If you would like to purchase Delia's new CD compiling most of her singles, you can do so by going here - she gets the proceeds of these sales, unlike what happened with her original 45s...
Thank you to everyone who came out to a very special night with Garland Green on February 28, 2009, his very first show in NYC in over 35 years. Those of you who made it got to hear the very first live performance ever of some of Garland's classic records like "I can't believe you quit me" and "Love now, pay later", and an absolutely gorgeous cover of Isaac Hayes's "I stand accused". We were awestruck.
The last three sound clips in the Myspace player above were recorded at the show - to listen to them, stop the other yellow player above and click play on the Myspace player. As you can tell, the Sweet Divines (featuring a special guest appearance by Eli Reed, whom we are now nicknaming "the Sweetest Divine") and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band absolutely smoked, with arrangements that rivaled the originals.
Video hopefully coming soon! Photos by our friend Jacob Blickenstaff from soundcheck and the night of the show:
We've had the great pleasure of seeing the Mighty Hannibal a couple of times before - and true to form, he absolutely electrified the Five Spot at the January 24, 2009 edition of Dig Deeper. From a near light speed version of "Get in the groove" through to the very infrequently heard "What the blind man sees", Hannibal had the crowd in his hand the entire set. As usual, the Sweet Divines and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band smoked - and we were impressed that they could keep up with Hannibal, even though he's got a couple years on them.
The first three soundclips above were recorded at the show - that version of "Hymn No. 5" is still giving us goosebumps. As with all the Dig Deeper shows, we recorded the night for posterity only - unless we have the agreement of the artist, we can't offer the shows for sale or download.
Many thanks to our friend Jacob Blickenstaff for the fantastic photographs of the night - which are most of the ones you'll see in the slideshow below:
At some point, nobody is going to believe us if all we do is gush about things - but we were completely gobsmacked with how great the November 22, 2008 Dig Deeper with Eula Cooper backed by the Sweet Divines and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band was. Taking it a step further, nobody who was there could believe that this was Eula's very first solo performance in over 25 years, and very first ever in NYC...but that's really the truth. It's like she was never gone.
It was so wonderful to hear for the very first time live performances of some of her wonderful singles like "Try", "Let our love grow higher", "I need you more", "Shake daddy shake", and many more. Incidently, for those who aren't familiar with Eula's records, you should definitely check out the excellent "Eccentric Soul: The Tragar & Note Labels" compilation put out by the Numero Group earlier in the year. Without further ado, here are some photos from the night (and yes, it was really as much fun as it looks!):
Luke also put up a great video from the show on youtube - thanks again, Luke!:
We have used a lot of superlatives on this page in the past few months...but forgive us for saying that the Saturday, October 25, 2008 Dig Deeper with HARVEY SCALES backed by the Sweet Divines and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band (dubbed by Harvey as the New Seven Sounds), with special guest Eli 'Paperboy' Reed was truly beyond comparison. Judge for yourself - the last three songs on our profile were recorded at the show...
When we talked to Harvey ahead of time, we thought he'd agreed to do a 45 minute set. Maybe he did. But what ended up happening was just shy of an hour and a half of some of the most blistering live funk and soul we've ever experienced. Everything from the very first performance of Trackdown since he first recorded it in 1966, a heart breaking version of Otis Redding's I've been loving you too long, as well powerhouse classics like Get Down, Love-itis, the Yolk - and how could we forget a special cover of the great Wilson Pickett's I'm in love for DJ Debbie D who had just gotten married earlier in the day!
Thanks to everyone who came out to share this amazing night with us (and for braving the blustery torrential rain)! A few photos from the night:
Luke also managed to catch a couple minutes of Broadway Freeze on video, and kindly put it up on YouTube for everyone who missed the show to enjoy:
To help speed up our site, we've taken the first few slideshows down off our front page. Don't worry - the photos are still there in the myspace photo album, just not on this front page...
