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This here is
Danny "Mudcat" Dudeck
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By Art Howard
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Photos by
Felecia Graham
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Up
until now Georgia's best-known exports have been
Coca-Cola, CNN and the Home Depot. Now add to that list
Mudcat, Atlanta's premier roots rock quintet.
This summer they bring their hard rockin'
Piedmont ragtime blues and street minstrel-style
stage show to clubs all over the East coast.
Truly, if you snooze you lose on this one. Mudcat
has appeared at the Chicago Blues Festival,
played dates in Paris and Switzerland, and for
the past two years has toured with the legendary
Taj Mahal on the Winston Blues Revival tours. The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
says the band's shows,
"...routinely take on the feel of an
old-fashioned New Orleans house party."
Folks in the audience who are blown away by the
live show can take home a copy of the band's new
CDs, Mud, Sweat & Beers
and Mo' Better Chicken,
which have each been recorded and released within
just six months of each other. Singer/guitarist
and founding member Danny "Mudcat"
Dudeck has also released his very first CD,
Worldwide Mud, for the first time since 1996.
Those who have seen the band live will find that
the band they hear on Mo'
Better Chicken sounds a
little more alternative country, or even jazzy,
than the hard boogie blues band they hear in a
club. Dudeck says that's the difference between
the stage and the studio, "The studio is a
medium and performing for people live is another
medium. One might be painting and one might be
sculpture. I've been trying for years to record
live because that's the only way you're going to
(capture that spirit). But its hard to record
live and not be affected. Maybe its just me and I
want some really kick-ass shit. But I am going to
put out a live record and it will be like when
you come see us, but the studio is a different
art form."
Dudeck says the recording for Mud,
Sweat & Beers fell
together by chance, "Mud,
Sweat & Beers was
supposed to be a two song demo to shop to get a
big producer and a big label. This was Tim
Duffy's idea (of Music Maker Relief Foundation, a
friend of the band). I just kinda snuck in the
basic tracks for a whole record (laughs). There
was a time when that project was up in the air
because the guy who was recording us (Robert
Kirk) was way up in the mountains of North
Carolina, and he also had recording projects he
was doing in his studio in New York." Basic
tracks were recorded at Kirk's North Carolina
studio, then additional tracks were added at
Dudeck's Atlanta home with a mobile studio.
"Kirk has an ambulance and he puts all the
recording gear in it and drives down in my front
yard, puts all the wires out, and we finished it
up here," Dudeck says.
While the prospects of name producers and major
labels were being sorted out Dudeck scratched the
itch to keep recording, "While that stuff
was up in the air I started recording stuff with
the fella that recorded my first CD, Rob Gal of
Snack n' Shack Studio in Atlanta." The
process was more relaxed, he says. "Mo'
Better Chicken was kind of
like Worldwide Mud
(the first album). Worldwide
Mud I recorded over a long
period of time, and the ideas came to me
gradually. That's the way I was able to do Mo'
Better Chicken; the studio
is (in Atlanta) and there's no pressure. 'Let's
set up next week for a couple of days. Here's an
idea. Let's try it out. Aw, man, that didn't
work. That's fifty bucks wasted. Oh, well, who
cares?'"
The discs showcase several notables from the
Southeastern blues scene, including blues prodigy
Sean Costello, a former sideman (and boyfriend)
of Grammy-nominated singer Susan Tedeschi. Danny
Dudeck says of 21 year old Costello, "He's
an awesome player and he puts everything into
every note, and every note is right where it
needs to be. He has a wonderful career ahead of
him." Eddie Tigner, former keyboardist for
the famous Ink Spots, contributes some fantastic
organ and electric piano. One of Dudeck’s
favorite contributors was long-time Atlanta blues
scenester Little Brother, "He's real smooth
and I'm real raw and rough and don't really know
what I'm doing, and he really knows what he's
doing. But somehow when we get together we effect
each other, and I love it."
"Mudcat" Dudeck says that the recent
recording sessions have also had another effect
on the band -- they've started having real
practices! "Just a couple of months ago we
started practicing, which is a first for Mudcat.
Used to when I replaced somebody we would have
one rehearsal; I would get them to come up and
play with me on Wednesday night (at the Northside
Tavern)." Whether or not this band needs a
lot of practice is brought into question by the
song "White Shoes;" it sounds like the
tune's harmonies would have taken forever to work
out, but Dudeck says they were improvised on the
spot. "(Evan Frayer and "Snave,"
two of Dudeck's partners from his street musician
days) and I used to just fall in place, we all
had our place in the singin'. So I would sing a
new song and they would just 'ploomp,' there we
go. It was just kind of an automatic thing
because they're just such great musicians."
In case you catch the live show, buy all three
CDs, and still want more, there's more on the
way. "I'm so anxious to record the next
record. I'm so
anxious. But its like, 'No, slow down.' But it
might be good to go ahead and plan it out, go
ahead and lay down the basic tracks and build it
right on up like that, keep it simple, see if
there's more of a theme." I tell him the
latest one, Mo' Better
Chicken, sounds almost like
a country record. "Wait until you hear the
next one!" Dudeck says.
Mudcat has also booked their first independent
tour of the East, with shows confirmed in
Greenville, Winston-Salem, Washington, D.C., the
Huntington Arts Festival in Huntington, Long
Island and the New Haven area. Later this year
Switzerland, Holland, England and France will get
a taste of Mud.
To find out where you can catch Mudcat Scratch
Fever see www.mudcatblues.com. |
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