Dig Deeper

Bio:

Dig Deeper is a monthly 60's Soul Party in Park Slope, Brooklyn at Southpaw. Hosted by Mr. Robinson and DJ Honky, generally 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, Lenis Guess, Marva Whitney, the Green Berets, Darrow Fletcher, Billy Prince of the Precisions, Kings Go Forth, Bobby Patterson, Tony Middleton, Barbara Stant, and at the Brooklyn Soul Festival that we put on with Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Hermon Hitson, Roscoe Robinson, Barbara Lynn, Maxine Brown, and Otis Clay.

Our next show will be the 2nd Annual Brooklyn Soul Festival which we are putting on with Eli "Paperboy" Reed" on October 8 and 9, 2010 at the Bell House in Park Slope, Brooklyn, featuring live performances by:

Barbara Lynn, Betty Harris, Vernon Garrett (first show ever in NYC!), Don Gardner, Harvey Scales, Renaldo Domino - plus, Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves, and the Sweet Divines!

On Saturday, October 9, from 11am-5pm, catch Shakey's Record Fair in the front room of the Bell House!

Save room for award-winning BBQ from Brooklyn's own Fette Sau, on sale both nights at the Festival!

Advance tickets available through Ticketweb, $20 adv / $25 doors:

October 8 only - HERE
October 9 only - HERE
Both nights, $40 - HERE

The Festival sold out last year, and a lot of folks were unfortunately turned away at the door.....don't wait until the last minute to get your tickets..!

Look forward to seeing you there!

- DJ Honky and Mr. Robinson

---

Having witnessed the power of Dean Parrish at his last Dig Deeper performance two years ago, it seems almost impossible that his performance on August 28, 2010 was only his ..second.. in ..43 years.. in his hometown of Brooklyn. Once again with the mighty Solid Set backing him, he absolutely destroyed the audience with classics like "I'm on my way", "Tell her", "Bricks, broken bottles, and sticks, and an incredible version of "It'll never be over for me", dedicated to Timi Yuro. Dean, please don't keep us all waiting so long for your next hometown show!

That would have been enough for any night, but we were treated to a blinding opening set by New Jersey's own The Black Hollies who stunned the audience with some of our favorites of theirs like "Paisley pattern ground" and "Gloomy Monday morning"...but to top it off, they snuck in covers of Don Gardner's "My baby likes to boogaloo", Tommy Dent's "Soul thing" (maybe the first time it had been performed live since 1969?), and a version of the Parisians' "Twinkle little star" in all the soul garage glory it deserves. Cannot wait to catch them again soon!

Our friends Leah Phillips, George Korval, and Ben Shirai were out with their cameras, and kindly shared these great images of the show:

---

How lucky are we? Dig Deeper celebrated its 2nd anniversary on June 26, 2010 with not one, but two legends of soul, both born in Viriginia. The Ex Caminos led off the night with a set of blazing instrumentals, which led straight into a rousing Happy Birthday to Tony Middleton as he took the stage. Getting to hear Tony and the band bring his classics to life like "Already satisfied", "Paris blues", Return to Spanish Harlem and a mindblowing version of "Tombstones for three" (that blew away the original recording?!) was such a treat. We're so excited that Tony has started working with the Ex Caminos - we expect great things to happen down the road!

Wouldn't that have been enough? No! Many people told us beforehand that they hadn't heard of Barbara Stant - but we can guarantee that anyone who was there will never forget her. Years of singing gospel have honed her voice into such a powerful instrument - we're not sure we can listen to her 45s quite the same way ever again, having now heard the live renditions with the powerful new lineup of the Solid Set - including "I'm going to outfit you baby", a 10+ minute blowout version of "(I found me a) Real man", "Shadow in your footsteps", not to mention the first ever live performance of "Superman" - or an aching rendition of "It's a man's, man's, man's world". Even more a treat - none other than Lenis Guess, who'd written and recorded some of Barbara's records was singing and dancing to every note in the front row.

Thanks very much to everyone who came to share this night with us - especially to those who traveled in from Florida, Boston, and all over Virginia. Thank you also to our friend and Viriginia soul collector extraordinaire Troy Hurt for spinning so many great records! It's been a great 2 years - I'm glad we were able to celebrate together.

Our friend Jacob Blickenstaff was out with his camera - thank you again, Jacob, for sharing such fantastic photos:

---

Thank you to everyone who joined us for a stellar night of pounding Texas soul with Bobby Patterson backed by the Solid Set - especially those of you who traveled all the way in from Houston, San Antonio, the UK, and Germany!

The whole night was an exercise in time travel - from the opening, an old video that Bobby shared with us from a 1968 TV studio, with him and the Mustangs doing "Broadway ain't funky no more", which segued straight into the Solid Set setting fire to the exact same song, and Bobby wailing like not a day had gone by, let alone 42 years.

We got to hear a broad cross section of Bobby's hits, from pounding grind of "My thing is your thing" (which he hadn't done live in over a decade!), to the aching ballad "Long ago", to the ever popular dancefloor classic "TCB or TYA" - and we even got to hear the original meaning of "TYA"...listen carefully to the live recording in the player above!

Opening the night were soul harmony quartet Select Blendz who managed to get the entire Southpaw crowd dancing (!!) to their a capella renditions of gospel classics and occasional doo wop standards. Say hello to them next time you run into them on the subway - that's where we first met them!

Our friend Jacob Blickenstaff was out with his camera, and took some fantastic images of the night:

---

Kings Go Forth absolutely ..owned.. Brooklyn at the April 24 edition of Dig Deeper, playing every single track off their debut CD on Luaka Bop across two massive sets - everything from the now classic "One day" to the majestic melancholy of "Paradise lost" to the soulful reggae tinges of "1000 songs".

Plus we were treated to some amazing, truly left field covers like the Thrills' "Underneath my makeup", the Five Stairsteps' "Stay close to me", and the Vanguards' stunning "The thought of losing your love" reworked into the heart-stoppingly apocalyptic soul garage version that the original always dreamed it might grow up to become. Milwaukee truly represented.

Has it really been almost two years since their stunning first 45 "One day" came out? How fast it's all happened. We're so proud of our friend Andy and all of our (many) new friends in the band, and all they have accomplished - and so honored to have done our small part to help make this debut tour possible. Safe travels back to Milwaukee - and rest up. The world needs you.

For those of you who couldn't make it to Brooklyn, we've posted 5 of our favorite songs from Saturday's set at the top of the page. And once again, our friend Jacob Blickenstaff was out with his camera, and very kindly shared images from the show - hope you will enjoy:



Also, a few videos from the night, "One day" and "You're the one" - thanks very much fernandezarchive!

---

All the rumors were true. Every gushing email we got from friends in the UK and Europe who were lucky enough to catch one of the Precisions two now-legendary appearances at Prestatyn in the last couple years describing the group's appearance as "the best soul performance I have ever seen" was right on the mark.

On March 27 (Renaldo Domino's birthday!), some 44 years after he last appeared on stage in NYC at the Apollo Theatre, the Precisions' lead vocalist Billy Prince returned to town and blew the minds of the crowd who'd traveled as far as France for the opportunity to see him again - this time backed by the Sweet Divines and friends and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band, who attacked the gut-wrenching, massive Motor City soul arrangements with their usual gusto and - er - precision, which was all the more fitting for this show.

Whether it was the anthemic "If this is love (I'd rather be lonely)", which brought cheers from the very first note, to the classic "Such misery" (which had served as Billy's audition song to get into the group), to the somewhat lesser known (why?!!) "Don't double with yesterday" (recorded at the Hit Factory when they were touring NYC), Billy had the crowd in the palm of his hand. As always we have uploaded a few highlights to the myspace player above.

The special Divine Soul Revue was a treat indeed - there are some seriously fine soul vocalists in this town - Ashley Vitha and Jennie Wasserman of the Sweet Divines, Alba Ponce de Leon of the Suspicions, Meah Pace of the Mellomatics, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Cici James, and Inyang Bassey (recently of Moby's touring group) all nailed past Dig Deeper favorites and beyond.

Thanks very much to Alejandra for posting this great video of "Such Misery"!



And "If this is love (I'd rather be lonely)" courtesy of our friend Zak!



Our friend Jacob Blickenstaff was out with his camera, and very kindly shared a set of his awesome work!

---

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our belated Dig Deeper Mardi Gras with the always stellar Tami Lynn! The first artist we've had back for an encore performance, and who could be better? Another Dig Deeper first - Tami treated us to the very first live performance of the incredible "Where can I go?", her very first record, recorded with Harold Battiste and the AFO Executives, released in the early 1960s in New Orleans...but you had to wait until Brooklyn 40 years later to hear it performed live!

As always, the Sweet Divines and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band were electric in their opening set (including a surprise Darrow Fletcher cover!), and sounded like they'd always been Tami's permanent backing band...who knew that they'd only done the one soundcheck with her since the show in July of 2008? Together, they shared a set from across her career including "The boy next door", her incomparable funky take on "Mojo Hanna", "Money" from her AFO LP, and of course her huge UK hit "I'm gonna run away from you", among many others. We've put her full setlist in our blog.

Thank you, Tami, for an incredible night! Hopefully we won't have to wait quite so long until our next dose of voodoo! We have uploaded 5 recordings from the show which you can find in the player above - and our friend Luke Ratray generously shared some photos he took that night...hope you will enjoy!:

---

First off - thank you to everyone who has put up with our constant pestering over the last two years. "Do you know how to get a hold of Darrow Fletcher?" has been one of our favorite questions when we've met people for the first time for the last while. Yes, we are stellar conversationalists.

And thank you to everyone who joined us for our first show of our 2010 season on January 23, when we hosted Darrow Fletcher's first NYC show in over 40 years. It was such a treat to get to hear his classics like "The pain gets a little deeper, "My young misery", and "What good am I without you", and one of our favorites, the lesser-known "The way of a man". Please, Darrow, don't keep us waiting so long for your next show!

Once again, the Sweet Divines and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band delivered a powerful opening set, and absolutely blazed when backing Darrow. They put so much hard work into each and every one of these shows, but make it look effortless. Without them, that show never could have happened.

Thanks also to our guest DJs and friends Ian Wright and Mick H who flew all the way over from the UK to help us keep the dancefloor going until 4am. Look forward to seeing you at the shows we have planned for the rest of the year!

Our friend Jacob Blickenstaff just sent us these great photos from the Darrow Fletcher show - hope you will enjoy!

---

We've never seen anything like it. On October 30, the Green Berets took Brooklyn's hearts, backed by the mighty Divine Soul Rhythm Band, blowing us all away with an electrifying show that we will all - audience and Berets alike - remember for the rest of our lives. From the opening notes of Life of tears, their very first record released as Walter and the Admeration's to their unreleased You and me, performed a capella, the incomparable Man oh man (what have I done), through to the closing notes of an encore version of Happy, released as the Velvet Hammer, the Berets harmonized and danced their way into Dig Deeper history. Person after person came up to us after the show telling us it was one of the best shows they have ever seen.

Don't take our word for it, though - we've uploaded a total of six songs from the show to the myspace player above. Our friend Jacob Blickenstaff was out with his camera, and captured some great moments from the show:



Our friend Zak took video - we hope you will enjoy this as much as we did, "Life of tears":


And one from our friend Luke Ratray, "Just an ugly rumor":


And one more from our friend Luke, the end of "Man oh man", with Brad busting a move:

---

At our September 26 Dig Deeper, Marva Whitney really tore it up with the Sweet Divines and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band, doing absolutely mind bending versions of her classics like "Unwind yourself", "It's my thing", and "What do I have to do to prove my love for you" - and we got to see her soulful side on a beautiful version of "Your love was good for me". Hopefully her "I sing soul" LP will finally get to see the light of day soon... It's just crazy that it had been 40 years since she'd played a full show in NYC. One part of the new venue that is particularly great is getting to hear each others' DJ sets since we don't have to work the door out of speaker range any longer, and guest DJ Pari spun a great one.

We've put up 4 recordings from the show up in the player above - hope you will enjoy! Our friend Jacob Blickenstaff once again shared some amazing photos from the show:



Please, Marva, don't keep us waiting until 2049 for the next show!

---

Two sold out nights, with over 1000 people through the doors across the weekend - and Baby Washington, Lenis Guess, and Dean Parrish in the audience. Words cannot even come close to describing what went down on August 28 & 29, 2009, what we can now officially say was the ..First Annual.. Brooklyn Soul Festival, featuring on night one Hermon Hitson, Roscoe Robinson, and Barbara Lynn - all backed by Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves, and on night two the Sweet Divines, Maxine Brown, and Otis Clay, all backed by the Divine Soul Rhythm Band.

Rather than have us describe it for you - hear for yourself...there is one live recording of each artist in the Myspace player above. As always, these recordings are for archival purposes only, and we cannot distribute them or allow them to be downloaded without the artists' consent.

Our friend Jacob Blickenstaff photographed the event - a couple other photos will follow from a few of our other friends who also photographed the event:





Our friend Luke Ratray, captured a nice video of the tail end of the finale of night two, with Hermon, Roscoe, Eli, and Otis singing "Bring it on home to me", backed by the Sweet Divines and the Divine Soul Rhythm Band.

---

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!

Thanks very much to our friend Jacob Blickenstaff for these great photos from the 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:

---

To help speed up our site, we've taken the first year's slideshows off the front page. Don't worry - the photos are still there in the myspace photo album, just not on this front page...

Member Since:

May 25, 2008

Members:

Record Label:

Unsigned