We've got that itinerant blues, country, jazz, soul, rock thing in our blood so there's no real nomenclature for what we do. But there is an audience, and, most of all, there are our elders. Talkin' 'bout guys like, Van Morrison, J.J. Cale, Mose Allison, Keith Richards, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, John Coltrane, Julie Driscoll, Sarah Vaughn, Patsy Cline, Lowell George, Warren Zevon, Laura Nyro, Aretha Franklin, Keb' Mo', Blue Note ( the record company), Blue Note (the venue), Jeff Beck, Small Faces, Johnny Cash, Billy Gibbons, Taj Mahal, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Harry Nilsson, Blind Boys of Alabama, Jon Anderson, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Karen Carpenter - whose respect we still seek.
Sounds Like
Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Download a couple and prove us right!
It is extremely humiliating for us that you cannot see us. I say humiliating, because as performers we’ve been duped out of the single presumption which makes our life bearable; the knowledge that someone's watching. We are therefore - because of the single amphigory of this page - tied down to a language which seems to only make up in obscurity what it lacks in style. But, we’ll do our best - no flattery needed, we are merely competent. You know what to expect, and we know that's all you're prepared to believe in - we have chosen not to disappoint.
Miss Diana and I met at a music store in Memphis and married three weeks later. An image momentarily frozen in time pictures Me beaming, a judge staring wide-eyed into space and Miss Diana looking at Me with a little bit of concern. That was a few years ago (two spent in Europe), about 300 original songs, at least 1000 club dates and somewhere around 3062 mornings of Miss Diana sitting across a breakfast table watching Me eat corn flakes, smoke a hand-rolled cigarette and smile at her pretty face - there’s usually a bead of milk dripping down My chin.
Miss Diana and I live in a refurbished ice creame factory and (with great restraint) work at songwriting - which is, as I understand the phrase, a Nashville euphemism for having nothing else to do - although neither of us are afraid to be lazy. The way we see it, songwriting is simply a device really, one that makes the action which follows more or less comprehensible. Although, according to one's particular taste, tribal upbringing, sectarian failings and or accomplishments we're all in the same boat as far as interpretation of a songs goes. Some good. Some bad. But this is what we do best. We exploit what talent's given us by the Lord. Therefore, our interpretive talent is what you'll hear in our songs - minus the visual aid of our personages, and our idiosyncratic attire of course. Enjoy.
Much love, etc., etc.,
Dr. Jay
P.S. Our new CD, ‘Six Rhetoricals and Four Metaphors’ is a wholly remarkable recording, perhaps the most remarkable, certainly looking to be the most charmingly successful we’ve ever done. Remarkable for two important reasons: first, it’s slightly cheaper then most other popular recordings, and second, if played backwards “please don’t panic” is repeated ad infinitum in an enthusiastically friendly orate during each songs.
Miss Diana's vocals have been compared to a sober Janis Joplin mixed with an uninhibited Patsy Cline. Although H.P. Daniels (the renowned music journalist in Berlin, Germany) says "she sounds more like the great Maggie Bell of long gone Scottish band Stone The Crows." He's probably right. Dr. Jay is what you'd get if Hunter S. Thompson and Jimmy Page had a child. An Austin American Statesman music writer pigeonholed their music, “American Roots. American as apple pie at its fruits. Blues, Country and Rock at its Roots . . . a show you must experience.”
TV & Radio Commercial writers:
McDonald's, Tennessee & Alabama Tourism, Wal-Mart, La-Z-Boy, Dell Computers, Austin Convention Center, Southwest Airlines, Texas Commerce Bank, Union Planters Bank (aka Regions Bank), etc, etc, etc . . .
CDs for Sho ‘Nuff Records:
SOME PRETTY DARN GOOD SONGS
ELEVEN PLAYS FOR THE RADIO
WHEN IN DOUBT PLAY TEN PAN SOUTH (live recording from tin pan south)
SIX RHETORICALS AND FOUR METAPHORS - just released!
Greetings From The Red Planet, WE are thinking of abducting you! But if we take you to our secret base of operations then you’ll have to hitchhike back from Mars. All we ask is that you brew us some coffee (NO Starbucks will do), Let your hair down and have some fun. All right, WE’LL take you back to Earth after your visit so that you can play another gig or hang out in the basement. And Newman’s coffee’s OK as long as you are buying. RfM
If Ray Fish fills your tanks, boy you are close to home heheheh! hahha I actually live in Germany , but Bolivar is my second home...hence DIXIGAS hahah! Nice to meet you!!
Really enjoyed meeting you, great show at N'ville's Millinium Maxwell House Thurs eve. Smokin' tunesmithing, soulful rivetting delivery. I'd urge anyone and all to catch ya'll live.
We so enjoyed your music! Your creative stlye is so original. Miss Diana's Amazing voice and Dr. Jay you are so multi talented You are both so real and most with your talent lose that!
Looking forward to getting to know
and to always arrange my trips where I can get in and hear what you have created!
Please know your friend ship here has always been wonderful to meet you in person an added blessing...
Absolutely bitchin' photo session...amazing shots...I know what you were going for and you nailed it...that sense of space, the grittiness, the artistic abandon and looseness, applause to you all!!!
Hey kids!!! Lookin' good and sounding even better! Thanks for keeping me up to date ... it looks like you two have taken Nashville by storm! Miss Diana, I love the red mustache! Much love, Bill