Our local area is blessed with a music scene that is definitely disproportionate in terms of the amount of talent for the size of our community. It’s not often that a place like Manatee County will have a full slate of professional musicians who produce and perform quality original music. Picking the act for the top spot isn’t an easy task by any means, and this one was so close it literally hurt to make the call.
That said, Kettle of Fish has earned the favorite band status of so many true music fans for good reason. "The hardest working band on the Suncoast" performs a grueling schedule of live performances throughout the year, often playing multiple shows on the same day, outdoors in the Florida heat. Founder and lead vocalist Dana Lawrence has cultivated what may best be described as a musician collective that has featured a rotating cast of the very best musicians in the area over the past decade.
Started as a trio on Siesta Key in 2006, Lawrence has been the band’s only constant, but he’s consistently cultivated revolving line-ups with strong chemistry that never cease to undermine the band’s core sound, which he describes as "festiblues." At the center of KOF’s success is Lawrence's sweet and soulful voice, augmented by his unrivaled ability to recall song lyrics and guitar chords. Best he can figure, there’s somewhere around 3,000 songs in his catalog, and if you’ve been to many of their shows, you wouldn’t doubt that otherwise unbelievable stat for even a moment.
Kettle of Fish, whose style calls to mind Southern jam-band Widespread Panic, plays a remarkably diverse array of music from old-school blues to folk and grunge, but its sweet spot is in Ô70s roots rock with songs by groups like The Band, The Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers and Bob Dylan front and center in their set lists. You’re more likely to hear a deep cut than a radio classic, and they also bring their own spin to less likely covers like Prince’s I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man and their much-beloved Franklin’s Tower/Jessica medley, with Lawrence having personally arranged this amazing mash-up of the Grateful Dead/Allman Brothers Band classics.
That’s all before you get into Lawrence’s songwriting prowess and KOF’s so-good-you-wonder-how-they're-not-a-household-name original music. Songs like Anywhere With You, Kissing a Fool, Crooked Halo, Making it Up as I Go and Quite Like You are as good or better as anything you’ll hear on a Top-40 radio station.
The current incarnation of the band includes former Venturas front-man and Freddy King Band guitarist Greg Poulos, who lends his voice on an unforgettable cover of Hey Joe, bassist Chris Guertin, who does the same on covers of Rock This Town, Never Been to Spain and an utterly raucous take on Mike Farris’ Take Me (I'll Take You There) that is always a crowd pleaser. Seasoned drummer Rick Andre has toured with the Platters, Ben E King and Chuck Berry, while new keyboard addition Robin Swenson has made permanent the funky flavor that guest keyboardists would often bring, as well as the ability for the band to do songs by bands like Traffic and Blind Faith that had always been fan favorites when Roger Waters keyboardist Andy Wallace was sitting in. If you catch them when young guitar prodigy Kevin Miller is back home while on break from the New School in NYC, it’s an even bigger treat.
Kettle of Fish’s hyper-loaded schedule makes them easy to see live, and this summer Lawrence has undertaken an immensely-ambitious project, paying tribute to the 44th anniversary of the legendary Watkins Glen Summer Jam concert with two very special shows (July 15 at Skipper’s Smokehouse and July 29 at Kelly’s Live at Sarasota Sky Bar). KOF will perform music by The Band, while Berry Duane Oakley’s Jive Ass Review plays music by the Allman Brothers, and Ship of Fools plays the Grateful Dead. This figures to be one of the most memorable local music events in a long, long time. Click here for more information.
Honorable Mention:
Twinkle & Rock Soul Radio: There isn’t much space at all between KOF and Twinkle and RSR, two top-shelf bands who give you your money’s worth and so much more in every performance. Twinkle and the boys bring the same sort of deep repertoire that favors Ô70s and Ô80s rock Ôn’ roll with an equally-impressive catalog of beautiful originals. Add in our First Lady of Rock Ôn’ Roll’s amazing stage presence, the heavy guitar and bass underpinnings provided by Lenny Brooks and Tony LeClerc, along with the dynamic drumming of Benny Puckett, and you’ve got one hell of a rock show.
Ari & the Alibis: In almost any other town, this eclectic band with a sound that’s been called, "Jazz-Funk-Blues-Fusion" would be in the top spot with nobody near them for miles. Booker VPA grad Ari McManus is a virtuoso vocalist and stellar songwriter, while her husband and lead guitarist Nicolas Kraster bends the genres of rock and flamenco into a beautifully-understated accompaniment and jaw dropping solos. Drummer Johnny "Tip-Money" Walker gives the band its trademark funk appeal, while Omar Rodriguez puts down the funky bass line and trombonist James Dabone, another Booker VPA product, adds the secret sauce that makes the band so unique. Over the past year, Ari & the Alibis have made a splash in music cities like Austin, New Orleans and Los Angeles, so look for them to break out very soon.
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