PLAN B AND FRIENDS BRING MR. JACK’S BIRTHDAY HOME
aaamusic | On 19, Oct 2011
A select crowd of 300 lucky competition winners and invited guests celebrated Jack Daniel’s birthday tonight as Plan B, ably assisted by guitar legend Steve Cropper, Theresa and Emily of Warpaint and K.Flay delivered an outstanding night of live music to celebrate the close of this year’s celebrations. In the stunning surroundings of Barbeque Hill overlooking the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, TN, and with The New Silver Cornet Band, featuring Steve Cropper, David Hood and John Tiven providing superb backing alongside dancers from the Nashville Titans adding a ‘Ready, Steady, Go’ flavour to proceedings, the artists delivered a set that mixed new versions of their own songs with unique takes on some classic moments from pop history and the Steve Cropper songbook.
First up was Chicago’s hotly tipped K.Flay, ably demonstrating why she is one of the fastest rising names in hip hop. Blasting through her own ‘Stop Focus’ and ‘Doctor Don’t Know’ with able accompaniment from David Hood on bass and Craig Kampf on drums, K.Flay then delivered stunning versions of Glenn Miller’s ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’ and The Zombies ‘Time Of The Season’.
Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal of Warpaint followed with re-imagined versions of ‘Undertow, ‘Burgandy’ and ‘Elephants’ from their critically acclaimed debut album, ‘The Fool’. Joined by guitar legend Steve Cropper, their choices of Aretha’s ‘Do Right Woman, Do Right Man’ featuring Theresa on lead vocals, ‘Dedicated’ with Emily on lead vocals and Dolly’s ‘Jolene’ proved early show stoppers, bringing a heap of soul and a good dose of country to the Birthday celebrations that chimed perfectly with the surroundings and the atmosphere. Both had said earlier in the day that playing Steve’s music with the man himself was a highlight of their year and the grins coming from the duo made sure the crowd got that message.
Headliner Plan B was born to play with the New Silver Cornet Band. Having already acknowledged that much of the inspiration for his hugely successful album, ‘The Defamation Of Strickland Banks’ was born round these parts, he and the band powered through priceless takes on ‘Recluse’, ‘Welcome To Hell’, Prayin’’ and ‘Writing’s On The Wall’.
With the New Silver Cornet Band and rejoined by Steve Cropper, Plan B’s soul supergroup then delivered Cropper masterpieces ‘Knock On Wood’ and ‘Soul Man’ to an enraptured crowd; Theresa and Emily getting back in on the act adding backing vocals to the latter. With Plan B clearing the stage to give Steve his moment in the limelight, a show stopping combination of ‘In The Midnight Hour’ and ‘Dock Of The Bay’ preceded a final track in the shape of ‘Big Bird’ from the Plan B / Steve Cropper combo. As with all of Mr. Jack’s Birthday events, it was a once in a lifetime combination of artists and songs creating a perfect night of old and new classics and drew a rapturous response from the crowd, marking the perfect end to 2011’s celebrations for the birthday of Mr. Jack Daniel.
