Dark Water feat. John Boutte

How to even begin with this one? Let me start off when I first heard about this group. I was sitting at home and watching a show called “Treme” on HBO about post Katrina New Orleans. I tuned in because the creators of that show were the people responsible for the amazing series “The Wire” of which I was a HUGE fan. Again if that show were a woman there would have been a restraining order out on me but I digress. If you haven’t checked out “Treme” yet by the way, you really should but anyway, this one episode starred Elvis Costello playing himself and he was at a recording session. Session ends and the musicians invite Elvis to come check out this “funky group of white boys” known as Galactic. I thought to myself “I wonder if that’s even a real group” and after a little bit of digging I found out they sure were real and like they said in the show they damn sure were funky. I got the chance to see them in concert when they visited The Brooklyn Bowl earlier this year and they blew the roof off the place.

This song, “Dark Water” off of their second release “Ya-Ka-May” is by far my favorite off this album. First time I heard it the bassline reached out and grabbed me by the neck. My brain said “holy SH*T, turn that UP!” and since then I was hooked. The bassline dominates and the drums compliment it to perfection. It’s got a gangsta lean type feel to it, full of swagger and bravado and maybe that’s why I love it so much. Anything this bad ass is hard not to love and admire. The lyrics seem like an after thought but if you listen to them carefully they bring the song together. It would have been fine as an instrumental but the lyrics sung by the award winning John Boutte (whose song "Treme" is the opening theme to the same named HBO show) are profound and the vocals are another instrument the fits in along side the bass, drums, guitar, and cello (yeah I said cello, listen close).

If this is the kind of music they are rocking to down in Nawlens then I need to get my ass down there and QUICK because apparently there’s more down there than crawfish, The Saints, and mardi gras. Check it out and see if I’m wrong. Maybe you'll want to come with :-)