Seasoned session veterans shine with Uncle Duane’s Band at The Nick on Tuesday
Uncle Duane’s Band is a collection of four Los Angeles-based studio musicians that have played with some of the most legendary acts in the history of rock and roll: Bob Weir, Butch Trucks, Warren Haynes, Brooklyn Allman, Duane Betts, Billy Gibbons, Matt Sorum, Slash, Duff McKagan, Warren Zevon, Linda Perry, Christina Aguilera, Donna Summer, Joe Perry, Jerry Harrison, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Keb Mo and Bill Payne, just to name a few.
The quartet is Paul III on bass and vocals, Mark Tremaglia on guitar and vocals, Randy Ray Mitchell on guitar and vocals and Dan Potruch on drums. One day, they decided to form a band of their own, first becoming the Disreputable Few. They started playing around with mixing in and out of Grateful Dead songs to Allman Brothers songs and back, and knew they had something special. That’s when Uncle Duane’s Band was born.
Ahead of their first visit to Birmingham
You’ve played on a lot of big sessions. What was the first and how did it happen?
DP: With Jack Douglas Blues Band; blue by nature.
PIII: Aerosmith Rock In A Hard Place LP. That was also through Jack Douglas.
MT: Doc’s Haus Mob for Mercury Records; through Dick Clark.
RRM: Jackie De Shannon through Jim Ed Norman.
When and how did you guys decide that you wanted to branch out from that and do your own thing?
PIII: When I realized I needed to follow my own muse…2011. I started playing and singing my own tunes on piccolo bass.
RRM: It was a slow evolution…we kept playing with each other on different situations.
Is that the priority now or do you still do a lot of the session work?
Everyone: Both…all of the above…
What was the most recent session you worked on?
DP: Christina Aguilera, with Linda Perry producing.
PIII: Sylvie Vartan; tribute to Johnny Halliday, with Michael Lloyd producing.
MT: Michael Des Barres, with Little Steven van Zant executive producing.
RRM: Temptations, with David Darling producing.
How did you land on the mashup of Dead and ABB songs? Why was that the thing that struck a chord, so to speak, with all of you guys?
MT: We backed up Bob Weir and Butch Trucks, and we all noticed the similarities in their music…
PIII: We started with a noble experiment combining these tunes; immediately we realized the audience reaction was always really favorable.
Uncle Duane’s Band comes to The Nick on Tuesday, June 4. Doors open at 9 p.m. and the show begins at 10 p.m. Tyler Boone and Birmingham’s own Taylor Hollingsworth are also on the bill. Admission is $10 at the door.
