Shady Deal

Artist Information

Biography

Tastes in music come from all over this country, and the world. Many musicians have migrated to parts of the country to absorb influences that they have encountered. So is the story with Shady Deal. Four boys from the boot heel migrated to Mississippi. Although other factors such as education and a music scene that embraced blues, southern rock, funk, as well as others influenced their decision. Before the boys got down to Oxford, MS. They had never heard of R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Beanland, and their off springs. The next generation has kept the sound alive.

Shady Deal was formed and began playing bars in 2002. Shady Deal was a quartet at their inception, but they were introduced to a keyboardist named James Pendley shortly after their arrival in Oxford and soon they had become a quintet force with which to be reckoned. The boys then played enough up and down I-55, so they bought a van to live and travel in. A few days after, Jesse Hammock met Jim Dickinson at the Zebra Ranch, being introduced by Shady Deal’s Uncle Bob Camp. After refining their sound for a year or so, the guys entered the studio with legendary producer Jim (who had worked with the likes of the Stones, Big Star, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, and his bad sons the North Mississippi AllStars). Dickinson to record their first album, THE LIFT. Following its release, Shady Deal embarked on a nationwide tour to support the album, but always coming home to the south. Free beer and hauling around speakers were in the past and the band developed their own sound apparent in their sophomore album THE RINGER, also produced by Dickinson, at the same time embracing their influences since they was in high school.

In January of 2007, Shady Deal parted ways with James in order to allow him the time he needed to take over the family business. In a strange way, the departure of James ignited a spark within the original members that has given them renewed vigor and ass-kicking attitude. Will Shady Deal take on a 5th member? Maybe. For now, they are still experimenting with life as a four-piece and will not be actively seeking a replacement for James. In any case, Shady Deal will capitalize on this opportunity and will be a better band because of it.

Since their humble beginnings in the flatlands of southeast Missouri, Shady Deal has blossomed into one of the hardest working and hardest rocking bands in the circuit. The fellas have shared the stage with the Black Crowes, North Mississippi AllStars, Shooter Jennings, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Stockholm Syndrome, and backing Duwayne Burnside are a few of their musical accomplishments. On paper their career has seen 442 shows logged, 160 venues, 17 States, 11 Festivals, and 2 Albums Produced by Jim Dickinson. The release of their sophomore effort and the completion in Shady Deal’s pursuance of education will bring around a full touring schedule promoting their new record. Shady Deal’s heavy southern rock sound has folks going away smiling while others are scared. You decide.

Instrumentation

Jesse Hammock (Lead Vocalist/Rhythm Guitar)
Austin Marshall (Drums, Vocals)
Jake Curtis (Lead Guitar)
Mason Watkins (Bass)

Discography

"The Lift" - 2004 Produced by Jim Dickinson
"The Ringer"- 2007 Produced by Jim Dickinson

Radio Airplay for “The Ringer” – Shady Deal

Satellite Radio:
Siruis Jam_ON 17 Tickled Lush – Heavy Rotation
Internet Radio:
Pick of the week – 2/6/07 - www.radioioJAM.com - “The Ringer”
Cincinnati, OH – Live 365 Radio – www.365live.com - Faulkner

FM Radio:
St. Louis, MO - KDHX 88.1 FM – Cleo Wright
Augusta, ME - WMHB/Colby College 89.7 FM – Ragweed Summer
Morristown, NJ – WNTI 91.9 FM – Intro>End Like This & Admission
Auburn, AL - WQNR ‘The Rock’ 99.9 FM – Faulkner – Heavy Rotation
Chattanooga, TN 88.1 FM WUTC/ University of Tennessee – Intro > End Like This
Portland, OR - KBOO 90.7 FM – Intro > End Like This, Hurricane & Tickled Lush
Traverse City, MI - WOAS 88.5 FM – My Son

Links

• ShadY DeaL's MySpace page

Audio

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• THE ROCKIN' CHAIR: MY SOUTHERN TOWN [+ Show ]
  

  By Tom Speed Sandwiched between Clarksdale – the home of Delta Blues — and the sprawling rolling...By Tom Speed
  
  Sandwiched between Clarksdale – the home of Delta Blues — and the sprawling rolling hills to the east that bore the Hill Country Blues of Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and Mississippi Fred McDowell, you'll find the small town of Oxford, Mississippi. It's a cool town, my home.
  
  
  But it's weird - and not in the ways you might think. Oxford is home to the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss, with all of the Old South Plantation imagery that comes along with it. Frat boys and debutantes put on their Sunday best to sweat out hot afternoons in the Grove, sipping (no, slugging) whiskey under chandeliered tents before home football games.
  The specter of the racial ugliness of decades before, events that happened before my lifetime, still linger despite the enormous progress that's been made. Occasionally, you'll still see flourishes of ignorance. Until recently, the confederate flag was a mainstay at Ole Miss sporting events, a source of misplaced pride and unintended ignorance more than overt hatred or racism, not that it matters much.
  But her underbelly is inhabited by a rich and diverse culture of artists, writers and musicians. This Oxford is in many ways the opposite, in many ways the same. It's a small enclave of blue stated-ness in possibly the most red of states (in more ways than one). Yet these elements are part of the same soul and often contain the same people.
  Yep, when it comes to The Duality of the Southern Thing, Oxford has it in droves.
  
  
  People much smarter than me have extensively studied why such creative endeavors spring from this great state, a state whose true heart is on display in this little town. It's the duality of the southern thing, as another person much smarter than me put it. It's a cauldron of fierce pride and sore shame, but it provides its own character. And character breeds creativity, just as conflict does.
  It's a town of just 12,000 or so residents (I told you it was small) that just about doubles in size when Ole Miss is in session. On football Saturdays, it sometimes swells to 80,000 or so, about the number of people who hit up that field in Manchester last weekend.
  In many ways, Oxford is the cultural center of the state, and before you laugh at me for mentioning Mississippi and culture in the same sentence, hear me out.
  
  
  Oxford is not just the home of William Faulkner and the inspiration for his fictional town of Jefferson and county of Yoknapatawpha, though that's often the first thing that comes to mind. It is home to a long line of literary genius. In a town this size, it seems the twin crowns of literary and music heroes are passed down through the generations, and Oxford has known its share of literary icons, starting with Mr. Faulkner, sure, but continuing with Willie Morris and Barry Hannah, then the late Larry Brown and now Tom Franklin.
  Each of them mines the duality of the southern thing in prose both poignant and violent. And Oxonions do the same through their music, though their approach is cathartic as often as it is introspective.
  Until fairly recently, there simply was no music scene in Oxford. Despite a centuries-long love affair with brown liquor, Mississippi remained one of the last holdouts to the 21st Amendment, which repealed prohibition. Many counties in the state remain dry, barring the sale or possession of alcoholic beverages (a predicament which every few years or so results in the local Baptist Churches and county line liquor stores conspiring to keep the status quo, albeit for altogether different reasons, but that's a story for another time and probably another place).
  Oxford itself was dry (as in no liquor, at all) until the early 1970s. And like it or not, live music thrives on bar sales. Sure the house parties and more specifically, the rural picnics, have been keeping and advancing music forever. But as for live music in this small college town, it just didn't happen. And Oxford didn't become Oxford until it did. Not this Oxford anyway.
  
  
  In terms of music, things didn't start kicking until the '70s, and they didn't really start kicking until The Tangents came around. The fabled unit often referred to as "Mississippi's House Band" played a swarthy mix of R&B, blues and rock 'n' roll — Mississippi music that spawned what has become a thriving music scene.
  The Oxford music scene also played a major role in the simultaneous jam band and alt-country movements of the 1990s.
  Beanland was right in the thick of the southern jam scene in the late 1980s. Like The Tangents, they harnessed the sound of Mississippi, from Memphis to New Orleans, but added a healthy dose of the exploratory influence of the Grateful Dead to the mix. In the late 80s and early 90s, Beanland was not only Oxford's band, they were Mississippi's band. Their self-titled debut, produced by Jim Dickinson, won them legions of fans as their touring radius sprouted beyond the Southeast to Colorado and even to (gasp!) New York City! But in 1992, keyboardist Jojo Hermann left Beanland to join Widespread Panic, and Beanland sputtered out a little more than a year later, releasing one more album (the also brilliant Eye To Eye), with a different lineup just before their demise. A decade after that, guitarist George McConnell joined Panic following the loss of Michael Houser. [For a great look at Beanland and Oxford in the 1980s, I advise that you check out the documentary Rising From The Riverbed, by Oxford filmmaker Scotty Glahn].
  
  
  At about the same time that Beanland was tearing up the South, a band called Blue Mountain (nee The Hilltops, nee The Hi-Tops) was making their mark in Oxford too. Focused on strong songwriting and raunchy rock & roll energy, the husband-and-wife team of Cary Hudson and Laurie Stirrat were a mainstay on the then burgeoning alt-country scene, releasing several seminal albums of the genre, the highlight of which was 1995's Dog Days on the Roadrunner label. Laurie's twin brother John left during the Hilltops days to join a little band called Uncle Tupelo and is now a member of Wilco. Blue Mountain broke up soon after the marriage did, but each carry on making great music - Cary with a string of solo albums and Laurie, most recently, with Healthy White Baby.
  Both of those bands left an acute mark on Oxford's musical soul, the community of which has used the influence of each as a springboard to more diverse and inspiring achievements.
  
  
  On the little-bit-country side of things, there was an explosion. When Beanland called it quits and ended in the 1990s, a band called the Kudzu Kings soon came along. Formed by the nexus of songwriter Tate Moore, members of a New Orleans funk outfit called the Mosquito Brothers and a long-haired, reggae-loving New Jersey transplant bass player, the Kings snatched the baton and ran with it for more than a decade. More than any band, the Kings probably bridged the gap between the country and jam worlds to perfection. George McConnell, though never really a full-time member, was such a frequent guest that he appeared on both of the band's albums and played about as many shows as he didn't. They too sputtered a bit after a good long haul, but spawned several bands in their wake. Chief songwriter Tate Moore just released a stunning solo album, Punk Poet, and plays with his new band, The Cosmic Door, which by no coincidence, contains several Kings alums.
  
  
  Kings keyboardist Robert Chaffe and bassist Dave Woolworth have teamed with one of the most prodigious but unheralded guitarists in town, Tom Queja, to form the fiercely funky Pithecanfunktus Erektus (just call 'em "P-Rex"). Lap steel maestro Max Williams and banjoist Tommy Bryan Ledford play in Taylor Grocery Band whose sound is best described as Electric Catfish Music. And former King guitarists Daniel Karlish and George McConnell have an outfit dubbed Drunk & Disorderly that performs when McConnell isn't busy with his day job.
  Following directly in the footsteps of Blue Mountain is Rocket 88, propelled (like Blue Mountain) by a husband-and-wife team — Rosamond and Jamie Posey. Rosamand's sultry Stevie Nicks-ish voice buoys the duo's sometimes hard-edged songs that speak of wishing wells and river days.
  
  
  In the jam world, young bands like Daybreakdown and Shady Deal carry that mantle proudly. Each of them tours relentlessly, including stops on the festival circuit (catch Shady Deal at High Sierra this year). And each of them put out solid debut albums in the past year. Daybreakdown's Make Me Wiser included a wise-beyond-their-years rock anthem called "The Ante" and the band continues to provide rock-solid shows everywhere they go. They are a well-rounded group, powered by the shredding of guitarist-on-the-rise Patrick McClary (look out for this guy). They are currently working on a follow-up album with Cary Hudson manning the controls.
  
  
  Shady Deal's debut, The Lift, was produced by the legendary Jim Dickinson, who described the band as "Mississippi moonshine with a Missouri mule kick" (again, a person smarter than me). Their take on rock 'n' roll is centered on thunder and guts.
  
  
  But it's not all country rock and jam bands. Remember, this is the home of the Blues. The North Mississippi AllStars' Luther and Cody Dickinson practically grew up on the club stages of Oxford. I remember seeing them, all of 16 years old, tearing the roof off of clubs with their high school band, DDT. In all of their incarnations, they've been a mainstay of the scene, though they live a few miles up the road, between Oxford and Memphis.
  The blues, and more specifically the Hill Country Blues, has always been a major part of this music scene here in Oxford. I've lived here on and off for the better part of 15 years, save a move to New Orleans and quick stints in Colorado and North Carolina. The second time I lived here, Sunday nights at Junior Kimbrough's juke joint were par for the course. I'll never forget the time my friend Sox took me out there for my initiation. You wanna see racial harmony? That was the place, sweating and dancing and drinking until the sun came up. College boys and pulpwood haulers and everybody in between united by the hypnotic groove that makes one forget of any earth-bound problems or concerns.
  
  
  Junior and R.L. are gone now (and so is their record label, Fat Possum, which moved to nearby Water Valley to escape the high real estate prices of this exploding town). But their offspring are keeping the Hill Blues alive. The Burnside Exploration, Duwayne Burnside and David Kimbrough, all are active and kicking ass. Kenny Brown, right-hand man of R.L. Burnside for ages, hasn't changed a bit, thankfully.
  Just a stone's throw from Oxford over in Clarksdale, a renaissance is brewing. Jimbo Mathus' Knockdown South recording studio produced one of the best albums of last year, Knockdown South, and has (count 'em) two coming at you this year. His gal, Olga, is making a name for herself too. And a fella by the name of Lightning Boy Malcolm is preaching blues from the heart, the only way to do it.
  
  
  A young man by the name of Sanders Bohlke, hailing from nearby Sardis, Mississippi, but cutting his teeth here in Oxford, sounds like the bastard child of Van Morrison and Sam Cooke. Tyler Keith and the Preacher's Kids regularly preach the gospel of raucous rock with garage band intensity.
  And one of the unintended, and one of the only welcome, consequences of Hurricane Katrina is that a few New Orleanians have made their home here in our little postage stamp, chiefly among them Shannon McNally and The Captain Midnight Band.
  There's some heavy metal in the Cooters and some soul in Wiley and the Checkmates and a lot more. In fact, I'd wager there's more great, original music per capita than just about anywhere.
  Well, I could go on and on, obviously, but what I'm trying to say is that we've got a great little town here. It's full of heart and soul and the things that keep one living. On a sweltering night in a Marshall County juke joint or a Saturday evening dancing with sorority girls on the square, Oxford not only embraces the duality of the southern thing, it invites it in for a glass of sweet tea and sometimes takes it out to the woodshed for a good ass whuppin'. It's a town where people mean what they write and mean what they play, even if they're bullshittin' you from time to time. It's a town that is mining its soul and searching for truth everyday, and that keeps me real interested.
  
  
  Come down and visit us sometime. We throw a party each year, where we all gather around the square and play music and share stories and art all day. Ask Wilco or Dr. John or Emmylou Harris. They've all joined us for the Double Decker Festival. So have Bobby Rush and Marty Stuart and Jerry Joseph and lots of folks.
  Yep, Oxford is a great town and I love it. Even though some folks here occasionally do things I'm not so proud of (sometimes I'm even not so proud of myself, of course), there's duality here every day - pride and shame. Isn't that what moves us? Makes us better? Makes us want to tell somebody something, anything, about how we feel and convey some of our darker, deeper shames and prides? Isn't that why people write books and songs? Because they have something to say about themselves that speaks to all of us in a universal way? I sure hope so.
  
  
  The roots run deep in Mississippi, a state that can make a fair claim to the home of Southern Gothic Literature (whatever the hell that is, other than what some New York editor slapped on a book jacket one day long ago), Fried Catfish, Country, Blues and even Rock 'n' Roll. My state. And here in Oxford, the g-spot of Mississippi, those roots are deepening and growing in ways even Bill Faulkner never imagined. And I don't have much shame in that at all.
  
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• High Sierra Music Festival Part 2 feat. Apollo Sunshine, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, The New Up, and Shady Deal [+ Show ]
  

  High Sierra has its fair share of innocuous acts, sure, but in recent years the festival has also op...High Sierra has its fair share of innocuous acts, sure, but in recent years the festival has also opened the door to some healthy aggression. Apollo Sunshine wielded a rusty saber of sound as they expanded on the promise of their superb, eponymous 2005 album -- their gorgeously unpredictable mix meshing the Beatles' pop savvy with Mission of Burma's uncompromising ferocity. Grinning, the trio hacked away at themselves, feeding the crowd with chunks of human essence, a kind that inspired strangers to sing along to tunes they'd only just met.
  
  Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey set aside their recent, more classically-minded jazz bent on Saturday afternoon in an effort to answer the dizzy hypothetical "What would a speed-addled Meters sound like doing Zappa covers?" Their set smiled back at 2000-2001 JFJO, a beautifully spastic, jelly bodied entity like no other. One is instantly floored by their stratospheric musicianship. Whether quietly unearthing the heart of Mingus or putting a buzzsaw to convention, Brian Haas (keyboards), Jason Smart (drums), and Reed Mathis (bass) play with an unfiltered passion that unlocks mysteries, rejuvenates circulation, and lays waste to most of the stuff that dares to call itself jazz these days.
  
  
  To hear greatness in its germinal stage is intoxicating. Bookending the festival, San Francisco's The New Up was all prickly erogenous zones and contemporary disquiet. The quintet channels the future-forward zeitgeist of Radiohead, Lake Trout (who they covered), Talking Heads, and TV on the Radio. Singer E.S. Pitcher is a dizzying blur of hips and lips, seductive as memory with the sharp tang of the lash -- a thoroughly modern frontwoman that's actually a woman, and not some whiney little girl.
  
  Superb, tight playing fuels a compellingly varied approach broad enough to rope in tweakers, hippies, and library bound indie kids. Subtle electronics and processed flute scuttle predictability, and while their predominantly compact compositions avoid bloated excess, there are enough guitar tangents to appeal to Pavement and Ween fans. They take the slinky flexibility and slippery genre sense of the jam scene and give it razor sharp teeth.
  
  Singing about how "lonely machinery distracts us from our lives," there's a sense of giddy desperation in their sound that feels downright prophetic. Cute as hell in a scruffy sort of way, the New Up have the makings of a "Next Big Thing." They're a Luaka Bop band waiting to happen, a tastemaker cooked up from a recipe book of their own design -- funky and frightening, intimate and anthemic, switched-on in every lil' way.
  
  
  Good songs rocked with sincerity are always appealing, and two major sources of both this year were Mississippi's Shady Deal and Philadelphia's The Brakes. Sounding like boys who grew up with Widespread Panic playing in their cribs, Shady Deal are rough like steel-cut oats, filling and hard and probably really good for you. Take a spoonful and you'll taste the metal-accented guitars and barley-hard vocals. Take another and you'll pick up a '50s Sun Studio flavor filtered through vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd. The specter of old blues, full of foreboding and dry earth roughness, permeates things. Pretty it ain't, but it sure feels real. Shady Deal has an unabashed affection for what's come before. The tunes are catchy as shit and they look just like a bunch of wild-eyed, rock lovin' southern boys should. I'd see 'em again anytime.
  
  Less hard but more tunefully nuanced, the Brakes reminded us of how good pop music can be. No wheels are being reinvented but, man alive, these boys roll with harmonious ease. To be honest, I expect very little from a band I'd first heard on an H & R Block Tax Cuts TV commercial (they're responsible for the ear-worm "Sometimes You Make Me Feel Special!"). I was going to skip them altogether, but walking past I heard something with the juicy bop of Matthew Sweet, later Replacements, and the Posies. There's a bouncy push to the clean vocals and exceedingly youthful energy. Lines like "Maybe it was you that put a little chill in my wind" linger, and they've got big enough ears to pull out an obscure Traffic classic like "Empty Pages."
  
  People at High Sierra actually sit and listen to the quiet music. What a concept! Musicians can whisper, tentatively bringing their soul out into the light and mountain air, and audiences hush up. It's strikingly different than most festivals and speaks to the abiding love of music that fills this place.
  
  
  My "quiet moment" was a Sunday-morning service from the Tom Freund Trio. Completely unfamiliar with Freund, I heard a more honeyed version of Steve Earle's voice telling me to take my troubles and drop them in the deep blue sea. On stage, they blended acoustic guitar, hand percussion, stand-up bass, and surprisingly melodic harmonies. Addressing a crowd spread out lazily on the grass, Freund said, "I'm gonna play stuff to help me wake up, too. Y'all look pretty worked." By the fourth day of recreational chemistry and near non-stop stimulation, his music was a balm to the spirit.
  
  By the third song, I realized that Freund is a treasure trove to be mined for emotionally satisfying gems, a future staple of mix CDs and lonely, late nights. Only afterwards did I discover Freund is a longtime collaborator of Ben Harper and Victoria Williams, a man that Graham Parker calls "the best singer-songwriter operating today." The songs speak for themselves: quality heaped upon quality, small worlds vibrating with all the good and bad stuff that fills a day. Call it vibrant verisimilitude or, more crudely, mighty real shit. His lyrics are the kind you write down because a part of you realizes you've just heard the truth. A couple favorites were: "I'm not going to show you where I keep my sanctuaries/Because you'll come in with your tractors and put up your shopping malls" and "I'm gonna lay down my weary blues like a barnstorming plane to your bedroom."
  
  Aided by blues marvel David Jacobs-Strain for much of the set, Freund offered up tunes that the wind or rain might write -- natural and graceful, filled with organic fury and non-homogenized love. In reaction to the police shakedowns that occurred throughout the weekend, he delivered a pointed, oh-too-timely cover of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" that snarled far more than any of the recent high ticket priced CSNY reunions. You can place Freund in the stellar company of John David Souther, Michael Martin Murphey, David Wilcox, John Gorka, and Neal Casal -- songwriter's songwriters who help us process the daily grind in ways that leave us guardedly hopeful about what lies ahead.
  
  And that's what this weekend was all about. For any minor quibbles about programming, there's little doubt that High Sierra is the friendliest, most diverse, and downright hospitable music festival in the West -- and, quite likely, in the whole United States. They craft a safe, beautiful, freedom-loving oasis that hums with musical promise. If the fates allow, I'll be back every year.
  
  

• Shady Deal kicks off summer tour in Cape [+ Show ]
  

  It could almost be called an act of fate that led to the formation of the Southern rock jam band S...
  It could almost be called an act of fate that led to the formation of the Southern rock jam band Shady Deal.
  Future lead singer Jesse Hammock drove into a telephone pole on Broadway. That same telephone pole would fall onto a nearby transformer, which would in turn explode and shatter numerous nearby storefront windows, ultimately causing $25,000 worth of damage.
  
  Tonight, Jesse returns to Cape Girardeau fronting his band Shady Deal to kick off their summer tour at Buckner Brewing Co. There will be no drunken driving accidents this time, but that doesn't mean he's not going to rock.
  
  In the interim from then to now, Hammock found himself over his head in debt and trouble.
  
  He picked up an office job, cut his hair and left the party lifestyle. Boredom led him to pick up an old guitar in his parents' house and he started practicing, already a year into college but inspired heavily by the likes of Neil Young and Hammock's grandfather.
  
  Today, he is positive that he never would have gotten into music without that car accident. He soon started playing with future Shady Deal lead guitarist Jake Curtis after a year with acoustic sets on local open mic nights. Eager to infuse some rock into the act, the duo picked up their rhythm section through high school friends, bassist Mason Watkins and drummer Austin Marshall.
  
  Despite the added noise, something was still missing, so Shady Deal got some style from the fiery keyboarding of Louisiana native James Pendley to fill the cracks.
  
  Even after fully rounding out their sound, Shady Deal still encountered trouble in finding gigs, until running into Bob Camp, who was then booking shows at the Main Street Bar under the name "The Camp."
  
  As a venue notorious for lending stage time to the more alternative local acts, The Camp is where Shady Deal honed their early sound.
  
  Camp immediately noticed in Shady Deal, and especially Hammock, a sense of professionalism and showmanship that he had previously spotted in such big time acts as Widespread Panic and Spin Doctors.
  
  Still, any small level of success did not come easily.
  
  "There would be some nights where Bob would give away beer, and we would give away music," Jesse recalls, "and none of us would make any sort of money."
  
  So when members of the band left for college at Oxford, Miss., in 2002, the entire band followed to try out a new scene. They immediately noticed a larger and more diverse presence of music in Mississippi and, inversely, less police officers; so naturally, it was a perfect mix for Shady Deal.
  
  After hitting several key venues in the South and playing out Oxford for a while, Camp got back in touch and introduced them to legendary producer Jim Dickinson, who had previously worked with such acts as Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. From this interaction came Shady Deal's first album, "The Lift," with their second due out in 2007, also produced by Jim Dickinson.
  
  Now, before their biggest summer tour yet stretching all across the country, Shady Deal is excited to start things off in Cape Girardeau.
  
  "I love Missouri," says Hammock. "When people ask where I'm from, I say Southeast Missouri."
  
  Camp agrees that Shady Deal is a bunch of Missouri boys at heart, "who have emerged as the greatest rock 'n' roll band on the circuit.
  
  Greatest or not, they have established themselves as a premiere regional act. Now they hope to take the next step up with a country sweeping tour, featuring a new light show to show their seriousness.
  
  

• Proud Larry's gets a bit Shady tonight [+ Show ]
  

  4-7-05 Oxford-based Southern rock band Shady Deal never fails to thrill audiences with their groo...4-7-05
  
  Oxford-based Southern rock band Shady Deal never fails to thrill audiences with their groovy performances.
  
  Shady Deal begins a three concert series tonight at Proud Larry’s before playing at the Levee Saturday night and Two Stick Wednesday.
  
  Originally formed in Sikeston, Mo., in 1999 as a garage band, Shady Deal is comprised of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Hammock, keyboardist James Pendley, drummer Austin Marshall, lead guitarist Jake Curtis and bassist Mason Watkins.
  
  Shady Deal took off in 2002 traveling as a four-piece band and playing at various venues in St. Louis and Columbia, Mo., as well as the Sikeston and Cape Girardeau areas.
  
  Sophomore chemical engineering major Kane Harrell of Lucedale is a longtime fan of Shady Deal.
  
  “I’m really excited to see these guys go on at Larry’s because it’s not often that you see a band who can play like them and have as much fun as they do with it,” he said.
  
  After landing a few shows on Beale Street in Memphis, Shady Deal teamed up with renowned producer Jim Dickinson, who aided the band in the release of their first album “The Lift” in 2004.
  
  “The Lift” features an interesting blend of rock with a hint of blues influence, characteristic of the classic Southern rock of the 1970s.
  
  The vocals have a more modern sound, unlike those of Creedence Clearwater Revival front man John Fogerty. But it is the music itself which carries the songs of Shady Deal, rather than the vocals.
  
  The vocals on “Percy Jones” are most unique. Vocalist Hammock sounds like an odd combination of Guns N’ Roses front man Axl Rose and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum.
  
  Keyboardist Pendley shines bright on “Future City,” opening with a blues-laced solo, in which is available for download on the band’s Web site.
  
  Pendley’s talent at the keys makes the music truly come alive.
  
  Shady Deal is not lacking in their jam band sound, similar to the great bands which play nightly on Beale Street.
  
  By far, the greatest accomplishment is the head-bobbing “Gonna Shine,” easily they are the best dancing song by the band.
  
  Tonight’s show starts at 10 and cover is $6.
  
  For more information on the band, visit their Web site at http://www.shadydealband.com.
  

• 'Shady Deal' cuts new CD, heads north [+ Show ]
  

  2-20-04 Oxford's (partially) own Shady Deal is packing up and heading north at the moment. By the...2-20-04
  
  Oxford's (partially) own Shady Deal is packing up and heading north at the moment. By the time this paper reaches you, they will be in Sikeston, Mo., preparing for a weekend run in the state where their reputation has built up a more than a substantial fan base. It's definitely a busy time for the five-piece band.
  
  Their first album, "The Lift" hits stores this week. Their constant touring can put them anywhere from Atlanta, to Kansas City, Mo., all in any given week. On top of all this, midterms are coming up.
  
  Keyboardist James Pendley doesn't seem to mind all that much, though. The Shreveport, La.-native seems very excited about where the band is going, and where they have been -- most notably in a Memphis recording studio with music industry legend Jim Dickinson. Dickinson's credentials include working with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Arlo Guthrie, Elvis Presley, and the Rolling Stones. Pendley sounded very pleased with Dickinson's studio contributions to "The Lift."
  
  "He's really good at working with your own personal sound," Pendley said. "He's really a mentor, in that he made us all better musicians than we were before working with him. He's just an incredible person."
  
  Dickinson's influence is noticeably felt on the album. From lead guitarist Jake Curtis's bluesy licks to vocalist Jesse Hammock's raspy voice, "The Lift" takes on a decidedly southern feel.
  
  In the vein of the Allman Brothers, though, the band stays true to their roots on the album. They allow Curtis's leads and Pendley's ramblings to linger long enough to remind the listener that this is a jam band at heart.
  
  Drummer Austin Marshall and bassist Mason Watkins provide a climactic rhythm that gives a distinctive depth to the band's sound.
  
  Key tracks on the album include "Al Green," a hard-hitting rocker with a dirty undertone, the title track, a perpetually wandering instrumental and "Move Up North," a blues tune with some modern twists.
  
  The album, on sale now at Hot Dog Records here in Oxford, is definitely deserving of a chance. As Shady Deal's initial studio effort, it sets high standards for the remainder of the band's career. Their staying power is something that needs not be questioned.
  
  In Dickinson's own words on the album, "This is the real thing. You are listening to the future."?
  
  
  

Setlist

The Shady Deal setlist rotates nightly. Mostly original's with a few great covers in between. These are a few songs you might here during a show.

Originals
•Lonesome Rows
•Lonesome, Arony, & Mean
•Less Ressistance
•My Admission
•Cleo Wright
•My Son
•Ragweed Summer
•Future City
•End Like This
•Prince of Peace
•Overpass
•Road goes on 4-ever
•Al Green
•Mama Said
•Time to Play
•Faulkner
•Anna Lee
•Percy Jones
•The Lift
•Move Up North
•Listen
•Tickled Lush

Covers
•Hurricane – Levon Helm
•Mystery Train – Paul Butterfield
•Never Been to Spain – Hoyt Axton
•Cold Ice Water - ?
•Bayou That Ring – ?
•Atlantic City – The Boss
•Good Hearted Women – Waylon Jennings
•Eminence Front – The Who
•Rooster – Alice n’ Chains
•Up on Cripple Creek – The Band
•Down in Mississippi – R.L. Burnside
•Mr. Charlie – Grateful Dead
•Big Boss Man – Grateful Dead

Basic Requirements

Calendar