Lower Case Blues and Friends: Scott Tournet LIVE at The Listening Booth!

• Friday, June 6 @ 7:00 pm
• The Listening Booth, Lewes, DE

Hailing from the Mid-Atlantic, Lower Case Blues is a Blues/Jam trio that has been on the scene since 2003. The band plays a mix of traditional Blues with a modern funky style, full of improvisation and organic instrumentation. Founding members B.J. Muntz (Bass, vocals) and Jake Banaszak (guitar) met in high school and found a mutual respect for the blues as well as music of the 60s and 70s. After forming the band, they found themselves sharing the stage with their inspirations such as Buddy Guy, Blues Traveler, Robert Randolph and many more. Having released several albums and playing shows relentlessly over the years, LCB has earned the reputation of being one of the hardest working bands around.

------------------

Scott Tournet is known for being the frontman for Elektric Voodoo, a founding member of Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (2003-2014), Blues & Lasers, a solo artist, and producer. Like the Black Keys, Jack White, and Gary Clark Jr., Tournet manages to update the blues rock genre by incorporating deep bass, hip-hop influenced grooves, and modern production. His music immediately sounds familiar while also feeling new and exciting. “I’m always trying to find the cross section of new and old,” says Tournet. “My passion for vinyl records from the 50s through the 70s is never-ending, but I’m not interested in recreating anything. I’m always looking to make something new and exciting that feels fresh. In the process of doing that, the music that is in my DNA invariably sneaks through and provides a feeling of comfort and familiarity.”

direct their own curriculum. At the time Goddard had a recording studio, a jazz program, private lessons, and classes focusing on songwriting and current music. After struggling through much of his scholastic career, Scott found his inner student within this new approach to learning. “I discovered that I love learning and pushing myself. I had been pushing myself and learning by playing 8 hours a day but not everyone saw it that way. At Goddard I dove in headfirst. I was taking Jazz courses, private lessons in guitar, drums and songwriting, working in the recording studio…after my courses were done I would stay in the music building until 1 in the morning practicing with bands or by myself. I was consistently playing in 3 or 4 bands. I started making big strides musically.”

 Soon after graduating from Goddard with a focus in composition and performance, Scott moved to upstate New York in the vicinity of St. Lawrence University. He started playing bass in a hip hop band and met Matt Burr who introduced him to Grace Potter. Together, the 3 of them formed Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. Grace was performing solo sets at little coffee shops and Burr and Tournet started accompanying her by playing quietly. Soon, Scott and Matt started turning Grace onto music that they were inspired by like The Band, Little Feat, Led Zeppelin, soul music, funk, blues, and roots music. They got her to trade in her modern keyboard for a Hammond B-3 organ and started to push the music into what became the GPN sound.

For the next decade Grace, Matt, and Scott rode the wave of success. They started selling out shows regionally and soon signed with a booking agency and record label. They soon found themselves touring nationally and internationally with acts like Robert Plant, Mavis Staples, The Black Crowes, The Allman Brothers, Gov’t Mule, and many others. They played Leno, Letterman, Fallon, Conan, Ellen, Good Morning America, etc. Their songs showed up on TV shows, movies, and commercials. They started their own festival, Grand Point North that hosted acts like The Flaming Lips, The War On Drugs, Lake St. Dive, Warren Haynes, etc. They made records with T-Bone Burnett, Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Johnny Cash), Dan Auerbach, Mark Batson, Michael Brauer, Rich Costa, etc. They performed for and met President Obama, Bernie Sanders, and two governors of Vermont.

For Scott, the career success had been satisfying but after a decade he began longing for new challenges. “We unfortunately agreed to open for Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw in football stadiums for a summer. It was a terrible fit and we only got to play for 30 minutes a show. Between stuff like that and only making an album every 3 years, I started to get creatively out of shape. We were always on the road and so many days were spent in airplanes or on the set of a TV show where we would wait around all day and then play music for 5 minutes. Also, our “appearance” began to become more important than the music. One day I woke up and realized that I was very far away from who I was when I was at Goddard. I wanted to get back to music and what made me love it so much”.

Soon after this, Scott made the difficult decision to leave the band he helped build and abandon financial security and career certainty for the hope of rediscovering the joy of music and creativity. He took a few much needed months off from the road in his sunny home studio in San Diego and started delving into the music he left behind when he left Goddard. Afrobeat, experimental and psychedelic music, latin music, jazz, and more started showing up in his compositions. Soon he had uncovered songs like he had never heard before. He called it World Beat Rock & Roll. Elektric Voodoo was formed shortly thereafter and continues to this day.

Throughout this journey, Scott had periodically put out solo albums (Next To Canada ’03, Everyone You Meet Is Fighting A Hard Battle ’07, and Ver La Luz ’12) and produced albums for other artists and bands as well.

Country / Folk / Bluegrass Rock / Pop Music Southern Delaware

Plan Your Visit

More Events You Might Like

Stay Connected