J. Roddy Walston & The Business, “Lucille (Live)”

by | Oct 1, 2013

This is amazing. Earlier this summer, J. Roddy Walston and The Business were playing a wild gig at New York City’s Mercury Lounge, and decided to take a crack at Little Richard’s classic 1957 single, “Lucille.” The result will knock your socks off.

This is amazing. Earlier this summer, J. Roddy Walston and The Business were playing a wild gig at New York City’s Mercury Lounge, and decided to take a crack at Little Richard’s classic 1957 single, “Lucille.” The result will knock your socks off. Speaking to Spin, Walston explained his rationale for the cover: “Little Richard’s original recording of Lucille is just one of the greatest rock’n’roll vocal takes of all time. So of course, like a fool, I said we should up the tempo, stretch out the riffs, and cover this song.” If J. Roddy feels like a fool, it certainly shouldn’t be due to his performance on this track, as he pounds his piano, flings his hair around, and screams with all the fury of prime Richard Penniman (though he never tells anyone to shut up… what a shame). He told Spin that he hoped to mix Little Richard with a bit of inspiration from Kurt Cobain as well: “We wanted the energy to be somewhere between real deal rock’n’roll and a full on Nirvana-esque freak out. It worked and I think it helped us see where we wanted Essential Tremors to land.”

Essential Tremors has indeed landed–we’ve been enjoying Roddy and the boys’ powerful first single, “Heavy Bells,” as well as the rest of the album, around the office. You should grab yourself a copy if you haven’t already–it’s available on iTunes (click here), or you can grab the vinyl or CD from the band’s website by clicking here. The Business are on tour now, bringing their wild n’ crazy rock n’ roll show to the rest of the United States, but they’ll be back in RVA just in time for Halloween at the end of the month. They’ll take the stage at Strange Matter on Halloween night, joined by fellow local favorites The Trillions and Sports Bar, and this event should be marked as a must-attend on the calendars of every music fan in Richmond. Tickets are $12, and they’re available online right now at jroddy.eventbrite.com. Make sure you grab yours now–we’re expecting this show to be packed!

By Andrew Necci

Marilyn Drew Necci

Marilyn Drew Necci

Former GayRVA editor-in-chief, RVA Magazine editor for print and web. Anxiety expert, proud trans woman, happily married.




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