the daddy of us all

col. bruce hampton has been there, done that and got the t-shirt. he’s an avid reader, a film buff, and a musical enigma. from the hampton grease band to the aquarium rescue unit, the fiji mariners and the code talkers, hampton has explored musical stylings that blended one part frank zappa, two parts charlie christian, one part john lee hooker, and two parts captain beefheart, with more than one pinch of allman brothers band tossed in for flavor. he is a writer, a singer, a guitarist, an actor and a film maker. but more than all of that, he is the organizational master, and if derek trucks, jimmy herring, and oteil burbridge are young jedi’s, col. bruce is their yoda. no small wonder he has been referred to as “the daddy of us all.”

check out the remainder of this great interview with the colonel by michael b. smith.

and "now"...the codetalkers

“it's crazy. i got put into the jam-band scene by my association with bruce hampton. i play a lot of guitar, but i really focus on songwriting. that’s what’s lacking in the jam-band scene. we need a lot of writers out there. that’s what made the grateful dead really great – they had hundreds of songs. the more songs we can get into a genre, the better off the genre’s going to be. the more tunes we have out there, the more we can raise the scene to a really high level.”

--bobby lee rodgers

the latest installment from the camp of hampton will drop on june 13th with the release of the codetalkers' new studio gem - now. while visiting with honest tunes radio on kxua in fayetteville, arkansas, the colonel and bobby talk about the new release amongst other items of business like the concept of a concept, the average rainfall in hawaii, and addictions to crystal math.

click here to listen to the full webcast from 04-08-06 (31 min.) and here to listen to the first installment with daniel gold from 02-12-05 (14 min.).

"ike stubblefield", "million dollars", and "sound sister" are currently in high rotation on radioioJAM.com. tune in 24/7 to hear these selections by the codetalkers from their brand-new studio release - now.

...and another great article on the new release by brian baker of the cleveland free times.

we're getting the band back together

on january 20 & 21, 2006, bruce got the boys back together at the fox theatre in boulder and proceded to spin heads. the prime time ARU line-up (sans matt mundy sub bobby lee rodgers) shredded through timeless classics such as "fixin' to die" and the timeless "time is free".

click here for pictures, download and streaming audio from night number one.