There are more than a few performers playing this weekend’s Levitate Music and Arts Festival who can consider it a homecoming, from regional favorites to Boston-area perennials to even Duxbury’s Elovaters, who have been Levitate regulars and a big part of the event’s growth over the years.
But for Mark King, the weekend is truly a homecoming since he’s played with some of this year’s lineup – he was the original Elovaters bassist, and also formerly part of Joe Samba’s band – but because he’s also returning from his new stomping grounds: Key West.
Most folks would agree that fronting his own funk-rock/jam band based in the Florida Keys was a longshot for the musician who spent some of his formative years playing tuba in the Pembroke High Marching Band.
We caught up with King by phone as he was driving north through Georgia, on his way to Levitate. Of course, the first big question is how did the former Pembroke band member, and former key member of such South Shore club favorites as QuadraFunk, Gracie Grace and All the Good Boys, and Astro Cat Collective find himself in the tropical outpost beloved by Jimmy Buffett and Ernest Hemingway?
How he got to Key West
“I had been playing bass four years ago, with Joe Samba, who was based in New Hampshire at that time,” King explained. “He had just moved to Key West, and got this opportunity to make a video, at Sugar Shack Springs, in Bonita Springs, so he flew us all down there. My intention was just to do those sessions with Joe for our video, but when I went down there, no singing was allowed in Massachusetts and work was tough for musicians with the pandemic restrictions. But we found that Key West was hopping. You had to sing behind plexiglass, but it really was a prime area if you wanted to be a fulltime musician. You could stay on the island, and just gig relentlessly, so I eventually moved down.”
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King grew up in a family of music fans, with three older sisters.
“I really grew up on 1990s pop,” he noted. “My three older sisters had control of the radio in our house. But about the time I hit middle school, I began getting into punk rock, and attending some of the Warped Tour shows was a big thing. Eventually that led me into music like Led Zeppelin, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who played the kind of high-energy rock and funk I wanted to play.”
“And it’d be wrong for me to leave out the huge influence the East Coast jamband scene had on me,” King continued. “Jambands became a big North Star for me in my musical development. I went down to the Gathering of the Vibes festival in Connecticut, and honestly, that was the most pivotal weekend of music in my life. The music there really activated me, and I came home very sure that playing music was what I wanted to do.”
And where and how did the tuba come into the picture?
Thank you, Mr. Glass
“I had picked up bass in the eighth grade, and jammed with the high school band on that,” King said. “It was the first year Pembroke High had ever had a concert band. But before my sophomore year of high school, the band director, Mr. Glass, was desperate to find a tuba player, which we really needed, so I switched over. Mr. Glass always said there were a lot of similarities between those instruments and the roles they play, and I have personally found my experience on tuba was very helpful to my bass-playing. So, a big thank you to Mr. Glass for encouraging me and playing a big part in my musical education.”
King had begun writing his own songs at an early age, and after graduating began performing regularly around the South Shore with a variety of bands.
“I had written my own originals since I was 16 or 17,” Cook pointed out. “But like any aspiring musician; you learn covers so you can get bar gigs to make a living. We’re all doing it for the ultimate goal of getting our own original music off the ground. The drummer I worked with the most was Evan Valentine, another South Shore guy, and we were in a bunch of bands over the years, three or four projects at a time. Astro Cat Collective was a short-lived trio we had, but with one band or another we played a lot of gigs at Main Street Sports Bar, or The New World Tavern, both in Plymouth, or at Soundcheck Studios in Pembroke, and now, last summer at the Levitate Backyard in Marshfield.”
Bringing his friend south
“The first thing I did after making the move to Key West and getting situated, was to call my best friend Evan and convince him to come down too,” King said. “He is the drummer I’ve worked with the most, and of course my best friend, but the funny thing is that there is a drummer shortage in Key West. For whatever reason, the area is always short of drummers, so I told Evan he could not just work with me, but also get as much work as he could handle.”
King has made a point of coming back to the South Shore every year to play some of his old haunts, but the invitation to perform at this summer’s Levitate was a special treat. In fact, it spurred him to get his band into a studio and record a four-song EP.
“The band has been together just over a year, since March of 2023,” King pointed out. “When Levitate reached out to us, we had no recordings or videos up online at all. But this gig has been invaluable, just for the motivation it gave me. It’s been such a catalyst for us, and I’m looking at this weekend as a very lucky chance to perform and introduce my new band and new music, at an event I love.”
The King band includes more New Englanders than just King and Valentine.
Key West, with a New England accent
“After I managed to get Evan to move down to Key West two years ago, I coincidentally met some other New England musicians,” said King. “Billy Ruegger, on guitar, comes from Connecticut, while our other guitarist, Adam Lufkin, is another Massachusetts native, who is also an incredible singer. I had picked up singing lead vocals out of necessity, and I still sing most of our stuff, but I love working with Adam because he cannot just help me out, but also allow me to take a break from singing here and there.”
“I have very intentionally come back every summer to play few of the South Shore places,” King added. “I’ve enjoyed playing at the Levitate Backyard last year, and also at Soundcheck Studios – where I played one of the first shows they ever had. This new EP is the best four songs I felt could best represent the band. It is a little bit raw, but one hundred percent real. I am intent on enjoying this Levitate gig as much as possible, in the moment, and am incredibly grateful for the opportunity.”
The Mark King Band is slated to perform from 3-4 p.m. Saturday on the Soul Stage. The event begins at 1 p.m. all three days, and features three stages, with staggered set times, so fans can sample various bands and not miss anything.
Victor Wainwright performs exuberant Fall River show
Last Friday night, the Narrows Center in Fall River hosted one of its most exuberant shows ever, as Savannah, Georgia, keyboardist Victor Wainwright and his sextet delivered a 90-minute show that was a joyful blast of rhythmic gumbo. Wainwright has been nominated for 10 Blues Music Awards over the years, and celebrated as the Pinetop Perkins Keyboardist of the Year for the B.M.A.s in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. He was also awarded the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year honor in 2016, when his group also won Band of the Year in the B.M.A.s. His 2018 album, Victor Wainwright and The Train, was nominated for a Grammy, and was recognized as the most played blues album of that year. The current touring version of The Train includes sax and trumpet, along with ace guitarist Pat Harrington, and they crafted a sweeping, big band type of sound far beyond your typical image of a sextet.
Some musicians have had funny day jobs but Wainwright’s story is unique. Although his parents and grandfather were all blues musicians, young Victor studied aeronautics in college. He then worked as an air traffic controller at Memphis, Tennessee, International Airport, before the pull of music forced a career change. Wainwright, now 43, released his debut record, “Piana from Savannah,” in 2005. He also gained some notoriety as part of the super group Southern Hospitality, with guitarist Damon Fowler, and later this month that band will be touring the south. “Memphis Loud,” in 2020, was the seventh full length album from Wainwright and The Train.
Friday’s concert had a marvelous, "Welcome to my party" vibe from the start, with a long opening number that was virtually a primer on gritty funk, melding “Who Do You Love?” with “Hey Bo Diddley” for the kind of steamy dance-mania that had many of the nearly 200 fans gyrating gleefully. A tribute to the music of the late New Orleans icon, Huey “Piano” Smith showed Wainwright’s affection for that city’s panoply of styles, with Smith nuggets like “Don’t You Just Know It,” “Little Liza Jane” and “Rockin’ Pneumonia” all part of the invigorating medley. A love ballad, “Everything I Need,” proved Wainwright’s supple baritone is too often overlooked amid his instrumental virtuosity. A tune inspired a trip to England, “Wiltshire Grave,” was a surreal portrait of weird and perhaps supernatural doings, where the contrast between Wainwright’s piano and Pat Harrington’s guitar lines was a key component.
Wainwright penned a song after B.B. King died, saluting that blues giant, and his “Thank You Lucille,” aimed at B.B.'s beloved guitar, is a poignant tribute. But the most amazing thing there was how expertly Harrington managed to re-create B.B.’s special tone and articulation is his solo, turning that song into an unforgettable salute to the master. The final number on the regular setlist was utterly remarkable, a 15+-minute suite of tunes from the 1967 Disney classic animated movie “Jungle Book,” incorporating Wainwright’s boogie-woogie feel, some otherworldly, orchestral-sounding movements, and that inescapably dance-happy rhythmic foundation. A tip of the hat to drummer Sam Butts and bassist Terrence Greyson, whose work was impeccable. Butts has the knack of hitting his drums in a way that often seems like comic punctuation, which was especially tart during the portions of the ‘Jungle Book’ suite that evoked the big band humor of Louis Prima or Cab Calloway. Wainwright and The Train came back for a good times encore, but really nothing could've topped that astonishing 'Jungle Book' suite.
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