The Dustbowl Revival

The Dustbowl Revival are an 8-piece Americana Soul band from Venice, California with four studio albums out and a full-time tour schedule of 200 days per year on the road.

Biography

Critics have proclaimed that this eclectic eight-piece “would have sounded utterly at home within the hallowed confines of Preservation Hall in New Orleans' French Quarter”^[1] and their “upbeat, old-school, All-American sonic safaris exemplify everything shows should be: hot, spontaneous, engaging and, best of all, a pleasure to hear”^[2] Rob Sheffield, in Rolling Stone, hailed them as a great band “whose Americana swing was so fun I went back to see them again the next day.”^[3]

2017 marks the tenth anniversary of The Dustbowl Revival’s formation. It was back in 2007 when Zach Lupetin, a Midwestern transplant to Los Angeles, posted an ad on Craigslist in hopes of creating a group inspired by brass band and string band traditions. Over the years, the group has been an inclusive outfit that frequently shifted in size before solidifying in its current eight-piece lineup.

History

In 2008, Zach Lupetin and The Dustbowl Revival released their debut album, The Atomic Mushroom Cloud of Love. They followed up in 2010 with You Can’t Go Back to the Garden of Eden, which included "Dan's Jam,” a song that won the Independent Music Awards’ “Americana Song of the Year.” The next year, the band, now known just as The Dustbowl Revival, put out Holy Ghost EP and their 2013 Carry Me Home CD featured more than 25 Dustbowl Revival-ists.^[4] That was also the year the L.A. Weekly crowned them the city’s “Best Live Band.”^[5]

In 2015 The Dustbowl Revival signed to Northampton, MA-based record label Signature Sounds Recordings who are best known for Lake Street Dive. The video for “Never Had To Go,” starring band fan Dick Van Dyke, went viral, garnering over 4 million views on its official YouTube video. In 2017 a clip of the band and Dick Van Dyke from the music video was featured in the HBO documentary “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast” also starring Jerry Seinfeld and Mel Brooks. The group went on to open for bands ranging from Lake Street Dive to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, while also appearing at such festivals as Delfest, Floydfest, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Norway’s Bergenfest and Denmark’s Tonder Festival. In 2017 the band teamed up with Flogging Molly founding member and Grammy Award winning producer Ted Hutt to produce their fourth studio album as this eight-piece unit. The album was released on June 16, 2017 with featured guest Keb’ Mo’ and debuted in the Top 25 on two Billboard charts: Billboard Americana-Folk and Billboard Heatseekers. The band’s sound evolved into Americana Soul and was described by Elmore Magazine as an "energizing Americana with a shot of soul, funk and roots-infused rock that evokes the work of Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin and classic Stax recordings, and yet fits the band alongside such contemporaries as Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats and St. Paul & the Broken Bones.”^[6]

Current Members

• Zach Lupetin - lead vocals, acoustic guitar
• Liz Beebe - lead vocals, ukulele
• James Klopfleisch - double bass
• Josh Heffernan - drums
• Ulf Björlin - trombone
• Matt Rubin - trumpet
• Daniel Mark - mandolin
• Connor Vance - fiddle

Studio Albums as The Dustbowl Revival

• The Dustbowl Revival (2017) – Signature Sounds Recordings
• With A Lampshade On (2015) – Signature Sounds Recordings
• Carry Me Home (2013)
• Holy Ghost Station (2011)

Critical Acclaim

"A nine-piece band replete with tuba, washboard, accordion, fiddle, mandolin, trumpet and guitar joyously pumped out early 20th century standards and original tunes that would have sounded utterly at home within the hallowed confines of Preservation Hall in New Orleans' French Quarter. The seven men, most with suspenders attached to well-worn trousers, broad ties and vests and some sporting 1930s-vintage newsboy caps, and two women in flapper-inspired dresses, are members of a ragtag outfit called the Dustbowl Revival, strumming, sawing and puffing enthusiastically as smiling listeners on the dance floor swung their partners infectiously." – Los Angeles Times^[7]

"The music is so genuine, you can almost taste the PBR and port wine being passed around the front porch during the Great Depression on the bayou, or on the post-fire Chicago streets. Trumpets blaze, guitars wail, and the spirit of a great revival becomes you." – Train Wreck’d Society^[8]

"A natural opening act for The Lumineers or Mumford and Sons.” – Los Angeles Magazine^[9]

“The dynamic Liz Beebe’s sexy, warm vocals lay down the melody, with a dirty trumpet solo for an emotionally-charged opener that foreshadows the infectious music to come, chock full of superb singing, vocal harmonies, creative string work and growling horns.” - Elmore Magazine[10] 

“Big-boned, gangly R&B with arms a tangle of woody roots, the music and singing on their self-titled fifth album absolutely startles the senses.” - Tahoe Onstage^[11]

"Bright Stax-style horns now punctuate the songs’ rhythms and add an element that’s likely to bring show audiences to their feet….Some tunes make you smile every time you roll into them—and that’s kind of what this one does for us—it’s like a shot of sexy adrenaline.” —POPMATTERS^[12]

"It's hard not to be in a good mood while taking in the "new-wave jug-band" and its delightful cacophony of fiddles, ukeleles, tubas, washboards and kazoos.” —Time Out Los Angeles^[13]

"I had never heard of this California-based roots-rock ensemble, but having been given their most recent release, The Dustbowl Revival, I feel like I’ve been given entrée into a delightful new world, one where the sounds of Americana past meets up with contemporary music and has one roaring all-night dance party.” —The Recoup^[14]

"An absolutely perfect melding of funk, country, ska, and rock and roll. This album runs the spectrum when it comes to categories. So do we call it country? Americana? rhythm and blues? It is all of the above, but none of the above, in aggregate. Something new was created here. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a fantastic trombone solo on Good Egg (Track 3). The best trombone solo since A Cave from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones on their debut album The Devil’s Night Out from way back in 1989!"^[15]

References