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<\/p>\nThe recent interest in so-called \u201cyacht rock\u201d \u2013 brought about thanks to a new HBO documentary on the subject \u2013 has brought the names of several bands from the \u201870s back into the public consciousness. One of the acts mentioned in the film is Steely Dan, the three-time Grammy Award winning group. But in the minds of some of Western North Carolina\u2019s top musicians, the appeal of Steely Dan\u2019s music has never waned. Nearly a dozen of those WNC players and singers came together as Dirty Logic, a tribute to the idiosyncratic and unconventional group.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Like all of the musicians who would eventually join Dirty Logic, Patrick Armitage is a busy, in-demand musician who has been involved in many high-profile musical projects in and around Asheville. In 2018, the former drummer for the Jon Stickley Trio was part of a one-off \u201cpickup gig\u201d in Asheville. During discussions after their set, one of the musicians asked Armitage what his dream project would be. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve always wanted to do,\u201d he replied, \u201cis put together a Steely Dan tribute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steely Dan came together in Upstate New York in 1971 when two studio musicians, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, decided to do something more interesting and challenging than their previous gigs. While the earliest Steely Dan lineup was a proper band, by the mid 1970s Becker and Fagen retreated to the studio and worked with carefully-selected musicians chosen for what they could bring to each track.<\/p>\n
Between 1972 and 1980, Steely Dan released seven studio albums, six of which would go Platinum (one million copies sold) or better. Though of more an an \u201calbum band\u201d than a purveyor of singles, Steely Dan nonetheless landed ten of its 18 singles of that era on the U.S. Top 40 charts. Songs like \u201cDo it Again,\u201d \u201cReelin\u2019 in the Years,\u201d \u201cRikki Don\u2019t Lose that Number,\u201d \u201cPeg, \u201cDeacon Blues\u201d and \u201cHey Nineteen\u201d are among the many Steely Dan classics.<\/p>\n
Those and other songs in the group\u2019s catalog are catchy and memorable. Ask any serious musician and they\u2019ll tell you something else that characterizes Steely Dan songs: they\u2019re not easy to play. The arrangements are complex, and the jazz-tinged (and sometimes just plain jazz) compositions require serious skill and commitment.<\/p>\n
If Armitage\u2019s dream were ever to become a reality, he\u2019d have to aim high. \u201cI knew that I had to get some of the best session [musicians] in town,\u201d he recalls, \u201cand that it would be hard to put something like that together and get people to commit.\u201d But when he made the decision to move forward and started making calls, he found the musicians he needed. One week after that fateful post-gig conversation, Dirty Logic held its first rehearsal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe set a super-high standard,\u201d he says. \u201cWe rehearsed every week.\u201d Five months later, the new group played its first show, at the now-shuttered Isis Music Hall in West Asheville. \u201cThat show sold out,\u201d Armitage says with pride. \u201cWe knew right there: \u2018Okay, this is really a thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Inevitably, there would be some turnover in the group\u2019s lineup. But overall, Dirty Logic has remained remarkably stable since its early days. Bassist Jake Wolf joined a few months after the group\u2019s launch; then as now he\u2019s impressed by the caliber of musicianship within the band. \u201cEveryone is really good at walking that tightrope: having deep respect for the music as it was written and recorded, and doing the thing authentically while still being themselves,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Armitage notes that because of the demands of such a large ensemble \u2013 typically 11 people onstage \u2013 when a show is booked, each and every musician has a replacement lined up. \u201cEvery person in this band has at least two people that they can call on if they can\u2019t do a gig,\u201d Armitage says.<\/p>\n
Because of the many commitments the band members have, Dirty Logic plays an average of only eight shows each year. The farthest the large ensemble has traveled for a show was a \u201ccrazy festival\u201d in Alabama. (\u201cWe all got food poisoning,\u201d Armitage recalls with a pained laugh.) In general the group books shows within a few hours\u2019 drive from Asheville.<\/p>\n
Against that backdrop, hometown shows for Dirty Logic are a rare event. The recent performance at the Wortham Center was the group\u2019s first local gig since an early September show at Salvage Station shortly before the venue fell victim to flooding from Tropical Storm Helene. Wolf says that in the aftermath of the devastation to the region, the show felt \u201clike a homecoming. These shared experiences \u2013 to be performing and to be in the audience \u2013 feel really meaningful,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
For that show, the group \u2013 which Wolf estimates has at least 50% of Steely Dan\u2019s music in its current repertoire \u2013 played two albums in their entirety. The program featured hardcore fan favorite The Royal Scam<\/i> (released in 1976) and the 1977 blockbuster album Aja<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Wolf says that while The Royal Scam<\/i> isn\u2019t the most well-known Steely Dan album, \u201cfrom a musician\u2019s standpoint, it\u2019s a big, big album. It signaled a departure from what they had been doing, and toward jazz-rock.\u201d Aja<\/i> is immersed in a jazz vibe as well, and it holds the distinction of being Steely Dan\u2019s biggest selling record. \u201cPlaying Aja<\/i> shows the true versatility and the essence of why we wanted to do this band,\u201d Armitage says.<\/p>\n
The Dirty Logic performance in January also featured a selection of popular hits from other Steely Dan records. Emphasizing that the group enjoys all of the songs in its deep repertoire, Armitage chuckles and says, \u201cYou kind of have to play [the hits] \u2026 If you play a bunch of b-sides, maybe they\u2019re not going to come see you again.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the subject of that yacht rock, neither Wolf nor Armitage is on board with describing Steely Dan with that label. \u201cThey have some<\/i> hits that coincide with that movement,\u201d Wolf allows. \u201cBut I always think of Steely Dan as a bunch of jazz prodigies playing pop music.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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