Six-time Grammy winner Don Was has had an illustrious career. As a producer, he won Album of the Year in 1989 with Bonnie Raitt; he has worked with mega stars including The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Carly Simon, Willie Nelson, Elton John, and Brian Wilson just to name a few. He also has a British Academy Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association.
Was is also currently the president of Blue Note Records, probably the most revered jazz label of all time, and has spent the past seven years as part of Bob Weir's trio Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros.
In 1979 Was co-founded the band Was (Not Was) with his friend David Weiss. They were active until 1992 and had a big hit with the song "Walk The Dinosaur," but the 73-year-old Was has never fronted a band under his own name until now.
"Groove In The Face of Adversity" is the debut album from Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. It's a band he formed to pay homage to the musical lineage of his hometown of Detroit.
The band is on their first ever tour now and will be in Saxapahaw on Friday, October 17. The show will be a celebration of their debut record and also the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead's album "Blues For Allah."
Was said that the Pan-Detroit Ensemble formed after his friend Terence Blanchard, the trumpeter and composer who grew up in New Orleans and is a frequent collaborator of director Spike Lee, asked him to put a group together for a series of concerts in Detroit.
"I said 'sure,' and that was about two years before the shows were to take place," Was said. "Then about six months before the shows, I realized I didn't have a band. Or any songs."
After working with so many legendary songwriters in the 1990s, Was says he'd often battle bouts of writer's block.
"I thought back to a period of time where as a producer, I got to work with a bunch of my heroes in succession. Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Mick and Keith, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, just the greatest writers ever," he said. "The end result was about a five-year bout of writer's block, because every time I'd sit down to play, I would just think, well, what's the point? Brian Wilson's like four blocks away."
That self-doubt finally disappeared when he was in the studio with Willie Nelson. "I'm looking at him, and I thought, man, I will never be like Willie," he said. "And then it hit me that Willie will never be like me. He wasn't dropping acid and going to see the MC5 when he was 16. George Clinton didn't play a sock hop at his junior high school in Detroit. The things that make me different from him, that's what's going to be my superpower."
Was said that after that revelation he went back to Detroit and called up a bunch of musicians that he'd known for years.
"We got together in a room, and man, it just clicked. It sounded like Detroit," he said. "We've got this common language that we all share because we're all from the same city, and that's why it's called The Pan-Detroit Ensemble."
The band's debut album "Groove In The Face of Adversity" was released this month. It's a combination of both live and studio tracks, and Was says to the band it's all the same. "On stage we set up and play like we're in the studio, so what you hear on the record is exactly what the band sounds like," he said. "It really is like a compendium of Detroit music. I would trace the sound of Detroit back to John Lee Hooker, to me he epitomizes everything that's groovy about the city. It's a working class town, it's a one industry town, and nobody is putting on any airs to impress anybody. You just get a lot of real honesty and John Lee was a really honest singer. There was no artifice, just deep and soulful music that can swing like crazy."
On their current tour the band is also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead's "Blues For Allah" by playing the album in its entirety. "We've learned all the songs on the album, and some of them are written in stone," he said. "I don't think anyone should take too much liberty with "The Music Never Stopped." But some of those things are wide open to interpretation, and so we've kind of Detroit-ized them a little bit."
When asked if he remembers the first time he heard "Blues For Allah," Was smiled and said "You're not supposed to remember."
Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble will be at the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw on October 17.
