Dirty Deuce

Dirty Deuce Band at The Exclusive Company in Green Bay, WI

By TJ
August 6, 2009
The weather was perfect, my afternoon was free and I really wanted to stroll downtown to check out a new place to catch live music. The Exclusive Company on Dousman St. to be exact. That is when I caught the Sermons of Rev Dirty Rob and J Dirt together as Dirty Deuce, a guitar and drums blue note duo laying it down in broad daylight in Green Bay. Dirty Deuce has a soulful sound that turns the blues dial over towards an earthy funk, and then layers some working class, dirty, overdriven guitar and powerful gospel like vocals. This music is promiscuous and loaded with tales of liquor, sex and total annihilation like on the song “t’aint No Bidness Wit My Sickness.” Then there is the flip side to the Dirty Deuce, the honest singer songwriter side that repents for all the wicked indulgence with the song “My Body is a Temple” that featured a Rev Rob kazoo solo. I have never seen a kazoo solo for a song! A harmonica yes, a kazoo no. The crowd loved it. Rob Atwood (guitar and vocals) is no stranger to the music scene and in the recent years has pulled his roots up from Milwaukee and replanted them in Door County. If you are familiar with any of Rob’s previous work then you already know what a huge gain of talent he is for our scene. His skills on the guitar will take your ears running through solos and grooves and the tone from his Epiphone hollow body electric guitar sounds like warm dirty butter with just a little bite of treble.

The back bone in the dirt of this duo is Jamey Clark on drums. I could watch and listen to Jamey play drums all day. It makes me sick, in a good way, when I see a drummer play so technically well, but jam so relaxed and laid back and accurate. Jamey plays with a lot of feel and he is heavy on the back beat and in the pocket. A couple songs into the set I came to the realization that this band needs nothing else. The Dirty Deuce is great as a Deuce. It’s minimalist format doesn’t carry a minimalist sound. It’s clear and unsaturated which makes the power of this music raw! The sound outside the Exclusive Company was good and it was great to catch an open air gig that filled the downtown with rock and roll. Having bands play outside the best record store in town was a great idea Tom. Catch them at a show and you can pick up “Dirty Deuce - The Musical Mathematicians of Rock and Roll Religion” CD or drive down to the Exclusive Company and get it. They stock a majority of local and independent artists and they’ve got tons of vinyl too. Dirty Deuce play out at “The Woods” often and you may see Dirty Deuce popping up on the radar in this town more often due to how much they rock. You can keep up with Dirty Deuce and lookout for their new CD release by going to their facebook fan page or Rob Atwood’s myspace page. Catch a video of “t’aint No Bidness Wit My Sickness” live from this show on our GreenBayNightLife facebook page!

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