Lee Bob Watson: "Aficianado":

Coming August 2007!

Woven into every beat on Lee Bob Watson’s latest gem, Aficionado, are the tales and life lessons picked up from 12 storied years spent on the road. Reminiscent of the places he’s been—from the country infused pop of 70’s L.A. and soul-jazz of New Orleans, to the laidback roots of California’s Central Valley—Watson’s blend of sounds hearkens back to the late ‘60s and ‘70s, when genres converged and popular music created a sense of common purpose in a weary and divided nation. His sure and slightly weathered vocals—with touches of a country-gentleman drawl—combine with angelic gospel harmonies, enchanting orchestrations and tight pop arrangements to make Aficionado an album that resonates with experience and longing.

Known for his work with California rockers Jackpot, dubbed by The New York Times as “one of California’s greatest unknown bands”, as well as punk-gospel band Santa Cruz Gospel Choir, Sacramento, CA native Lee Bob Watson has been a powerful force in music for 10 years. For Aficionado, Watson enlisted former Cake drummer Todd Roper, current Cake bassist Gabe Nelson and Jackpot singer and guitarist Rusty Miller and a handful of Northern California’s finest talent. With help from esteemed producer Dana Gumbiner, the crew recorded the album in just 10 days, relying mostly on live-takes and minimal overdubs.

The songs on Aficionado grapple with the quest for authenticity in a culture that is based on recycled themes and sounds.  “So much of our generation spends a lot of time rehashing the glory days of pop culture” Watson comments, “you’ve got to take your influences and let them breathe in the room.”  The result is a captivating album that serves as a playground for decades of sounds to intermingle. Opener “Landfill” sends a strong statement about the land on which the American Dream was built with a twangy-rock swagger and perfectly placed steel guitar. “Living in the Past” brings electronic-disco funk to life with a back-beat that would make Bill Withers proud. Beach Boys-inspired harmonies burst alongside Watson’s velvety croon on “Highway 1 Sunset” and gentle lullaby “Rosalita’s Arms” brings the album to a sweet finish with saintly soprano choruses and dainty piano tingles.

Lee Bob Watson will tour the west coast with friends Alela Diane, Mariee Sioux, Aaron Ross and Benjamin Oak Goodman on the Grass Roots Record Co. Summer Revue tour in June. Watson’s track “Let the Hate In (I Won’t)” is featured on The Grass Roots Family Album, available now at www.grassrootsrecordco.com.

Press:

No stranger to the music industry, Watson has been performing and writing songs for 10 years. He self-produced three solo albums and one album with the punk-gospel band The Santa Cruz Gospel Choir. He also played and
recorded with the Sacramento-based band Jackpot, which The New York Times dubbed "one of California's greatest unknown bands."

Surrounded by his dream team of former Cake drummer Todd Roper, Cake bassist Gabe Nelson, Jackpot guitarist Rusty Miller and a handful of local musicians, Watson recorded the album “Aficionado” in 10 days.

"So much of our generation spends a lot of time rehashing the glory days of pop culture," said Watson, who prefers a fresh take on a retro sound. "You've got to take your influences and let them breathe in the room."

In his music, you can hear the influences of Bob Dylan and John Lennon, as well as those of Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams. But if you keep listening, one voice stands out, and it's pure Lee Bob Watson.
-- Jill Bauerle, the Union

"I feel a lot of people in my generation and younger are recycling, like everything is sort of based on your influences and knowledge of your history of pop culture. Aficionado… runs off that theme, where every song has a
definite reference point.... It was more of a playful approach, not trying to re-create something."

"I've been building these relationships for 10 years," Watson adds about his musical collaborators. "In the studio I was able to drop these one-word things to Todd Roper, like 'a little less Hal Blaine, a little more Jim Keltner.' And he's like 'all right' and he's on it. We just went in a recorded music -- real music."
-- Chris Macias, Sacramento Bee

“Although it might be easy to lump Lee Bob in with half a million other bindlestiff-toting crosstie walkers with a Hank Williams songbook in the guitar case and a half-pint of Cumberland varnish stripper in the back pocket, where he’s coming from is a lot closer to Pink Moon than “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
-- Jackson Griffith, Sacto News & Review

"Let the Hate In (I Won't) … an ebullient, lo-fi Beatles romp” –S.F. Weekly

“Lee Bob Watson finally dragged a drum machine into the room. He crooned like a super-folked-out Hank Williams and was all over the place... with his lanky antics”
-- L.A. Record