I first heard about The Roots living in NYC in 1995. I picked up their first major label album Do You Want More?!!!??! and couldn’t stop listening to it. I completely wore out “You Got Me” from their third album, Things Fall Apart. Their latest album, How I Got Over, was just released in June.
I pretend to be a drummer on occasion and had always admired ?uestlove (aka Ahmir Thompson), drummer for The Roots, but developed a serious man crush after seeing him at a live show during SXSW in 2006 for Before the Music Dies. I didn’t know about his bandleading skills until that performance, something that would become much more evident when The Roots began their stint as the house band for Jimmy Fallon’s takeover of Late Night from Conan O’Brien (the only redeeming aspect of that change, in my opinion).
?uestlove also does guest DJ stints displaying his encyclopedic knowledge of music and will do one tonight immediately following the Austin City Limits taping at Red 7 at 9pm. It’s $8 in advance (try End of An Ear records) and $10 at the door and probably will sell out.
Tonight’s Austin City Limits taping will be with John Legend. Their collaboration, Wake Up, will be released on September 21st. I caught one song at a Central Park performance on Good Morning America a couple of weeks ago. The collaboration is inspired by the presidential election campaign of 2008 and is a mix of covers and originals. VH1 has a bunch of behind the scenes videos promoting the album. I’ll post a review of the taping tomorrow.
Here are the air dates for Season 36 of Austin City Limits which airs locally on KLRU on Saturday nights at 7pm:
October 2, 2010Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Jimmy Cliff
October 9, 2010Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Spoon
October 16, 2010Â Â Â Â Â Patty Griffin & Friends
October 23, 2010Â Â Â Â Â Alejandro Escovedo / Trombone Shorty
October 30, 2010Â Â Â Â Â Robert Earl Keen / Hayes Carll
November 6, 2010Â Â Â Â Steve Martin / Sarah Jarosz
November 13, 2010Â Â Rosanne Cash / Brandi Carlile
November 20, 2010Â Â John Legend & The Roots
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[…] As I mentioned, John Legend and The Roots taped a performance for Austin City Limits last night. It will air locally on KLRU on Saturday, November 2o, 2010. They’re promoting their new album, Wake Up, which will be released on September 21st. It’s a mix of mostly 70s soul covers and a few originals. They had performed the night before in Las Vegas for the Miss Universe pageant. […]