Upon closer inspection, all-world drummer Steve Gadd has been on a bit of a roll. 70 Strong reminds us that Gadd can lead a well-rounded instrumental band and the Gadd-helmed, Edie Brickell-fronted Gaddabouts dispensed charm and wit in equally heaping measures for their second long player from 2012, Look Out Now. Recently, yet another Gadd-drummed album notched a No. 1 position on Billboard’s Hot 200 chart when James Taylor’s comeback record Before This World gave JT his first ever chart-topping album.
Showing no sings of slowing down, Gadd is firing up the Gaddabouts again with Edie Brickell along with fellow first-call session players Andy Fairweather Low (guitar) and Pino Palladino (bass). Though there’s been no official anouncement of a forthcoming third album as of this writing, Brickell dropped a big hint when she posted up a stream of a new Gaddabouts tune, a hard groovin’, put-down number called “Superior.”
Edie Brickell is the same singer she was when the girl from Dallas suburb Oak Cliff, Texas was suddenly thrust into spotlight fronting the New Bohemians back in 1988 with the unexpected hit “What I Am.” That quirky, witty rural hipster persona that made her the South’s answer to Rickie Lee Jones is all here, even if her trademark lovably eccentric phrasing is absent here because she’s singing tightly to the beat.
And what a beat it is. Steve Gadd’s stomp goes straight for the mid-section, daring you not to nod along with him. It’s even got cowbell! The backing trio effortlessly segues into its tango bridge as Edie Brickell coos, “it’s very unattrac-tiiiive” then flips the switch right back to that sick strut.
In another time this song would be an instant hit, as it’s coming from guys who were a big part of a lot of hits of that other time. So why not now? If Taylor can still make a splash, by golly the Gaddabouts should be able to as well.
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