Description
Under the moniker of Night Beats, Texas native Danny Lee Blackwell has spent the last fifteen years exploring a nexus of vintage rhythm & blues, after-midnight soul, and sun-scorched psychedelia. On Night Beats' latest offering, Blackwell presents two markedly different renditions of his song "Behind the Green Door." Side A delivers a down-tempo, minor key track drenched in the haze of vice, as if an aspiring Motor City outfit had traveled down to Austin and snuck into the studio while The 13th Floor Elevators were on a smoke break-perhaps a meeting between Ray Charles, Skip Pence, and Link Wray, or Joe Tex grappling with Gram Parsons, or even Duane Eddy pairing up with Cedric Bixler-Zavala.
Ultimately, it's the culmination of years of Blackwell distilling and translating the sounds around him into his own concoction, an invitation to enter the kingdom and dwell in the garden while the shadow of doubt looms nearby, a subconscious journey into the delights and pitfalls of unknown territories. Side B features the Rah John version of "Behind the Green Door," an interpretation from an enigmatic artist Blackwell discovered on the island of Koh Khram Yai, off the coast of Pattaya in the Gulf of Thailand. Little is known about Rah John beyond his love for '70s Thai disco and dancehall tapes received from local sailors, but hearing a streak of revelry in Night Beats' tune, he summoned a sunnier, breezier, and more exotic side to the rhythm and blues sway of the original.
