Swamp Dogg

About this show

“I’m coming in on my final approach,” testifies the artist formerly known as Jerry Williams Jr. on the last song of his S-Curve Records debut, the aptly named Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife (S-Curve Records), highlighted by name checks for Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On the) Dock of the Bay” and Chuck Willis’ “Hang Up My Rock ‘n’ Roll Shoes.”   And while all three of those classic hits were released posthumously at the time, the soon-to-be 84-year-old performer/songwriter/producer/entrepreneur and master musician is very much alive and kicking. Swamp Dogg nailed the landing on an album that makes a case for the man’s Grammy-worthy Americana credentials as a Zelig-like figure in modern music history, equally adept at blues and country – his oft-stated roots -- but also encompassing gospel, funk, soul, R&B, bluegrass and, of course, rock ‘n’ roll. Co-produced by Swamp Dogg with S-Curve founder Steve Greenberg, and the latter’s longtime collaborators Mike Mangini and Sam Hollander, the album’s 10 new tracks feature eight originals and two covers (Jenny Lewis’ “Acid Tongue” and John Prine’s “Please Don’t Bury Me”), and is slated for release on all digital formats June 20 – with vinyl LP and CD to follow.   The project was an unabashed labor of love for Grammy-winning music veterans Greenberg, Mangini and Hollander, who have worked their magic for everyone from Joss Stone, Andy Grammer and the Baha Men to Tom Jones, the O’Jays, Betty Wright & the Roots, Jonas Brothers, We the Kings and Hanson. Greenberg has known Swamp Dogg personally for more than 30 years, when Swamp first made a cameo appearance on a record Steve produced back then. “This is the great Swamp Dogg album I’ve always dreamed of making with him,” he said, and after the release of the critically acclaimed 2024 documentary, Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted , Greenberg figured the time was finally right. “If not now, when?” Assembling an all-star cast of session musicians (including Swamp’s live-in keyboardist Moogstar), the album was recorded at Brooklyn’s premier Mission Sound studios with guitarist Sherod Barnes, bassist Jerry Barnes, drummer Steve Wolf, trumpet player Jesse Klirsfeld, organ/piano player Raymond Angry and saxophonist Morgan Price. “Our rule in making the album was, it had to be fun,” said Greenberg. “The only reason we did this was for the love of the artist and his music.”   The genesis of the record – its themes of looking back on an incredible life and looking towards what’s next -- began with the title, Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife , another classic in the manner of previous album monickers like Total Destruction to Your Mind (1970), I’m Not Selling Out/I’m Buying In (1981), I Called for a Rope and They Threw Me a Rock (1989) and his most recent release, Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th Street (2004).     “It didn’t start out as a concept album but, apparently, it is now,” concluded Swamp Dogg with a healthy note of sarcasm about confronting his own mortality.   “Notice how it starts with ‘Searching for Heaven’ and ends with ‘Final Approach,’” notes Greenberg. “That was on purpose. It’s a record steeped in memories and nostalgia, contemplating  endings, but very much set in the present moment.”   The cover of Prine’s “Please Don’t Bury Me” has its origins when Swamp Dogg was the “token” black A&R executive and staff producer for Atlantic Records in New York, urging the label not to drop the singer/songwriter, even going so far as covering his “Sam Stone,” an anti-war tale of a drug-addicted veteran returning home, a crossover hit for him in 1972. Swamp’s latest version of a Prine song is a mirthful view of what might happen to the temporal vessel after breathing one’s last breath and seems as if it were written with him specifically in mind, especially the “kiss my ass goodbye” coda.    “Acid Tongue,” the other cover, is a lysergic-charged...