Diggin’: Ironing Board Sam with Ben Sollee “Summertime”
inDiggin'on August 20, 2015
It’s getting so hot, I believe the cotton is high. The heat feels like being wrapped in a hot wash cloth. At this point, it can only be taken in spurts. The nights are hot, the mornings steam, the afternoons spur delirium – dizzy, sun blinded and giddy we wander around for our cars. Inside, at once feeling what the chicken feels inside a pressure cooker if it wasn’t already lifeless. Cooked alive! Salt and pepper me and hand me a bouquet of parsley! We promised ourselves we wouldn’t complain about the heat this Summer, that we’d relish it, take it day by day and remember those cold months when we didn’t want to go outside even to gather more firewood. These days are really testing that resolve.
This version of Summertime is a little nugget of a jam Ironing Board Sam had with Ben Sollee when he passed through a couple of years ago. They were introduced down in the MM studio and after some niceties, they sat down and were musical kin before we could even hit the ‘record’ button.
Sam’s keyboard playing is lush and full of intensity, spurred on by Ben’s staccato rhythmic pulsations on his cello and then all at once it opens up into atmospheric ringing notes, and then Sam begins to sing. Genius! We look forward to getting these guys back together again.
— Aaron
