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John Driskell Hopkins featuring Yacht Rock Revue and Debby Boone | “Snow”
To get in the seasonal spirit, John Driskell Hopkins, singer, multi-instrumentalist and co-founding member of the Grammy-winning group Zac Brown Band, joins forces with Yacht Rock Revue and Debby “You Light Up My Life” Boone for a bubbly new take on a b-side holiday ditty. In a quick game of six degrees of separation, Boone’s mother-in-law, Rosemary Clooney, sang this song in its original form with Bing Crosby in White Christmas.
What’s most relevant here, though, is that it has been almost two decades since a group of friends produced a mockumentary series for Channel 101 in 2005 about “Yacht Rock” that has now garnered millions of views and a cult following that inspired the Atlanta-based band. The term perfectly describes the almost-forgotten genre of music from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s that consisted of maddeningly smooth soft rock by the likes of Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. Those still-funny origin videos, about 10 in total, are worth checking out on YouTube, starting here.
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Metro Boomin with Future | “Superhero (Heroes & Villains)”
Finally, Atlanta gets the Gotham moment it both needs and deserves, thanks to St. Louis native turned Atlanta star Leland Tyler Wayne (no relation to Bruce), aka Metro Boomin. Following 2018’s similarly titled Not All Heroes Wear Capes, his ambitious sophomore album is saturated in operatic sensibilities. In the promo video for the album alone, we get Oscar nominee and Atlanta star LaKeith Stanfield playing an unhinged baddie, spraying the streets with fire. There’s also the voice of Morgan Freeman, here serving as our hero Metro’s conscience.
As one might expect for someone whose work embraces comic book lore so deeply, Wayne — who moved to Atlanta in 2011 to attend Morehouse College — serves up references galore for his fellow fans. There’s the moody atmosphere of this year’s The Batman. The line about dying a hero or living long enough to become a villain, delivered by Jay-Z, comes straight from The Dark Knight (alas, poor Harvey Dent, we knew him well). On another track, “On Time,” he samples a chilling speech from the twinkly-eyed psychopath Homelander from Amazon’s The Boys. The line between heroes and villains has always been blurred, but the focus here is on shifting moods: ominous, surreal and compelling.
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Beverly “Guitar” Watkins | “Back in Business”
There’s an oft-quoted saying about how it takes years to become an “overnight success.” That was an understatement for the late, great Beverly “Guitar” Watkins, who cut her first solo record, 1999’s Back in Business, when she was 60. By the time she recorded our Vintage Track of the Week, she’d already been playing for four decades, joining luminaries like Ray Charles, James Brown and B.B. King. And yet, there she was at the turn of the millennium, gaining momentum, at last, for her charisma onstage and red-hot riffs.
Watkins was born at Grady Hospital in 1939 and raised by her maternal grandparents, sharecroppers in Commerce. Little Beverly got her first guitar when she was 8 and named it Stella. By age 20, her mastery and talent had landed her a mighty first gig, playing backup for the sadly under-recognized but influential blues artist Piano Red.
Later, when fame finally found her, she was frequently dubbed the “guitar granny” in headlines. And while that’s catchy and alliterative, it’s also somewhat reductive. After all, no one calls Keith Richards the “fogey with a Fender.” Watkins was not merely a remarkable player “for her age” but a standout in her field. A frequent fixture of Blind Willie’s and Northside Tavern, she electrified each joint that she and her strings frequented, right up until the end. Many of the clips available of her playing live were captured on her 80th — and final — birthday.
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