“Brighter Days Ahead was an idea that started shortly after most of the country’s stay-at-home orders came down due to COVID-19. Tours were cancelled, release dates were pushed, manufacturing for our LPs and 45s came to a halt. We all knew it was going to have a dramatic impact on our business, our artists, our schedule, and pretty much every aspect of our daily lives. So, as we settled into a ‘new normal’ and started to look at the schedule it became clear there was going to be a lull in our physical output during the summer. So we wanted to come up with some way to give our fans and our artist’s fans something to look forward to. So, the idea of Brighter Days Ahead was born. A new track every Friday from the Colemine label group starting on May 22nd and running through the end of summer. And for the first week each track is on Bandcamp, Colemine will be paying 100% of any revenues generated from Bandcamp directly to the artist. So our goals are simple: put a little bit of money in our artist’s pockets and get our fans some new tunes. We can’t wait to share all this wonderful music with you!” – Terry Cole, owner, Colemine Records
The first single as part of the Brighter Days Ahead weekly series is Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio’s “Inner City Blues,” a slinky, upbeat cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1971 single.
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio—or as it is sometimes referred to, DLO3—specialize in the lost art of “feel good music.” The ingredients of this intoxicating cocktail include a big helping of the 1960s organ jazz stylings of Jimmy Smith and Baby Face Willette; a pinch of the snappy soul strut of Booker T. & The M.G.’s and The Meters; and sprinkles Motown, Stax Records, blues and cosmic Jimi Hendrix-style guitar. It’s a soul-jazz concoction that goes straight to your heart & head, and makes your body break out in a sweat. Live, the band’s fiery and intuitive chemistry is unstoppable, brimming with improvisation, instant composition, imaginative takes on classic tunes, and a booty-shaking back catalog of soulful gems.
The band features organist Delvon Lamarr, a self-taught virtuoso musician, with perfect pitch who taught himself jazz and has effortlessly been able to play a multitude of instruments. On guitar is the dynamo Jimmy James who eases through Steve Cropper-style chanking guitar, volcanic acid-rock freak-out lead playing, and slinky Grant Green-style jazz. From Reno, Nevada is drummer Dan Weiss (also of the powerhouse soul and funk collective The Sextones). Dan’s smoldering pocket-groove drumming locks in the trio’s explosive chemistry.
Since its humble beginnings in May, 2015, the trio has issued two Billboard-charting albums and a 45; toured nationally and internationally, and performed on live at Upstream Music Festival broadcast by KEXP that garnered over 7 million views. In the near future, DLO3 will be releasing a bevy of new music come fall and winter 2020. DLO3 is part of the hip Colemine Records family, is booked by the prestigious Kurland Agency, and is managed, owned, and operated by Delvon’s staunchly supportive wife, Amy Novo. Amy has been lovingly nicknamed “Shortcake Mafia” as a tribute to her sweet but shrewd business acumen.
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio
Colemine Records
*Feature image Delvon Lamarr (photo credit: Leroi Conroy)
