Drive-By Trucker brings lounge act to Asheville

• Who: Jay Gonzalez of The Drive-By Truckers (solo)

• Where: Ambrose West in Asheville, North Carolina

• When: 8 p.m. Saturday, June 9

• Cost: $12 advance / $15 day of show

• Why:

As the guitarist/keyboardist for acclaimed hard rock act The Drive-By Truckers, Jay Gonzalez is well aware of just how far down the rabbit hole goes.

For a musician who performs throughout the world in one of the loudest and wildest rock groups in the industry, Gonzalez might raise a few eyebrows from the band’s passionate fans when he speaks of the charm of AM pop radio from the 1960s and 1970s.

But, you see, that’s the thing. It makes perfect sense he, and probably the rest of the Truckers, would point to those early AM gold sounds as an influence to their creations. Heck, besides the fact the Truckers grew up in that era, with many of those melodies shaping their childhoods, if one digs below the surface of those songs, you see just how intricate and vital those tunes are. It’s like they say in bluegrass, “the most talented pickers are those that make it look easy, which is the hardest part.”

And yet, the same can be said about ‘60s/‘70s pop arrangements, where to wrangle an entire idea and sonic ability into a three-minute song can prove difficult, especially when you take into account how well those songs have stood the test of time. It’s all part of the grand scheme of things, musically and creatively, that Gonzalez applies to his current solo project, where he moonlights as an old-school lounge piano singer — part tribute, part guilty pleasure, all talent.

Interview conducted by SML Music Editor Garret K. Woodward. For more information on the performance and/or to purchase tickets, click on www.ambrosewest.com.

Jay Gonzalez Part #1

Jay Gonzalez Part #2

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