Photo Credit: Kory Thibeault
January 12, 2024: Today, groove titans Ghost-Note announced an April 19th release date for their upcoming third album Mustard n’Onions. Led by Snarky Puppy’s multi-GRAMMY-winning duo of drummer-keyboardist Robert Sput Searight and percussionist Nate Werth, Mustard n’Onions will be the group’s first new LP in six years, and their debut for Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group. The announcement comes with the masterfully funky first single “Bad Knees,” co-written by the band’s visionary bass player MonoNeon.
Listen to Ghost-Note “Bad Knees”
“It’s a funny story, MonoNeon dislocated his knees three or four times dancing to James Brown,” Robert Sput Searight explains of the track’s origins. “When you listen to the song, it’s a knee jerking groove that makes you wanna dance.”
Also along for the funky ride of Mustard n’Onions is a who’s who of groove-music greats. Most moving is the presence of R&B/jazz hero Bernard Wright (1963-2022), whose performances on three tracks would be some of his final recorded appearances. Other guests on Mustard n’Onions include Karl Denson, founding Robert Glasper Experiment member Casey Benjamin, Snarky Puppy standouts Mark Lettieri and Jay Jennings, pedal-steel luminary Travis Toy, electric-bass GOAT Marcus Miller, blues-rock god Eric Gales, and many more.
Well over a decade ago, Sput and Werth found themselves gigging together in the Texas-rooted fusion powerhouse Snarky Puppy — Werth on his creatively, globally curated percussion setup, and Sput on keys and, later, drums. What developed was a great mutual respect and a musical kinship between the two that bordered on telepathy. At a certain point during their ceaseless tour schedule, Sput’s nightly improvised solo began to signify a new pathway. “I got bored taking drum solos,” Sput says, “so I asked Nate to join me. It was like we were finishing each other’s sentences. We did it so well to where fans started coming up and asking, ‘What was the name of that song you and the percussion player were quoting?’” An idea for a beat CD was hatched, which quickly flowered into Ghost-Note — a group that would function less as a “collective” à la Snarky Puppy and more as a dedicated squad.
Mustard n’Onions presents a story of the ensemble maturing and solidifying and finding their identity. On the band’s freewheeling 2018 release, Swagism, the lineup was still developing and, as Sput explains, “We didn’t have a sound; we didn’t know what we were gonna sound like.” The music on Mustard n’Onions, he says, reflects the firmed-up character of a unit whose “camaraderie and chemistry” have accrued over countless gigs, and nearly every band member has at least one writing credit. Sput remains Ghost-Note’s primary writer and de facto musical director, but he’s now shaping his music for and with his bandmates.
Mustard n’Onions is out April 19th via Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group.
Tracklisting:
1. JB’s Out! (Do It Babay) feat. Mackenzie
2. Move With a Purpose feat. Karl Denson
3. Where’s Danny?
4. Origins feat. Keith Anderson
5. PoundCake feat. Casey Benjamin
6. Phatbacc
7. Grandma’s Curtains feat. Eric Gales
8. Revival Island feat. Travis Toy & Mark Lettieri
9. Yellow Dan feat. Marcus Miller
10. Bad Knees
11. Synesthesia
12. Slim Goodie
13. Mustard n’Onions feat. Jay Jennings
14. Origins Reprise
15. Nard’s Right feat. Bernard Wright
Tour Dates:
Jan 13 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
Jan 14 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis
Jan 16 – West Hartford, CT – New Park Brewing
Jan 17 – Portsmouth, NH – Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club
Jan 18 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
Jan 19 – Ardmore, PA – Ardmore Music Hall
Jan 20 – York, PA – Appell Center for the Performing Arts
Apr 5 – Live Oak, FL – Resonate Suwannee
Apr 7 – Houston, TX – Jazz Sundays in The Park Series @ Buffalo Bayou Park
Jul 6-7 – Quincy, CA – High Sierra Festival
Follow Ghost-Note:
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter
