Tapers Choice and Rich Ruth at The Earl, Atlanta, February 5, 2026

It's certainly been a while since I've done one of these show-review posts. Last night, I went to The Earl in East Atlanta Village for the first time in six years. The last time I was there was February 22, 2020, just mere days before the covids shut everything down, so see the singer Mattiel. 

I've been to live shows since then, of course, although mainly just the annual Big Ears festivals. Music's changed and I've changed, but last night I was delighted to see that The Earl hasn't changed. Not one little bit. Okay, I did notice a new light above the stage, but that's more of a I've-just-bought-a-new-lamp kind of change than a honey-I-redecorated-the-whole-house kind of change. Everything else, the corner bar, the merch table in the other corner, the low-rise stage, the gritty but accommodating atmosphere, is exactly the same as it was in the twenty-teens, and I couldn't be happier about that. Don't ever change, Earl, you're perfect the way you are.

Last night's show was the brilliant pairing of Nashville's Rich Ruth with the jam-band supergroup Tapers Choice. Rich Ruth opened.     

I've seen Rich Ruth before at Big Ears 2023 so I knew what to expect. Not that tagging is important and we don't need to put a label on everything, but their music is hard to classify. It's certainly not jazz, even though a saxophone is prominent in their sound. It's not prog or post-rock, either, although it's all instrumental with no vocals. Psychedelic rock? Stoner ambient? Experimental? Frankly, I don't know and I don't care. Judge (or don't) for yourself: 

Last night's set consisted of almost all new material is anticipation of an album they'll be recording soon in Athens, Georgia. They did, however, close their set with Older, But Not Less Confused from 2022's I Survived, It's Over.

The headliners were L.A.'s Taper's Choice, a supergroup of sorts consisting of Dave Harrington (Darkside), Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), Chris Tomson (Vampire Weekend), and Zach Tenorio-Miller (Arc Iris). They are unapologetically a jam band, specializing in long improvisations and often face-melting grooves.  They're a little too attached for my liking to Grateful-Dead style vocals, but the songs are usually just launching pads of bookends for their long, exploratory instrumentals, which is the part I like. Not sure they really need the singing, though - it's not their strong suit and some of their best material is vocal free, like Doner Wrap, below.

As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, they bought saxophonist Sam Que from Rich Ruth on stage for one jam, a clearly improvisational number with some great call-and-response interplay between Sam and keyboardist Zach Tenorio-Miller. 

Minds were blown and faces were melted, people danced, and a good time was had by all. Bonus points: even though Taper's Choice played for 1¾ hours, I was back home just a few minutes after 11:00 pm, despite some overnight, construction-related traffic in downtown Atlanta. 

Double bonus points: Now that I've seen Tapers Choice, my Big Ears 2026 dilemma between them and Medeski, Martin, Metzger & Cline is now resolved.  

Songs For a Wintery Saturday

Lyrics from both of these songs were quoted today in Water Dissolves Water, the main blog. 

Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?

Is January 30 (Structures of Earth, 30th Day of Childwinter) too early to proclaim an AOTY? Follow-up question: is the the greatest hurdy-gurdy album ever?   

Taper's Choice

Dilemma: Taper's Choice or Medeski, Martin, Metzger & Cline on the inaugural Thursday night of Big Ears 2026? Or try to squeeze in both by leaving one early and arriving at the other late? To make it even more complicated, there's also a Marc Ribot/Mary Halvorsen set on the same night.  

Red

What does it sound like when a classically trained bass clarinetist and a new classical ensemble collaborate to interpret the music of Robert Fripp? Here's Evan Ziporyn and ContaQt with the answer.

Natural Snow Buildings

Waves of the Random Sea (2011). Sounds of a random choice. 

Associative Dissonance

Yesterday, as you no doubt know, the New England Patriots defeated the Houston Texans in an AFC Divisional game. Fuck those guys, and by "those guys" I mean the Texans, C.J. (Oops, I Did It Again) Stroud, and their whole team.

But thinking about the game got me to thinking about Houston, and to wondering if there was any good music out of Houston other than the peckerwood, honky-tonk, urban cowboy country-and-western for which they're so famous. Being an older gentleman myself, that got me to remembering "Archie Bell & the Drells of Houston, Texas,"  who dance just as good as they walk and boasted that "in Houston, we've just started a new dance called the Tighten Up."

Upon closer listening, the song is actually better than I remembered, and I had forgotten the syncopated hand claps toward the end, 4/4 rhythm with the emphasis on the 2s and 4s. Which got me to wondering, were the claps in 1968's Tighten Up the inspiration for the handclaps in Miles Davis' 1972 Black Satin? Listening  to the two tracks 50 years later, although the songs are radically different, the hand claps certainly sound similar, and in 1972, Miles was trying to catch the interest of a younger audience. 

Anyhow, that's how my monkey mind words, swinging from one thought to the next, from sports to Texas cities to 60's soul and funk to Miles Davis.