BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY play The Coach House Jul 8; photo James Christopher
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy bring their full ensemble to perform their throwback swing music at The Coach House Jul 7 and The Cave Jul 8. The Coach House has been fortunate to have Big Bad Voodoo Daddy perform on a somewhat regular basis.
“It’s just a fun, old concert venue. It’s been there for a long time. Everybody has played there,” Marhevka said. “The reason we’re able to perform there more often is because we’re a Southern California based band so I think it’s a little easier for us to schedule that in around our touring schedule. You’ll see a lot of great artists play there all the time. It’s one of those fun, classic, American music halls.”
Scotty Morris, guitar/vocals, and Kurt Sodergren, drums formed the nine-piece band in 1993. The rest of the members joined soon after bringing a mix of woodwind instruments, a double bass, and piano to the mix. In the 1990’s they became one of the prominent bands of the swing revival with their combination of jazz, swing and Dixieland music.
Back when Big Bad Voodoo Daddy first started to play live, they were often greeted by stages too small to fit the whole band.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy; photo James Christopher
“Up in San Francisco we used to play Club Deluxe which we couldn’t even fit on at all. So half of the band had to stand on the floor,” Marhevka recalled. “We’ve been so tight on stage it’s been difficult but we always make it happen!”
One of their most notorious singles, “You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby)”, was featured in the soundtrack for the film “Swingers”, as well as “I Wan’na Be Like You” and “Go Daddy-O”.
This success led to three albums on Capitol Records, the platinum selling, “Americana Deluxe,” and the follow up albums, “This Beautiful Life,” and “Save My Soul.”
The group recently released a new album Louie, Louie, Louie, their first since 2013’s Christmas album It Feels Like Christmas which features both traditional and original Christmas songs.
“We’ll be doing stuff from all of our albums,” said Marhevka. “We’ll kind of do an eclectic mix of everything.”