Black Dub On World Cafe | January 7, 2011

Daniel Lanois is a veritable musicians' musician. He's produced Grammy winner after Grammy winner, including U2's The Joshua Tree in 1987 and Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind a decade later. He's also worked with other big names such as Willie Nelson, Brian Eno and Neil Young. It shouldn't come as a surprise that Lanois is a performer in his own right — he's a singer, songwriter, guitarist and drummer. And he's finally showcasing himself with his project Black Dub.

Black Dub is comprised of Lanois on guitar, Brian Blade on the drums and Trixie Whitley (daughter of the late Chris Whitley) on everything else. They specialize in music fully formed from the moment it is recorded — no overdubs, no touching up, no fixed notes. Lanois calls it fluid, recorded live. As he says, "It's a very old-fashioned idea, really."

The three-piece began posting their one-take videos on YouTube, and the response was immediate and strong. People liked this simple kind of projection, where one hand-held captures the moment and the video goes straight to the fans. Black Dub attempted to capture this feeling in their eponymous debut. (link)