| Mirrors of Embarrassment | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1993 | |||
| Label | Capricorn [1] | |||
| Producer | Johnny Sandlin | |||
| Aquarium Rescue Unit chronology | ||||
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| Bruce Hampton chronology | ||||
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Mirrors of Embarrassment is an album by the American band Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. [2] [3] It is dedicated to Wayne Bennett.
The band supported the album by touring with the 1993 H.O.R.D.E. festival. [4] Bruce Hampton left the band later the same year. [5]
The album was produced by Johnny Sandlin, who called the band the best that he had heard. [6] [7] Hampton played his "chazoid", an instrument that resembled a combination of guitar and mandolin. [8] He spent a month writing the songs for the album, after the band had finished touring behind their debut. [9]
Béla Fleck and John Popper contributed to the album. [10] [11] "Trondossa" is built around the sound of a Hammond B-3. [12]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [13] |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide |  [14] |
| The State | [15] |
Stereo Review stated: "Just imagine it—a six-string-bass jazz/funk virtuoso, a mandolin phenom with avant-garde leanings, a guitarist who'd have been a Southern-rock hotshot in another context, and a four-armed drummer (or so it seems), all coming together in a sound that combines the brisk tandem runs of bluegrass, the improvisational aspects of jazz, and the dynamics of rock." [10] The Washington Post determined that, "at times it's all a bit too clever and cluttered for its own good, but more often than not it evokes the open-ended possibilities that hippie-rock has often promised and rarely delivered." [16]
The Star Tribune opined that, "if you married two great San Francisco Bay Area bands of the 1970s, Tower of Power and the Grateful Dead, the result might sound like the Aquarium Rescue Unit." [17] The Telegram & Gazette noted that "the playing is spirited, the sentiment a little demented." [18] The State declared that "Matt Mundy's mandolin dances with Jimmy Herring's speed-of-light guitar licks in some of this century's most bodacious Southern-fried fusion." [15]
AllMusic wrote that the album was "relaxed, smart, fun music with big fat friendly shouter vocals from the Colonel." [13]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "No Ego's Under Water" | |
| 2. | "Lost My Mule in Texas" | |
| 3. | "It's Not the Same Old Thing" | |
| 4. | "Too Many Guitars" | |
| 5. | "Gone Today, Here Tomorrow" | |
| 6. | "Shoeless Joe" | |
| 7. | "Lives of Longevity" | |
| 8. | "Memory Is a Gimmick" | |
| 9. | "Dead Presidents" | |
| 10. | "Trondossa" | |
| 11. | "Swing" | |
| 12. | "Payday" |
Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit was a jazz fusion group founded by Col. Bruce Hampton. The band gained popularity in the Atlanta club scene in the early 1990s and went on to tour with the first H.O.R.D.E. Tour. During their formative years, the band was composed of Bruce Hampton, Oteil Burbridge, Jimmy Herring, Jeff Sipe, Matt Mundy, and Count M'Butu. Jeff Mosier and Charlie Williams were members of the band during the early years, but left to pursue other endeavors. Although the band was never commercially successful, their combination of bluegrass, rock, Latin, blues, jazz, funk, and impeccable chops became a template for future bands.
Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere or H.O.R.D.E. Festival was a touring summer rock music festival originated by the musical group Blues Traveler in 1992. In addition to travelling headliners, the festival gave exposure to bands, charities, and organizations from the local area of the concert.
Jimmy Herring is an American guitarist, known as the lead guitarist for the band Widespread Panic since 2006. He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz Is Dead and has played with The Allman Brothers Band, Project Z, Derek Trucks Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, and The Dead.
Oteil Burbridge is an American multi-instrumentalist, specializing on the bass guitar, trained in playing jazz and classical music from an early age. He has achieved fame primarily on bass guitar during the resurgence of the Allman Brothers Band from 1997 through 2014, and as a founding member of the band Dead & Company. Burbridge was also a founding member of The Aquarium Rescue Unit and Tedeschi Trucks Band, with whom his brother Kofi Burbridge was the keyboardist and flautist. He has worked with other musicians including Bruce Hampton, Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Bill Kreutzmann and Derek Trucks.
New Grass Revival was an American progressive bluegrass band founded in 1971, and composed of Sam Bush, Courtney Johnson, Ebo Walker, Curtis Burch, Butch Robins, John Cowan, Béla Fleck and Pat Flynn. They were active between 1971 and 1989, releasing more than twenty albums as well as six singles. Their highest-charting single is "Callin' Baton Rouge", which peaked at No. 37 on the U.S. country charts in 1989 and was a Top 5 country hit for Garth Brooks five years later.
Bruce Hampton was an American musician. He was a key figure in the Atlanta, Georgia music scene, mentoring numerous other musicians who became national stars. His own musical style was avant-garde, combining elements of jazz, fusion, southern rock and jam band styles.
The Hampton Grease Band was an American rock band, beginning as a blues rock group in the late 1960s in Atlanta, Georgia. They performed with several major bands in this period, including Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers. The band gained a reputation for wacky stage antics, and eventually garnered enough attention to sign to Columbia Records. They recorded the double album Music to Eat, which is apocryphally said to have been the second-lowest selling album in Columbia's history, second only to a yoga instructional record. This record compared with Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, and Pere Ubu.
The Codetalkers were a jazz, rock and roll band from Savannah, Georgia, United States, composed of Bobby Lee Rodgers, Mark Raudabaugh and Andrew Altman. The band was formed in 1999, upon the meeting of Rodgers and Col. Bruce Hampton at a show at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta. The group toured for many years as a four-piece with the lineup of Rodgers, Hampton, Greenwell and Pecchio. In the spring of 2006, the band announced they would be touring without Hampton, who was stepping down for a multitude of reasons. The band was aiming to undertake a heavy touring schedule in support of their recent release, in which Hampton was unwilling and unable to participate. He had lent his name to the project for years in order to help Rodgers gain the recognition Hampton felt he deserved, but as a touring musician for 40 years, the grueling demands that a national tour would place on him didn't seem very alluring. Coincidentally, just as this announcement was to be made, Hampton trumped the press release by citing his own health reasons for leaving the band.
In a Perfect World is a 1994 studio album by the Aquarium Rescue Unit. It was the band's first studio album, following two live releases, and their first record following the departure of former frontman Bruce Hampton.
Col. Bruce & The Quark Alliance is a band formed in 2006 by musician Bruce Hampton that recorded and toured through 2010. Hampton has been a part of the Southern music scene since the 1960s fronting such acts as The Hampton Grease Band, The Late Bronze Age, The Aquarium Rescue Unit, and The Fiji Mariners.
"Basically Frightened" is a song written by Col. Bruce Hampton, Tinsley Ellis and Ricky Keller. The song was first recorded and released on Col. Bruce Hampton's 1986 solo album "Arkansas" on Landslide Records.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two is the nineteenth studio album by American country folk group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, released on May 1, 1989. The album follows the same concept as the band's 1972 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which featured guest performances from many notable country music stars.
Jeff Sipe, also known as Apt. Q258, is an American drummer. He works mainly in rock and jazz fusion. He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit with Bruce Hampton. He was a member of Leftover Salmon and the Zambiland Orchestra, an experimental big band with members of Phish and Widespread Panic. He has toured with Trey Anastasio, Jeff Coffin, Jimmy Herring, Warren Haynes, Keller Williams, John McLaughlin, and guitarist Shawn Lane.
Curated and presented by Grammy Award-winning vocalist-songwriter and revered guitarist Warren Haynes, the Christmas Jam is a one-of-a-kind music marathon. Since its inception in 1988, the concert has provided an opportunity for the performing artists, audience and the local community to give back during the holiday season. Over the past 18 years, Haynes - an Asheville native - has worked closely with the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity.
Matthew Dutot Slocum is a keyboardist who collaborates predominantly with southern jazz, funk, fusion and blues musicians. He has worked with Susan Tedeschi, Widespread Panic guitarist Jimmy Herring, Allman Brothers bassist Oteil Burbridge, The Magpie Salute, and Railroad Earth among many others.
Kofi Burbridge was an American keyboardist and flautist of the blues and blues rock group Tedeschi Trucks Band.
Outside Looking Out is the debut album by The Late Bronze Age, a collaboration between musicians Bruce Hampton and Billy McPherson. It was recorded in the summer and fall of 1980, and was released on LP later that year by Landslide Records as the first entry in their catalogue. In 2002, the album was reissued on CD by Terminus Records.
Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit is a live album by the band of the same name. It was recorded at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia, and was released in 1992 by Capricorn Records. On the album, band leader Bruce Hampton is joined by guitarist Jimmy Herring, mandolin player Matt Mundy, keyboard player Chuck Leavell, bassist Oteil Burbridge, conga player Count Mbutu, and drummer Jeff Sipe, listed as "Apt. Q-258."
Arkansas is an album by Col. Bruce Hampton. It was recorded at Southern Living Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, and was released on LP in 1987 by Landslide Records. In 2000, Terminus Records reissued the album on CD. On the album, Hampton is joined by a large group of guest musicians.
The Calling is an album by the Aquarium Rescue Unit. The band's second record following the departure of former frontman Bruce Hampton, it was recorded in 2000 at Exocet Studio in Atlanta, Georgia, and was released in 2003 by Inio Music. The album features guitarist Jimmy Herring, keyboardist and flutist Kofi Burbridge, bassist Oteil Burbridge, vocalist Paul Henson, and drummer Sean O'Rourke, plus a number of guest musicians.