Get Carter

“We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.”
            -  Duck Dunn – The Blues Brothers
​
Duck Dunn, who was bassist for Booker T and the MG’s and the Blues Brothers (he played himself in the film) died in Tokyo on May 13th, after playing two gigs at the Blue Note Club.  I happened to be in Tokyo that night and what would I have given to have been there at one of his last gigs.

Donald “Duck” Dunn was revered in the music world as possibly the best bass guitarist ever and during his time with Stax Records worked with most of the greats.
​
Get Carter are a band in the Booker T mould, but their sound is more powerful.  They were playing tonight at the Golden Lion in Lancaster.  Their sound includes a mean bass line, but astonishingly there’s no bass player- the bass is provided by James Mackie on his Hammond organ. It’s worth going to see Get Carter just for the pleasure of watching James’ hands dancing over the keys.  A musician in the audience couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a pre-recorded bass track.  Just two players, James on Hammond and John Elles on drums, produce a sound to beat any five piece band.  It was an exhilarating evening which had the audience shouting for more.  As Duck Dunn might have said “They were powerful enough to turn goat piss into gas”.