Jan 08 : "Key to the Highway" - Bad Tiger (Princeton)

NEW INTERPRETATIONS

I was immediately pulled in to the music by the smoothness and the complexity of the arrangements. I saw Bad Tiger play on my recent trip to Barca City in New Brunswick. Yes, I had listened to the music on line before I went to the show, but their music at the live show sounded more nuanced, more textured. I recommend you check out a live show!

And some of the songs sounded familiar. Most of the band's music is covers, and they aim very high, following some of the blues greats! They show their respect to these legends, they have a love for the individual songs, yet they're staking out their own interpretations, adding to the life of this music.

Bad Tiger doesn't have a whole lot of bio information on their Facebook page, so I was curious to learn more. Alby (Lead Guitar/Vocals) got back to me with the info.

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Bob: How old is your band?

Alby / Bad Tiger: We are all PhD students at Princeton University and we started playing together in January 2018.

Bob: How do you pick the songs?

Alby / Bad Tiger: We all share similar tastes in music, so picking the songs is a fairly easy process.

Bob: How do you create the arrangements?

Alby / Bad Tiger: We usually turn to the Blues greats (Freddie King, Albert King, Eric Clapton), as well as to the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan and so forth. Our arrangements are two-fold: either we stick to the original version (or some live version) of the song we are covering, or we come up with our own interpretation. Our own interpretation is usually on the bluesier-side, but sometimes we like to give it a reggae twist. All in all, we tend to give room to the guitar and keys to solo/exchange licks, and when possible/suited we try to end the song with a jam.

Bob: What do you see the band doing in the future?

Alby / Bad Tiger: As far as the future of the band goes, we plan to keep on jamming for the next few years until the end of ours PhDs. Once this is over, I hope life won’t drive us too far apart from one another, so that we’ll be able to get together for a reunion and a few beers every couple of years.

Thanks again for reaching out

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((At this point I expressed to them it was too bad that they had to get their PhD's and disperse.)). :)

I was also trying to think of which song to choose to feature with this writeup. I was thinking about "Key to the Highway", so I asked them about it ::::

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Bob: I guess I have a couple more questions. When I write about bands, I usually feature one of the songs I like the most to accompany the writeup. I seem to be zeroing in on “Key to the Highway” in the Whitman College album. Any special story or comments about that song or album? .... .... When you say “Whitman College 4/27/19” as the title of the album. That was a specific concert where you recorded the songs?

Alby / Bad Tiger: I’m glad you’re zeroing in on “key to the highway”. It’s my favorite song and it’s one of the first we put together as Bad Tiger two years ago. Our arrangement is largely inspired by the “Derek & the Dominos: live at the Fillmore” version (you can find it on youtube or Spotify). It’s almost always “a must” in our setlist: we get to unleash the blues chops that we like, guitar and keys take multiple solos, and we also get to change the dynamics of the song quite a bit (you may have noticed how we drop the volume during the guitar solo in the middle of the song).

Also, in case you hadn’t run across it, let me point you to the version from our bandcamp album “Scarlet Pub 10/14/18” (Scarlet Pub is in New Brunswick). I think it’s tighter than the “Whitman College” one, but that’s just my opinion.

As for your question on the title: yes, the recordings in “Whitman College 4/27/19” are from the Whitman College (Princeton University) gig on 4/27/19. Likewise, “Scarlet Pub 10/14/18” and so forth. I guess we are not very creative with our titles, but the artwork is mighty fine haha.

Bob: Thanks for the background story, Alby.

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"Key to the Highway" is the opening track on the band's "Whitman College 04/27/19" Album :::

A Bandcamp glitch has the song below mislabeled, but click anyway below to begin, and you will hear "Key to the Highway".,

Bad Tiger doesn't have any other shows coming up soon, but here's the click to their Facebook page where you can find out when the next time will be ::: Bad Tiger on Facebook (CLICK HERE). And here's the link to the other version of "Key to the Highway" that Alby mentioned in our conversation: "Key to the Highway" (Scarlet Pub 10/14/18) (CLICK HERE).

photo from Bad Tiger's Facebook page