Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings Bring the Funk on a Soulful Bonnaroo Saturday
Soul shakedowns were all over the place at Bonnaroo on Saturday afternoon, as the drizzle gave way to sunshine. Over at This Tent, roots-rock duo The Wood Brothers jammed with keyboardist extraordinaire John Medeski; at the What stage, the Soul Rebels Brass Band turned out a set of pumped-up New Orleans soul, funk and jazz. Meanwhile, New York-based outfit Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings ripped up the Which Stage. They might not have been the most suavely-dressed of the three groups — former corrections officer Jones was decked out in a ruffled get-up she called her “Tina Turner dress,” and her band sported stifling black suits — but they were by sure the funkiest. Over sexed-up riff-driven funk and retro-style big-band soul, Jones unleashed her firey pipes on tunes about broken and breaking hearts. The highlight? That one cut about a girl named Susie who turns tricks as Lucy and brings home a thousand dollars a night, which the group dedicated to “all the working girls out there.”