Jam Band: Gooding's Angel/Devil

Gooding delivers the organic, acoustic, driven rock of the Dave Matthews Band without the polished veneer that has glossed over recent DMB offerings.

I remember being in my apartment in St. Louis, bright sun coming through all of the windows, and I sat there in amazement listening to DMB’s Before These Crowded Streets. Whereas Crash started to show pop invasion, Streets reached back to Under the Table and Dreaming for that rock sound that gives life to every twinge of groove in a singer-songwriter’s strumming.

If you remember that same experience with Dave Matthews “back in the day,” then sit down with Gooding’s Angel/Devil.

Gooding came to my attention, because recently the Beatrice (Nebraska) High School Indoor Drum Line featured a Gooding medley for the drum line’s show. When you hear the made-for-drumline drumming on “Little America” or “Free,” it’s no surprise that the percussion section would choose Gooding’s music. Angel/Devil pushes forward with all of the backbeat coming in so many different ways from the drums of Jesse Reichenberger. My band director in high school, Dr. Earl C. Benson at Bloomington Jefferson Senior High School, was an incredible director who took our marching band musically where many others wouldn’t. However, his knowledge of independent rock music was limited meaning that we never did the R.E.M. show I thought needed to happen. That said, I commend the Beatrice drumline director for seeing the potential in Gooding’s music.

Aside from returning to the roots of the Dave Matthews Band, Gooding also has that Jam Band quality of taking in grooves from many places. “Free” is actually a disco ball jam rhythm. “Everything or Nothing Again” and “Dig” find a John Mayer jazz groove, but then get the full band jamming on that same groove in way that isn’t captured in some of Mayer’s work. “Living in a Land of Make Believe” is a bluesy, acoustic jam inspired by a street blues field recording of “a homeless man outside of a laundrymat/bar in Cinnci called Sudsy Malones” (from email with Gooding).

Finally, Gooding’s spiritual themes send the mind and soul on their own groove while your foot taps with the rhythm. The referent of the album title, Angel/Devil, is actually Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. On the track named for the betrayer, Judas is said to be an “angel/devil in my eyes”—an apt description of the faith of Judas which was countered by Satan’s sinful deception. “Goldenboy” could potentially be about the frustration of Jesus not returning yet to bring an end to evil. Finally, “Dig” sounds like a call to God for help when in the midst of the madness of mind and world.

Thank you to Gooding for the review copy.