StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Alan Evans' Playonbrother

Today, let's spend a little video time with drummer Alan Evans and his band Playonbrother, who will be in St. Louis next week to perform on Thursday, July 24 at the Gramophone.

Made up of Evans, a co-founder of the funk-jazz trio Soulive, plus Danny Mayer on guitar and Beau Sasser on keyboards, Playonbrother was formed a couple of years ago as the Alan Evans Trio. They've released three albums, debuting in 2012 with Drop Hop and this year putting out two records, Merkaba and the live Woodstock Sessions Vol. 1.

The group also has played St. Louis a couple of times under their old moniker, most recently in September 2012 at the Old Rock House. Since adopting their new name, they're emphasizing Evans' singing more, and seem to have tilted in a more hard-rocking, bluesy direction, though still including plenty of funky backbeats and extended jams.

You can see some of their most recent music in the first video up above, just posted online this past Monday, which is a full set recorded "live in the studio" at Evergroove Studios in Colorado. Then after the jump, there's another full set, recorded live in June 2014 at the Disc Jam Music Festival in Barre, MA.

If you'd rather check out some individual tracks first, below that you'll find live versions of "Nothing To Say" and "Cosmic Hazel Dust" captured in March of this year at Brooklyn Bowl in NY, followed by "Back to Buffalo" and "I'm The Only One," which were recorded live in New Orleans as part of the series "Jam in the Van."

For more about Alan Evans and Playonbrother, check out this interview from 2012 and this one from February of this year.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...