Black Dub

Black Dub came together in 2009 when producer, guitarist, and songwriter Daniel Lanois assembled bassist Daryl Johnson, drummer Brian Blade, and vocalist/keyboardist Trixie Whitley—daughter of the late singer songwriter Chris Whitley—into a working unit. While the musicians hunted for a record contract, they captured rehearsal takes on both audio and video and uploaded the clips to YouTube. Their sound blended into a dense, sultry, late-night amalgam of rock, New Orleans-inspired funk, soul, reggae, and Americana. The group laid down its self-titled debut across multiple sites and ultimately chose Red Ink, distributed through Jive, as the outlet. In the months leading up to the projected launch, the band booked a handful of concerts and shared select live footage on its own site. Those plans were interrupted when Lanois suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident during July 2010. Following an unexpectedly swift recovery, the album finally appeared in late fall of that year and received positive critical notices.