The sky overhead is crystal clear
And the stars have put the sun to bed
400 miles of interstate without one good tune on the dial
The music's lost tonight
Trapped by satellites
I'll take love-makin' grooves
Some heart-breakin' blues
An old country tune by Willie
— “Busy Signal” by Luke Sayers
Luke Sayers knows what it's like to drive with no audio inspiration.
“There were a couple long trips we took where you played every CD that you have, and you ran through the MP3 player, and you've got that four hours ahead of you on the road, and you're trying to watch all the signs go by because you don't really know where you're going,” he said. “All you really want to do is find a good tune on the radio to kind of help you tolerate the situation a little more, maybe do a little singalong in the car.”
“Busy Signal” opens “Radio Flower,” the first full-length disc released last month by Luke Sayers and the Last to Know.
“It does have this salute to the independent music theme that's kind of operating underneath the radar of the Clear Channel empire that has a lot of the commercial stuff locked down,” said the singer-songwriter-guitarist from his Chicago home. “But there's been some great independent stations that have been good at helping us get our stuff out there. [This song] is a salute, a nod and thank you to them, as well as showing some of the frustration.”
The longtime Detroit resident also pays tribute to James Jamerson of The Funk Brothers with “I Hear You” on the new disc. The Funk Brothers were the uncredited musicians who played on Motown Records. “We try to give that track the feel of the Motown era.
We gave it a boost with the tambourine in there, give it more of a soulful feeling, and add some Motown licks and harmonies,” Sayers said.
The independent artist calls his sound “American acoustic roots music.”
“It's blues and jazz and folk, country — those styles are all things that came from this country. I think that best describes what we're doing.”
Sayers and the Last to Know will play the Village Idiot in Maumee at 10 p.m. June 14. Tickets are $5.
