If you grew up in the ’70s, you probably have a warm and fuzzy place in your mind connected with that music. Local guitar ace Duke Levine wants to take you back there with his latest project, *Super Sweet Sounds of the 70s*. He’s playing release shows at the Lizard Lounge on Friday and Saturday to celebrate.
“It’s nostalgic, but in the right way,” Levine says of the project. “Part of it is that these are instrumental versions, so they’re not so literal. That can be a nice way of putting people into a space where they can conjure up images. The tunes we’re doing all had an impact on me when I was growing up in the ‘70s — which is not to say I loved them all, but they did have an impact.”
Levine rarely gets downtime. Widely known as one of Boston’s best guitarists, he holds the lead-guitar slot in both Bonnie Raitt’s and Peter Wolf’s bands. True to its name, Levine and his *Super Sweet* band — co-guitarist Kevin Barry, bassist Mike Rivard, drummer Dean Johnston, keyboardist Paul Schultheis, and percussionist Yahuba Garcia-Torres — offer a cozy take on ’70s music, focusing mostly on the earlier part of the decade.
The album features eight lengthy tracks, with a few others slated for the live shows. Rather than strict covers, the songs are re-imagined. “Sometimes it only dawns on people halfway through which tune we’re playing,” Levine says. “Without getting pompous about it, I wanted there to be some creative bent — to take existing material and do something with the arrangements. Maybe to a fault, some of them don’t showcase the guitar playing as much as they do everybody together.”
For example, Paul McCartney’s “Ram On,” originally a two-minute ukulele song, becomes late-night jazz with steel guitar and trumpet. Traffic’s English ballad “John Barleycorn” gets an acoustic-to-electric makeover. “Not that it sounds alike, but we had the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ template on that one,” Levine remarks.
Sometimes the band covers one band’s songs in the style of another. For instance, they blend Barry White and Steely Dan songs into a medley, then take it to yet another place. “When Dennis Brennan came in to play harmonica on that, it started sounding like the band War, who had Lee Oskar on harmonica.”
The album steers clear of campier AM-radio songs, but Levine admits he sneaks a couple into the live shows. “We’re doing ‘Summer Breeze’ by Seals & Crofts — I didn’t really like that at the time but I can appreciate it now, especially after the Isley Brothers’ version. And ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ — people may not remember that, but it was a hit single by Sister Janet Mead.” Occasionally, the band receives requests like “The Night Chicago Died,” but Levine says, “There has to be some connection with the tunes that would lend itself to being a little guitaristic.”
Though you might expect an album like this to be pressed on vinyl, Levine went a step further. He found a company in Texas that could produce it on 8-track tape. Only 50 copies were made, and he’ll be selling them at the shows. Yes, the tapes come complete with moments where the song is interrupted while the track changes.
“They said they’d tried to avoid that, but I said, ‘Don’t worry. To me, that’s the best part,’” Levine laughs.
If you’re a ’70s music fan — or you just love inventive guitar work — *Super Sweet Sounds of the 70s* promises a nostalgic and creatively refreshing experience. Be sure to catch Duke Levine and his band at the Lizard Lounge this weekend!
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/11/06/duke-levine-turns-up-super-sweet-sounds-of-the-70s/
