Tell Me About Your Favorite Band, Jason Dodson: "The Band Had It All: Great Harmonies, Great Lyrics, Great Beards"

Tell Me About Your Favorite Band is a semi-regular feature on Reverb, in which we track down some of [y]our favorite local musicians and ask them to blab about their personal favorites.

For this, the inaugural edition of TMAYFB, we caught up with Jason Dodson, primary voice of saloon-country outfit The Maldives, and folksy twang project Sons of Warren Oates. Jason is a guitar-swinging Ballard resident and smoked salmon enthusiast. The Maldives headline the Tractor this Saturday, November 19th.

If you had to pick one (which you do), who is your favorite band of all time?

I would have to say The Band. Kind of an obvious choice, but they just kinda had it all. Great melodies, great lyrics, great harmonies. And they had great beards.

What makes them so cool?

They just worked so damned hard! So many bands these days get on that fast track, sky rocket to stardom, then just burn out and fade away. The Band played together for over a decade before they got big. That's cool. And they were Dylan's backing band. That's even cooler.

What is their best album and why?

I would have to say their self-titled album, also known as the "brown" album, is The Band's best. Back to back hits, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," and my favorite chorus of all time:

Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don't have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard's dream, if I ever did see one.

And it has a kick-ass album cover.

Shout out to anyone locally?

Two bands: My Goodness and The Moondoggies. My Goodness for being so fucking good, and The Moondoggies for being our brothers in arms after all these years. One day we will all tour together, and take over the world.