Recap: Shakey Graves with Buffalo Hunt at Empire Live 12/11/2024

Words: Rob Smittix

Pics: Tim Reidy

I (Rob Smittix) have been digging Shakey Graves’ music for a while now. I mostly knew of his music from the Audiotree YouTube recording and “Roll the Bones” was the song that reeled me in. When I heard about this tour coming to Albany, I immediately put it on my calendar. There’s only so much time in the day, so I never knew the connection between Buffalo Hunt and Shakey Graves. I though that Buffalo Hunt was going to be the common type of opener that you would expect from a tour like this, so I was surprised to see Shakey Graves and Buffalo Hunt come out together right off the rip. After playing a couple of tunes Shakey Graves introduced himself, Buffalo Hunt (Stephanie Hunt) then introduced herself as well.

Graves tells the audience that the funny thing is he lives with Hunt, they are married and they recently had a daughter who they take on tour with them. I had no idea. He then makes the joke, “yup we’ve have sex before and we’ll have sex again in the future.”

Throughout the evening Graves would leave the stage for Hunt to do her thing and vice versa and ultimately, rejoining forces again. Well now that I am aware of their connection, it makes perfect sense. I realize I was late to the game with that information but I’m sure I couldn’t have been the only one who didn’t know. I listen to so much music, I never really have the time to deep dive on any musician’s wiki information. Well enough excuses from me, I just saw the “more you know!” rainbow.

Back to the show at hand. Graves’ and Hunt’s harmonies were incredible together. I wish my wife and I could be a musical power couple like these two, I’m totally envious of any musicians that can pull this off. The stage banter was fun as well, at one point Hunt made a joke about farting on stage, classic! Then she asked “do like my boots? These are my wedding boots I wore them on my wedding day!”

I wore my camo jacket because let’s face it, it’s freezing in December in New York, I was wondering in a sea of flannels and big brimmed hats if my coat would’ve been too gangsta for this show but Shakey Graves was wearing pretty much the same jacket; I felt vindicated. If you know me, you know I don’t get down with boy bands but Graves’ and Hunt’s cover of Backstreet Boys’ “As Long as You Love Me,” was a nice touch, they turned it into a great song!