More Pure Goodness From TTB At the Orpheum

As I've pointed out several times before, Boston's Orpheum Theatre is not my favorite concert venue; but Tedeschi Trucks Band is one of the few best bands in the world and seeing them is an delight not to be missed ... well worth a non-optimal audience experience.  We'd learned to get tickets in the center of the balcony and that's what we did when they went on sale for the band's annual early-December stop.  We only got tickets for the second of their three-night stand, though perhaps we should have gotten tickets for all three, and then followed this band to the ends of the earth, they're just amazing.

Parked in Sarah's and Dave's building on a semi-cold, snowy Boston night on Friday, December 6th.  The late Fall has already turned Winter-cold and we've already been hit with a big, long snow-storm.  Had dinner at Kinsale's and then bustled the few blocks down Tremont to Hamilton Place, where they'd set up metal detectors.  Sigh, just another bit of rock concert hassle to put up with; Sarah and Dave didn't even try to bring in cigarettes or vape, thinking they might be "confiscated" for no reason.

The lobby amazingly wasn't packed yet and we had a chance to check out the merch table, they had a great poster for the Boston stand but nothing we wanted to buy.  Went upstairs to our seats, among the gorgeous architecture covered with chipped paint and scaffolding.  Dave's seat barely rested on its hinges, he thought it might totally collapse sometime during the concert.  But whatever, we were second row center in the balcony and they had huge stacks of speakers blocking lots of sight lines but we were fine, and soon nestled in with a couple of big beers and ciders.

The concert was sold out of course (the whole stand had been for months), but the crowd was late-arriving on a busy Friday night.  The band came out a little late with new keyboard player Gabe Dixon and new bassist Brandon Boone.  Since we first saw them back in 2011 (and were totally blown away by them) they've had very little turnover.  But they continue to make great personnel choices and though it's tragic that Kofi Burbridge is gone and we loved Tim LeFebvre's contributions, Dixon and Boone are great replacements.

Well, they launched right into it and we and all the people in the theater were instantly on the TTB planet.  There's a very good audience recording of the show on the Internet Archive and you need to go listen to that right now.  Almost every second of the show exhibited amazing execution and arrangement.  The sound was great, especially where we were, and the amazing thing was that there was very little chatter from the audience.  There was some, but nowhere near the amount you're usually surrounded by at a rock concert.  Everyone there was concentrating on every note that came from the stage and enjoying the fuck out of it.  Sure there was some singing along (see third song below), but Susan, Mike, Mark, Alicia, and new vocal addition Gabe drowned us all out.

Here's the first set:

Laugh About It
Don't Know What It Means
The Letter
Don't Drift Away
Right on Time
Get What You Deserve
Don't Keep Me Wonderin'
How Blue Can You Get?
Idle Wind

Again, just listen to it.  This band is on top of the world and the music they put out is riveting.  Susan was singing as well as ever, and her backup from Mattison, Rivers, and Chakour was intricate and so good at adding even more emotion and color to the lyrics.  The horn section seemed to me to be more upfront and involved, and as good as Trucks is this seemed to be a slightly more quiet night from him, which allowed everyone else on stage to shine.  But when it was his time to take the lead, watch out!

OK, maybe Susan isn't in the top echelon of blues guitarists, but she sure is for vocals.  Brandon Boone is perhaps not as dynamic as LeFebvre (or Oteil Burbridge before him), but he's getting there.  Gabe Dixon's sound on piano is just fantastic, though of course we missed Kofi on organ and flute.

Wow, what a first set.  It was all fantastic of course but a few highlights I recall were the emotion of the ensemble on The Letter, the amazing groove of Don't Drift Away, led by Alicia's high part, Gabe Dixon channeling Gregg Allman on Don't Keep Me Wonderin', and the growl of How Blue Can You Get?  Idle Wind was a great ending and in the middle of it the band paused to showcase the drummers with a dual solo.

Ack, the whole theater was full of excited people, and after waiting through some reasonable lines for bathroom and beer, we were back in our seats, and then the band came back out.  They'd set up a mini-acoustic set at the front of the stage with small trap sets for JJ Johnson and Tyler Greenwell, vocal mikes right behind them, chairs for Derek and Susan with Brandon on bass fiddle behind them, and a couple mikes for the horn players on the right.

Derek played an acoustic slide and it was awesome.  The sound he got out of that guitar and the skill he showed on it were surreal.  Susan struggled to stay in her chair and still emote that way she does, but she did, and this was an entirely successful mini-set, I hope they add this as a regular feature to their show.

Here's the second set, the first four songs with the small setup:

Back Where I Started
Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
Forty-Four Blues
I Am Yours
Down in the Bottom
High & Mighty
Angel From Montgomery > Sugaree
Leaving Trunk >
Volunteered Slavery (Rahsaan Roland Kirk)
Bound for Glory

Again, just a few things that stood out for me were the funk of Forty-Four Blues, Derek's technical excellence on I Am Yours, and the great vocal of Mike Mattison on Leaving Trunk.

OMG, we did not want them to stop!  They finally brought it to a climax with their classic Bound For Glory, featuring a spectacular coda from Alicia, and then shuffled off for a short encore break.  When they came back out Mark Rivers stepped up to the front of the stage and I knew what was coming ... kind of.  I'd heard they had worked up James Taylor's Fire and Rain but I was unprepared for how soulfully sung and how beautiful this was, especially when the whole band joined in on the chorus, "I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end."

And then they finished off the night with a no-holds-barred cover of their great recent song, Signs, High Times.  I've loved this on record and was thrilled to see it live, and to hear Susan raving at us to pick a fucking side and sit down, no more sitting on the fence.  And you knew whom she was talking about.

Yikes, we should have bought tickets to all three nights!  Or maybe not, the Orpheum can be a pain.  But we got out of there pretty quickly (as opposed to most of the people in the orchestra I'm sure), and went right over to the Common.

The Nova Scotia Christmas Tree had been lit the night before and there it was, looking as magnificent as ever.  I circled around it and touched a few branches, and thought of peace and friendship.  Not too cold a night, but soon we were getting a little chilly and dragged ourselves up the hill.  The Red Line was having some kind of crisis and so we drove Dave home and then got home pretty quickly ourselves.  I already can't wait to see them again!

More Fun With DSO In Lowell

Well, Dark Star Orchestra's gotta get tired of this stuff sometime.  We aren't tired of it, though we perhaps are spacing out the DSO shows more than we used to.  But they were doing another Fall Tour stop at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, November 16th, and we were there as well as old friends Scott and Michelle and new friends Chris and Libby.

We parked in the nearby city lot and hurried over to Gary's Restaurant and Bar, for some great Caribbean dishes (though they didn't have draft beer).  Got down to the Auditorium in plenty of time to check out the extensive Shakedown Street on a chilly and slightly damp Fall night.

They had serious security when entering, and they made Sarah discard her cigarettes!?!  I mean, what the fuck?  Cigarettes aren't illegal and there was nothing on the tickets about them not being allowed.  Going to rock and roll concerts is sometimes very aggravating.  They were probably over-reacting to it being such a smoke-filled place in previous years, but come on!

Anyway, got some beer and a good spot to stand over by the rail on the left.  I went up front for the first few numbers, just a few rows from the stage (the venue was about 3/4 full), but the sound up there was not good so I moved back with Sarah.  They came out right on time and started into that descending thunder that you know is going to wind up in Bucket.

The show was from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, 1991-08-18, and was quite an unusual setlist:

Hell In A Bucket
Jack-A-Roe
C C Rider->
It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry
Beat It On Down The Line
West L.A. Fadeaway
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Stagger Lee
Johnny B. Goode

Though I love DSO, I have to admit that I'd rank this concert way down on my list.  The setlist was all over the place and not very focussed.  And that seemed to extend to the performances.  Barraco and Eaton were as good as ever, and for most of the time I was just concentrating on them.  Dino was also having a good night.  But the others were kind of mailing it in and there was of course no Lisa, being 1991.

But the Lowell Aud is a nice place, the crowd was having a blast on a Saturday night, and I was dancing and singing and enjoying myself with the best of them.  Train To Cry and then BIODTL were very well done and I love Stagger Lee.  And you can't complain about Johnny B. Goode, though this didn't really take off either.

They had beer from the Kona Brewing Company there, so of course I had to have one!  We visited and chatted at the break and soon it was time for set 2, which was a bit less strange:

Deal
Samson And Delilah
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Feel Like A Stranger->
Drums-> Space->
China Doll->
Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad->
Throwing Stones->
Not Fade Away

Mattson was a little more involved in this set, and did turn in some great leads, though his contributions were spotty.  There was no great singing all night (until the filler) ... maybe they were being authentic!

And I have to say that the Drums segment was particularly not taking off.  We were hoping for Oteil to come out and slap some skins.  But it was a really nice segue from Space into China Doll and a fun GDTRFB.

Before we knew it, it was time for the encore, and I have to say this was the most broken down Brokedown I've ever heard.  Eaton had been having some trouble with the in-ear monitors earlier and I think they may have returned, but the band soldiered through it.  Then they announced that it was the Shoreline show (most people in the audience knew it already ... the Internet is ubiquitous), and then Lisa came out to one of the biggest ovations of the night.

And this bit more than met expectations!  It was filler time and they snapped right into Honkytonk Women, with Barraco doing some raunchy stuff and Lisa singing a sweet backup.  And then they started that deep thrumming and it was another song we'd all heard in the cradle, White Rabbit.  They brought it up to the vocals and Lisa let it all hang out.  They jammed after the verses and then brought it back up for another chorus.  How did she do this from a standing start?  She had to have warmed up her voice backstage before this because she was belting it out at the top of her lungs, right on key.  She waved in her Lisa way when she was done telling us to feed our heads and said, "That's it!"

Well, some things were not great about the night but we weren't there for great, we were there to have fun and it was entirely successful by that account.  Still chilly outside, but made it back to the municipal lot with no problem over the mysterious Concord River, and then not too long a drive home.  Good thing it was Saturday night though, because it was pretty late when we got to bed.

Marco and Team Delight Sinclair

Seeing Marco Benevento is just too much fun, and so we weren't going to go see him and his three-piece band with Karina Reykman and Dave Butler at the Sinclair in Harvard Square on Friday the 18th.  But then we figured why not?

We met Dave, Leen, and Cathy at On the Border on a normally chaotic Fall Friday night, and then were some of the first into the Sinclair after a quick drink.  Sarah and I camped out in front of the soundboard again, but the three youngsters wanted to crowd the stage ... and of course we all danced, everyone in the place did.

The Mattson 2 opened and were surprisingly rocky for a jazz duo, which was fun.  Great talent from Jared and Jonathan Mattson (one on drums, one on guitar ... they're identical twins so it may not make any difference who played what), and they got the place heated up.  The crowd was a bit sparse at first but then filled in the way a Friday crowd does and it got pretty packed halfway through Marco's set.

Marco came out with his team in their classic white getups and burned the place down.  Surprisingly, they didn't play a lot of tracks from his new CD (it was supposedly a CD release party), but they did open with the title track, Let It Slide, and then a fantastic cover of Solid Gold.  But then they really went deep and played some stuff from all over.

I was delighted that they did Dropkick (don't know if I'd ever seen them do this, one of his best songs) and encore with At the Show, always a favorite.  In between they played a lot of instrumental tracks and this is what we came to see!  No one can tickle the ivories like Marco, he can get those keyboards of his to stand up and sing all at once until you really don't know what you're listening to.  His hands become a blur and his head is nodding like it's going to fall off ... and Karina is jumping all over the stage and Dave is absolutely hammering those skins.

Marco is a unique talent you have to see to appreciate.  He's great with JRAD, but seeing him with his band is incredible.  He may not please everyone who listens to him ... you have to follow him down some holes ... but he ends up tickling your sensibilities as well as the keys, and he's a great showman.

Back to our car just North of the Common on an almost chilly Fall night, and back home and in bed by 1:30 or so.  Not bad for a rock and roll Friday.

Justin Townes Earle Dipped In Shit

Went to see JT Earle at the City Winery on Sunday, September 29th.  This was a "late" show, though it started at the respectable hour of 8:30, with an opener.  And did he complain about that (with a sense of humor)!  He likened the hardship of having to play at 5:30 as being dipped in shit, and in several other contexts.  This was amusing, but you began to suspect that he was a little drunk or a little too hyped up.  Anyway, musicians sometimes play their best in those circumstances.

Jesse Malin opened with an accompanist on keyboards and guitar, and he was fantastic.  He has a long history and was really good, with some songs with great hooks and nice chops shown by both him and his accompanist.  He opened his short set with Black Haired Girl and then Chemical Heart and closed with Meet Me At the End Of the World Again.  This was one of the better opening acts I've seen recently.

Then JTE came on with a great band of Paul Niehaus on pedal steel and guitar, another guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer.  Justin was on the same tenor guitar we've seen him play several times before and didn't quite mail in the performance but didn't excel.  He played very much the same setlist he's been sticking to this tour, opening with Saint Of Lost Causes (very spooky/spacey pedal steel from Niehaus) and following with One More Night In Brooklyn, Flint City Shake It, Frightened By the Sound, Move Over Mama, Am I That Lonely Tonight, Can't Hardly Wait, Ahi Esta Mi Nina, Maybe a Moment, Ain't Waiting, Ain't Got No Money (which I was delighted to see live, it's so much a JTE song), Harlem River Blues, and maybe a few more in maybe not quite that order.  He encored as usual on the tour again, with Fleetwood Mac's Dreams and then Rocket 88.

We had great seats, dead center and a couple of tables back (close enough to engage in the repartee) and were vastly entertained.  But this was nowhere near as good as some other times we've seen him and really the most entertaining thing on stage was his great band, particularly Niehaus and his bassist.  Relatively short show for the last set on a Sunday night.

We got out of there quickly and were surprised and pleased to run into Justin and a roadie having a cigarette down the block.  We gabbed for a bit about his next show and then another fan came up and had some serious stuff to discuss with him so we took off.  We'd already heard him be a little short tempered that night and thought discretion was the thing.  Oh well, will be glad to go see him again, he's a fantastic musician and could be forgiven for not being at his best.

Holly Bowling Returns to Winery

Saw Holly Bowling and her grand piano again at the City Winery on Thursday, September 12th.  We met at Sarah and Dave's office building, went down to Beerworks for an ok dinner (it was slider night) and some fine beers.  Then over to the Winery, which was pretty packed already.  I think it sold out, or close.  We had seats center stage, about a quarter of the way back.

Holly opened with an exquisitely beautiful Weather Report Suite, and played a pretty long Phish-heavy two sets for us, great stuff!

set one:

Weather Report Suite >

Fast Enough For You

It's Ice

Cassidy

Talk

Piper >

Let It Grow (reprise)

set two:

Lost Sailor >

Sand >

Dark Star >

Swept Away >

Dark Star >

Morning Dew >

About To Run >

Saint Of Circumstance

encore:

Slave To the Traffic Light

The second set was just incredible.  Lost Sailor is such a great song, though marred by some silly lyrics.  Her intro to Dark Star was thrilling and Dew was simultaneously a glimpse of sunshine and a deep draught of tragedy.

Had a great time, though the beer at City Winery is kind of objectionable.  Oh well!

Hot Tuna Electrifies the Wilbur

Just a short blog about going to see Hot Tuna electric at the Wilbur on August 21^st.  You can imagine that we were very excited to once more be able to see this classic combination rock out, and they did not disappoint.    We were second row center in the balcony, which made for fantastic sound, and of course famous Hot Tuna fan PeterP was in attendance, a few rows behind us.

Dave Mason opened and played a long set with another electric guitarist, a drummer, and a keyboardist.  The guy on keys had bass pedals and Mason introduced him as “our bass player and keyboardist.”  But at several times the lack of a real bassist left a hole in their sound.

Some of their songs were fantastic, like Pearly Queen, a spacey, jazzy cover of High Heeled Boys (which we’d seen Phil Lesh cover), and Only You Know and I Know.  He also did great covers of Cream’s Badge and Dylan’s Watchtower (he pointed out that he did the guitar intro on Electric Ladyland).  But the song we all were waiting for (especially because this was billed as his “Feelin’ Alright” tour) kind of disappointed.  I mean, how can you excel on Feelin’ Alright without a bass player?

Here’s his setlist:

• World In Changes
• Pearly Queen
• Dear Mr. Fantasy
• Rock and Roll Stew
• The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys
• Can’t Find My Way Home
• We Just Disagree
• Look At You Look At Me
• Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave
• Only You Know and I Know
• Badge
• Feelin’ Alright
• All Along the Watchtower

 Didn’t take that long to set up for Hot Tuna and soon Jorma and Jack came on and just burned the place down.  Jack must have taken some kind of vitamins because he was an unleashed psychic tiger all night.  He did a little bouncing around the stage and had some of that eyebrow work going, but he mostly just stayed in place like a rock and played possibly the best concert I’ve ever heard him play, not that he’s ever been less than fantastic.

Jorma was trying to keep up and did a fine job of it, but this was Jack Casady’s concert.  Dave and I had to stare at each other open-mouthed after some songs, there was not much to say except, “Did we just hear that?”  The color, the tonal strength, the pure power, the woodenness of his bass was incredible.  It must have been the coincidence of our great seats right in the middle of the theater, the instrument, and the player that made for this wonderfully memorable experience.

The setlist itself was not great:

• Candy Man
• Serpent Of Dreams
• Day To Day Out the Window Blues
• I’m Talking About You (Chuck Berry)
• Wolves and Lambs
• Walkin’ Blues
• Good Shepherd
• Sleep Song
• Baby What You Want Me To Do
• In the Kingdom
• Hit single #1
• Funky #7
• Water Song (encore)

But the playing was superlative.  The peak of the night was probably Walkin’ Blues, which Jorma killed on vocals, followed by Good Shepherd with Jack making the whole Wilbur resonate to his beat.  I was hoping for Come Back Baby, but they ended too soon and then encored with an incredible electric Water Song.  Jack was not to be stopped that night.

Ipswich River In Mid-Summer 2019

I haven’t been blogging about my kayak trips lately, but I took a trip up the Ipswich River this past Sunday (8/4) and had to write something about that, it was so beautiful.  Took off from the usual spot on the road from Topsfield and soon was just enthralled.  It was almost exactly the middle of Summer and the flowers and trees were beautiful and the dragonflies were thick.

You probably can't see all the bees buzzing around the flowers above.  I really like lily pad flowers and many of them were as decadent as they ever get.  Most bloom a pure white with an intense yellow interior, but some of these were blushing a bit, and some were entirely a startling pink.

I also passed two swan family groups with two adults and a gaggle of cygnets, who were almost as large as their parents already, but still in juvenile colors.  Lots of turtles of course, hundreds of birds (I even saw one cormorant and one kingfisher), and a couple of muskrats.

There were also some of the red spiky flowers you get later in Summer.  They usually show up as isolated splashes of color but there were some groups of them exhibiting a deep shade of scarlet.

And it was as crowded as I’ve ever seen it on the river.  Probably all of the Foote Brothers canoes and kayaks were out, and most of the Audubon canoes.  I passed two young girls (10?) with matching kayaks/paddles who were doing great against a strong current in the narrow part where I passed them, and singing songs from The Jungle Book incredibly well.  I complimented them on it and they thought ok, and launched into another.  They must have the record and had the parts down perfectly.

After one song, one girl said to the other, “Can I be on top for this next one?”

The other girl said, “No, your part goes like this [sings the opening of the lower part].”

“But I just thought maybe we could switch for this one.”

The other girl stared at her and gave her the dreaded pause.  “You’re Mowgli!”

The first girl shrugged.  She knew that was the end of the conversation.  I mean, what was she going to say, that she didn’t want to be Mowgli??

Another interaction was that two young women were headed downstream as fast as they could and you could tell they were in a bit of distress.  I stopped to take a flower picture and they got close enough to me to shout.  “Excuse me, excuse me!” they said.  “Yes?” I said.  “Uh … how do you get out of here?” one of them asked.

We were on the river, miles from anywhere.  I said, “Just head downstream.”  I could see they were in a Foote Brothers canoe and must have been driven upstream on their truck and then sent downstream.  “Foote Brothers is in a couple of miles still, it’s the first building you’ll see on the left,” I told them.  They moaned.  “Just stay in the middle of the river, the downstream current is strongest there,” I advised.  That made them stop and look around them, they were stunned that there was such a thing as a current and there was a strategy to dealing with it.  “You learn something new every day,” I said.

“Yeah,” one of them said, “I’ve learned that I’m NEVER GOING IN A CANOE again!”

“Oh come on,” I said.  “By the middle of the week you’ll be bored back in your office and telling your friends about what a great time you had on the river this weekend.”

She considered it.  “I hope so!” she said.

I told her I hoped so too and took off quick before they could ask me to call them an Uber.

GDMUATM 2019, Giants Stadium 1991

Went to see this year's GDMUATM at Loews Boston Common this Jerry's birthday.  This was the famous June 17th 1991 show from Giants Stadium, which featured Bruce and Vince and is an absolutely fantastic show in many ways.  The GD people concurrently announced a "Giants Stadium" box set, which includes this show, and a DVD of the movie.

We met Dave at Stoddard's on Temple Place for dinner after Sarah and I fought thick Summer traffic into the city on another hot, sunny day and parked in her building.  Nice Old Boston atmosphere and architectural details, but not much in terms of beer list or food.  Went down to the theater, got a Lagunitas, and settled into our great seats.

And boy, it didn't take me long before I was thinking, "Getting it!!!" about the box set and the DVD.  Dave had selected the show for his 30 Trips, but I wasn't that familiar with it.  This is an amazing show, with a killer setlist and killer playing.  And they weave Dark Star all through it, you have to hear this show if you haven't.

Back To LFF, 2019

Nobody goes to the Lowell Folk Festival, it's too crowded!  And I had several other reasons, just as logical, for not having been there for several years.  But they sometimes have some really good musical acts, and they had a couple in their 2019 lineup.  It was a beautiful summer weekend, we had nothing better to do, and we got in the car and sneaked on up to Lowell for the Sunday of the 2019 Festival.

The acts we wanted to see were going to be playing at Boardinghouse Park, and we figured if we got there not too late we could park close by, get good seats, and get out of there easily.  We didn't figure that even early on a Sunday the crowds would be massive, but things worked out.  And we were reminded again that this is such a great Festival!  It's free and there were thousands of people having a great time there.  They always have an incredibly well-curated set of artists, which sometimes coordinates very well with my strong musical tastes, and if not that's my problem.  And they also have an amazing range of food vendors (cotton candy to Filipino cooking and beyond), crafts exhibitions, and political and social tents.  This year they had street magicians too!

And the Festival fits so well in downtown Lowell.  They've got an array of great performance spaces, all in a very walk-able area, centered on the National Historical Park in the center of Lowell, where historic canals, mills, and 18th-19th century urban architecture all coincide.  I can't think of another city that would approach this ambiance.

So anyway, we got up there and wanted to park in the John Street garage but instead settled for the Market Street garage, which was fine.  We walked the 6-7 blocks or so down to Boardinghouse Park and were a little alarmed at the number of people already there at a little after noon on a Sunday, a beautiful, hot day with not a cloud in the sky.  Then we were suddenly confronted by a long line when we turned the last corner.  But we realized it was a line for the Filipino food truck, which smelled amazingly tempting.

Boardinghouse Park itself was already packed ... around the edges in the shade at least.  But we walked right up to the stage in the hot sun (like the day when we saw Dave Keyes do A Closer Walk With Thee on that very stage at about that time of a Sunday) and pulled up a piece of lawn, slathered on the sunscreen, and immediately started enjoying ourselves even more than we had been on the walk there.

Mangum and Company was up first, and they were playing Sam Cooke's A Change Is Going To Come as we got seated.  What a great way to start the musical day!  This was a very different kind of band for us.  They're a "gospel shout band" from North Carolina with a vocalist with a good, deep range, and they were led by Cedric Mangum, a fantastic trombonist who was tuned to the baritone range.  He was accompanied by three other trombonists, all tuned differently, a tuba player, a drummer, a percussionist (on cymbals), and a baritone horn player.  Their next number was Oh Happy Day and they stretched it out, trying to get the crowd to participate.  We were psyched, but it was hot!  Their final number was When the Saints Come Marching In and this was another extended exercise in crowd participation, trying to form a parade but not get out of range of the mike.  Kind of succeeded and lots of people had lots of fun!

Woo!  The afternoon was off to a great start.  All bands do just 45-minute sets at that stage on a Sunday, and we barely had time for a quick trip to the car and back before reconvening on the rapidly-filling-up lawn for one of the bands I had come for, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver.

Let me digress a bit to talk about the sound.  I think that I give lots of credit when the sound engineers do a great job, or even a decent one.  But the sound at Boardinghouse Park that day was not up to par.  I've been there many times and the sound has been fantastic ... I particularly remember seeing the Taj Mahal Trio there once and can still feel how good that vibe was.  Maybe it was equipment malfunctions, but I think the fault was in the sound engineers.  There was an open mike on stage that they didn't detect until Eirini Torneski would not go on until they found it and killed it ... we could all hear it.  There were feedback problems all through Doyle Lawson's set.  And the lower end of the PA cut out at least 6 times in Albert Lee's set.  It was very annoying and I have to suspect incompetence, especially when engineers were staring daggers at each other across the field.

Anyway, we tried to concentrate on the artists and we were very psyched to see Doyle Lawson's band.  This was traditional bluegrass, with Lawson leading on vocals and mandolin (and rocking a beautiful rose-embroidered jacket).  From left to right they were Stephen Burwell on fiddle, Joe Dean on banjo, Lawson on mandolin, Jerry Cole on tenor vocals and electric bass (on a stand so it *looked* traditional at least), Jake Vanover on tenor vocals and guitar, and Josh Swift on bass vocals and dobro.  The right-hand four were the gospel quartet and broke for a few a capella numbers.

Vanover and Swift were fantastic both on vocals and on their instruments.  It was hard not to concentrate on just them, though the arrangements themselves were very democratic, as good bluegrass should be.  Lawson may have lost a bit off his vocal fastball but those two made up for it.  I especially loved Swift's runs on dobro, which he attacked with his left hand like it was a snake he needed to keep back.

I wandered around a bit after that, back to the garage for a sandwich in the shade and checked out the street scene, where people clustered in the shade.  Back to the Boardinghouse Park Stage and next up was a delightful Greek band playing traditional instruments, the Pharos Ensemble featuring Berklee grad Vasilis Kostas on laouto (different Anglicized spellings abound), Eirini Tornesaki on vocals and castanets, Panos Aivazidis on qanun and harmonies, and George Lernis on percussion.

These guys were very good, though perhaps the hot Summer early-afternoon wasn't the best place for their atmospheric vocals. But a little concentration was very rewarding, as Kostas on Greek guitar produced an amazing, crisp sound, and Aivazidis on qanun was just amazing.  I'd never heard that instrument and, though it went out of tune easily since there were so many strings, he rocked that thing, playing it like he'd sold his soul to the devil to play zither.

Another quick set, though this was riveting all the way through.   We had a nice chat with Kostas after the set and then it was time for another break.  The shade had almost reached us in the middle of the park by then, and the crowds were creeping in with it.  We took a break in the shaded beer garden with some acceptable beverages, and we soon noticed that Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne had come on and that we'd be fools not to go back up front.

Kenny was dressed in a powder blue leisure suit and wore a color-coordinated hat with a color-coordinated feather in it.  Don't know if that was the best sartorial choice for the weather, but it worked.  He had a great Telecaster player wailing away to his right, a great bass player (beautiful walnut instrument) to the back on his left, and a drummer on a riser way at the back of the stage.

They turned in an incredible set of ballads, boogie-woogie blues tunes, and balls to the wall rockers.  They closed with Muddy Waters' Hoochie-Coochie Man followed by one of the most infectious takes on Leiber and Stoller's Kansas City I've ever heard.  And they were fun too.  At one point Kenny started on a jazzy right-hand riff and seemed to get captivated by it, he played it over and over.  The bass player woke from his own vortex and slowly approached.  He ended up looking over Kenny's shoulder and shaking his head until he broke the spell and went back to his corner.

Yikes!  We were hot and sweaty and though the shade was approaching it was still not on us in the center of the lawn, about 15 feet from the stage.  We had said that we hoped to stick around for Albert Lee's set, but if it got too much we would be willing to bag and go home.  But at this point we just had to stay for fucking Albert Lee.  I mean, how authentic can an English country rockabilly guitarist be?  This guy has an amazing pedigree and, as mentioned above, was one of the two world-class acts that had attracted us.  I don't think I'd ever seen him before, maybe one of the first few times I saw Emmylou.

Anyway, the afternoon was ending and Albert came on with his custom guitar (guys next to me were saying it was a tricked out Telecaster), a drummer, a bassist, and a keyboard player, who were all just great.  But this was a case of rocking along to the song a bit and then just being floored by Albert's guitar leads, over and over and over.  Or being floored by the sound suddenly dropping out, which was very annoying and had several of us gesticulating angrily to the soundbooth.

OMG, what didn't he do?  Well, he didn't do ... never mind.  He played a great set of tunes he'd done with Emmylou and/or the Everleys (Restless, Wheels), some classic Gram and Rodney songs (Luxury Liner, Song For the Life), and some off-the-wall tunes like Highwayman and Two Step Too by Delbert.  We'd seen both Emmylou and Rodney on that stage, though not Delbert.  He switched to piano and did another great Rodney tune, 'Til I Gain Control Again, though the sound guys didn't deign to get his fucking vocal mike working until the second verse!?!  Good thing we were up front.

And then he just floored me with his last song, which was one he wrote and has been recorded by Ricky Skaggs, Country Boy.  You have to believe I was singing along with every word.  Albert's not a great vocalist but he sure did some fantastic songs in that set.

That was a fun afternoon but it was time to go.  We packed up quickly and got out of the swelling crowd, back up to Market Street and to the garage.  Fired up the car, cranked the AC, and then it wasn't a very long drive home.

I may look like a city slicker
Shinin' up through his shoes
Underneath I'm just a cotton picker
Pickin' out a mess of blues
Show me where I start
Find a horse and cart
I'm just a country boy
Country boy at heart

Showdown Kids at the Haymarket Lounge

The vastly talented Scott Metzger has put together a band (Showdown Kids) with his close friend Katie Jacoby and accomplice Simon Kafka, and we were pleased to see they were playing the Haymarket Lounge at City Winery, Boston on July 23rd.  This was their first gig outside of NYC!  I guess you gotta hit the big time sooner or later.

Met Sarah and Dave downtown again, right at 5:00.  We strolled on down to our new North End restaurant, Beerworks on Canal (it was Taco Tuesday!) on another non-busy, beautiful mid-Summer day.  We stretched out dinner a bit, but still ended up getting over to the Haymarket Lounge (the smaller performing space in City Winery) at about 6:30, an hour before the concert.

The thing was that this was general admission, we really prize good seats, we'd never been in that room before, and we didn't know how soon we needed to get there in order to procure them.  In any event, there were only two other tables occupied when we arrived and so we were seated in a fine place and ended up having a fine time nursing their few beers and talking for an hour before the set.  Dave's friend Nate showed up too.  This was a stealth concert for [almost] Dead fans, and the room ended up with a pretty good crowd of devotees.

But the thing was, we'd seen Scott with JRAD and with Wolf! and this wasn't going to be like that, this was gypsy jazz and all expectations were off the table.  The three of them sat in chairs close together, Katie with a slinky dress and a traditional fiddle, Scott with a big booming hollow-body guitar with a pickup, and Simon with a small walnut guitar.  The sound was just perfect and I loved that room, though with a larger crowd it might not have worked that well.

Ridiculously long fingers on Scott and Katie!  Scott was playing a huge guitar but it could have been twice as big with his elastic fingers.  And Katie made that fiddle's fret board look like a cribbage board.  She's going on tour with The Who for her next gig.

They opened with a surprise: Tumbling Tumbleweeds!  They did a few jazz standards and mixed it up a lot with a Phish song, some traditional folk songs, and a couple of originals.  These were all instrumentals; Scott picked up a mike and tried to address the "crowd" at one point.  But the mike wasn't on and he could speak in a regular voice and be heard well by all of us in that intimate room.

They seemed to be having a good time and to be pleased to have such a good reception in their first gig.  We all loved it and could have stayed there all night.  But they finished up by 9:00 (Scott said, "That's all the songs we know!"), and we got back up the hill and then home in good time.

King Of California At City Winery

This is the 25th anniversary of the release of Dave Alvin's great record, King Of California, and he's touring to promote the reissue.  This may sound a little cheesy but really, this was a *great* record and marked a significant change in his career and (to some small extent) in roots music.  And he was touring with his original producer, Greg Liesz and longtime accomplice Christy McWilson.  So this was another case of as soon as we heard about him coming to City Winery Boston on July 19th, that we got tickets right away.  And they were pretty good, dead center and just a couple of tables back.

Met Sarah and Dave downtown and we had dinner at Beerworks on Canal Street, just a couple of blocks from the Winery, on a Friday night in late July.  Luckily there was basically no crowd for a Friday night (the Bruins weren't playing) and we got a good dinner and several good beers.  Over at the Winery of course they did not have good beer, but we did what we could and settled in.

Christy McWilson opened and did a fun set of California folk with a little Laurel Canyon mixed in.  Specifically, she closed by bringing up the woman from the merch tent she'd bonded with lately over a Linda Ronstadt song and the two duetted on Different Drum.  Of course we all sang along.

Pretty soon after that Dave and Greg came out, Dave on a beat up old acoustic that he stuck to all night and Greg with a rack of guitars, laps steels (he had two lap steels, one of which was a beautiful walnut thing that almost looked like a dulcimer), mandolins, and probably a few banjos and ukuleles.

They'd been doing the album track for track and basically stuck to that:

King of California
Barn Burning
Fourth of July
Goodbye Again
East Texas Blues
Every Night About This Time
Riverbed Rag
Bus Station
Mother Earth
Blue Wing
Little Honey
(I Won't Be) Leaving
What Am I Worth
Border Radio

Encore:
Abilene
Dry River

This was edge-of-your-seat stuff for a Dave Alvin fan.  Every song was true to the record in one way, but included a few opportunities for Dave and Greg to expand it out.  Christy did a very good job of backup, though the performances by Rosie Flores and Syd Straw on the record are iconic and can't really be matched.

And then they encored with two of Dave's best songs.  We would have loved to see him cover this setlist with his full band, but this was lots of fun.

Saw Kate and Mager and a bevy of SMC fans on the way out.  I think the room had been sold out, there were only a few tickets left when I last checked.

Green River Festival 2019, mellow Sunday

The second night's sleep in a strange place is usually better, and it was, though the sun started blaring through the curtains early again.  Whatever, it was another great morning in paradise and after exercises and shower I trundled down to breakfast, and Sarah and I were actually able to grab a table.  This was the standard Hampton Inn breakfast, which is ok.  They had fresh fruit but none of it would have passed muster to be on the buffet in France; they had very good chocolate chip scones, pretty good coffee, and fruit smoothies!  Tristan and the boys came along just after us and we gave up the table to them.  Rory exploded a box of Froot Loops.

Two of the acts I most wanted to see were going to be on the main stage that day, and the rest of the lineup didn't look that compelling.  My plan was to be even more mellow than the other days and stay up at the main stage as much as possible, keep the wandering to a minimum, and maybe leave early so we could get Dave back at a decent time and then rescue our kitties (Uncle Andrew had stopped by to feed them on Saturday).

Most of the others were going tubing on the Deerfield, but we were bound for the Festival again and ended up leaving at about the same time we did Saturday, maybe a little earlier.  It was another beautiful, hot Summer day but the sky was not at all perfectly clear as it had been the day before.  Some huge clouds were drifting slowly, and threatening to maybe become thunderheads at some point in the afternoon.  Whatever, they kept the sun from withering everything in the vicinity and so we were glad for them.

Another strange weather(?) note was that there were no balloons at the Festival!  Well ok, there were 2 of them (one the corporate-branded one that's always there) and they were offering rides up and down.  But there are usually 6 or 8 balloons and they always inflate to great fanfare, escape the surly bounds on un-tethered rides, making a spectacular sight, and then get brought back in the evening for a flame extravaganza.  This time none of that happened, though the weather seemed perfect for ballooning on both Friday and Saturday.  Was this another cost-cutting measure??  Wasn't this supposed to be a balloon festival as well as a music Festival?  Harumph.

We got to about the same place in the car line waiting on the GCC access road to get in, and this time Sarah grabbed the chair and went in to stake a spot in the people line.  This turned out to be a bit of a grueling experience though because were we were right between the Berkshire Brewing Company refrigerator truck, that had to keep its engine running, and the generator at the BCC tent.  Besides loud noise, they were both making some exhaust fumes and the guys in the tent were also blasting tunes (most of them very good actually).  So this was not a mellow wait, and they didn't let the line in early as they had on Saturday, and this time an unauthorized line for the no-bags entrance started up.  But whatever, soon we were in and though we were not able to get our prime spot, we got another great one at just the right distance from the stage, to the right of the electrical conduit.

First up was The East Pointers, a folk-bluegrass-Cape Breton Juno award-winning trio from PEI: Jake Charron on guitar, Koady Chaisson on banjo, and Tim Chaisson on fiddle. They were really enjoyable and I stuck around for half of their set before the mid-day sun came out from between the high clouds and drove me away.

I hadn't been that impressed by the offerings on the other stages, but saw Dave had managed to grab a standing spot in the shade at the Parlor Room Stage and so navigated over to join him for the Gaslight Tinkers.  And again, I was surprisingly delighted!  They had had a children's musician with them at the beginning of the set, but he had left by the time I got there and they started to get a little rootsy and a little funky, and then kept on going that way.  They did a particularly dark take on the traditional Storms On the Ocean, mixed in a few originals, and finished with another really dark take on The Wind and Rain.  Then they said, "And that was our *children's* set!"

We stayed there for the end of their set and then split up and I was back on the main stage in time for Eilen Jewell.  And they opened their set with a bang.  Eilen was on Telecaster ... that's right, Eilen Jewell went electric!!!  Perhaps this wasn't as earth-shattering to the hordes as Dylan's change of pace 54 years beforehand, but it got me psyched, especially because it reinforced my view that this GRF was all about the things you could do with a guitar.  And you know what they did?  I can't believe no one had done this before, they opened with Creedence's Green River.

 I was kind of afraid (maybe not the right word) that Eilen would have a fiddle or pedal steel on stage from the bits I'd heard of her atmospheric (for Eilen Jewell that is) new album, Gypsy.  But she did not, she had the same old threesome of husband Jason, iconic guitarist Jerry, and the bass player of the day.  And they delivered a classic Eilen set with a few tracks from the new album (which was on sale at the merch tent, weeks before release) and lots of classics.

They finished their set and then came out for an encore and this was one of the cutest things I've ever seen, possibly at the top of the list.  Her daughter, Mavis, is now 5 (amazing!!), and she came out to join them for the encore.  Eilen said that Mavis had been practicing and then Mavis took over the encore, Shaking All Over.  She shook her shaker, she shook her body, she shook her head, and when it came to the chorus she shouted (on key) into the mike, "Shaking all over!!!!"  Mom looked very proud of her, as did Dad, peering over the drums, and this was an incredibly delightful moment.  You've gotta believe that she got a standing ovation from everyone in the vicinity.

Ack!  Time to stop by the Green Room stage, hit the porta-potties, hit the parking lot for a last beer, and then to get back to our seats for Rhiannon Giddens, perhaps the last (and definitely most anticipated) act of the Festival for us.  Rhiannon did a long sound check with her stripped-down band of Francesco Turrisi (her fabulous recent collaborator) and a bass player.  And though Rhiannon was bugged, bothered, and bewildered by her banjo constantly going out of tune and feeding back on her, they really topped all other bands we'd seen for musicianship.

Rhiannon stuck to her mid-19th century banjo reproduction, which produces fabulous sounds, and her bass player was wonderful too.  But all eyes were on Turrisi with his endless assortment of frame drums, tambourines, and an accordion.  Wait, you say that that's not fascinating?  It was when you heard him play them, just astounding in the talent he showed and the responsiveness his instruments showed.

They played mostly tracks for their new collaboration, but I was more than glad to hear them play Rhiannon's most provocative songs about enslaved people, Julie and At the Purchaser's Discretion.  She switched to fiddle later in the set, but this was about her voice and Turrisi's instrumental talent.  We waited in line to talk with them afterwards and were delighted to hear that they'll be playing in London this November, so Sally and Jim can go see them!

Well ok, we'd wimped out on the last couple of acts of Saturday and it was getting to be time to wimp out on the last couple of acts of Sunday's show.  As I say, some GRFs we've been too have had riveting lineups, but there was not much left to see on Sunday, and so we did a last few house-keeping things and then headed to the car.  I hope the GRF has a better lineup next year.

No delay for us, we got in the car (the tubing crew was just arriving as we left!), braved a surprisingly large amount of traffic on route 2, switched down to the Turnpike to deliver Dave back to Quincy, and then got home by 7:30 or so.  The cats were ecstatic to see us, which was very nice.  They had the Welcome Home banner all ready.

So that was another long weekend at the GRF that in retrospect should have lasted much longer.  I bitch about the quality of the lineup, but we still had a great time.  It could have been better, and I feel bad that a lot of the bands I saw did not stick in my mind and so are not reported well above.

And let me repeat that it was thrilling to see so many kinds of guitars played so skillfully.  Besides some beautiful folk/blues acoustics, there were pedal steels, lap steels, a percussion guitar, a bajo sexto, and an endless succession of incredible electrics such as Sean McConnell's hollow-body Rickenbacker and Samantha Fish's solid blues (but gold) Gibson.  That was a delight.

The hotel worked out well and we had some great times hanging with our friends.  I bet next year will be even more fantastic!

Green River Festival 2019, energetic Saturday

Though the Hampton Inn had some advantages, every hotel I've ever stayed in has had faults and this was no exception.  The window curtains were a little short and lots of daylight came in.  Though the mattresses were great, this was not conducive to a lengthy morning sleep.  And the air conditioning was either on and too cold or off and too warm, and their duvet was weird.

So I was not well-rested or full of pep when I got up, did my exercises, and showered (the shower was weird too, not wanting to turn on or to turn fully off).  And when I got down to the breakfast room at a little after 9 (breakfast went until 10) it was packed and there was nowhere to sit!  Actually, most of the chairs in the Hampton lobby were not really chairs, they were some kind of Medieval torture device that you couldn't either slouch in comfortably or sit up in comfortably.

It wasn't a great morning.  We got up Dave later than we should and he was very rushed while we were both ready to leave, thinking that the line was growing and growing and we were going to be late.  But the secret was to be mellow.  I was actually thinking of being so mellow that I might come back to the hotel for a nap later that afternoon ... it wasn't a very compelling lineup as I say.

But whatever, we got saddled up, drove the short distance over and got in the car line (well organized for once!) and Dave grabbed a chair and joined the people line, which wasn't very well organized at first, but then settled in.  We were back, sitting in the hot sun waiting for the GRF gates to open.  We recognized some of the people in line, and I'm sure they recognized us.  Again, P&D were not far behind us in line.

Pamela Means and her guitar came on first right on time at 1:00.  She played some good blues on the guitar and sang some acerbic protest song, with a smile.  She was ok, but what I really wanted to start the day with was Mamma's Marmalade down on the Deans Beans stage.

Dave was up front too and I stayed for their whole set of really entertaining newgrass.  I can't say where a tight band, there were plenty of flubs in their set and a couple of confusing moments.  But they sure made up for this in enthusiasm and they were obviously so delighted to be on the stage at the GRF, it was charming.  Lily Sexton on fiddle, Mitch Bordage on mandolin, Rich Hennessy on banjo, Sean Davis on guitar, and Curtis Bordage on bass all had some great runs.  They shared vocals (except for Curtis) and had some fine moments there too, especially Sean Davis holding nothing back and singing like his feet were on fire, and Lily Sexton doing a great cover of Cold Rain and Snow (only GD song of the Festival!) in which she not only killed the guy insouciantly but then left him out in the weather.

Great stuff, and then brought Dave back up to one of the vendors for his advice on some scarfs that had caught my eye.  Already started on the main stage was The Suitcase Junket and Matt Lorenz was as excellent as ever, with a great ringing guitar sound, some funky beats, and his sister Kate Lorenz accompanying him on vocals.

Hung out for a few tunes from them and then was off again, back down through all the vendors, the kids and art tents, the hammock setup, and the people playing frisbee and twirling hoops down to the Deans Beans stage again.  It really was a beautiful day and though hot, was thankfully not at all humid.

Charlie Hunter & Lucy Woodward were holding forth, and again I was delighted by them.  I'd thought from the description of their duo act that it might be more technical, jazzy music than I wanted at that time of afternoon, but it was really captivating, if only for a few songs.  Charlie Hunter was sitting on a chair and playing a seven-string guitar, which allowed him to thumb a bass line while finger-picking the other strings.  And Woodward did not try to dominate the sound with her voice, filling in with some tasty wails and hollers.  This was more top-notch music being led by an eclectic and/or excellent guitar.  I was stuck to the ground there for a bit, then moved on in a mellow way.

Checked out the Parlor Room stage and was just in time to catch the last two songs by Session Americana, the second featuring Ali McGuirk.  They were playing every instrument in sight, including a "pre-war parlor guitar."

And then wow!  Back up to the main stage for one of the sets of the Festival.  The others were more blown away by Samantha Fish than I was, but only because I was a little more ready.  She had a great band with her, possibly the guys described in this article ... it was the same instrumentation at least.  But the star of the show was Samantha, who cares who else was on the stage.  She was out there with a perm, lots of makeup, high heels, glowing nails, and skin-tight pants, and she was letting the guys excel and then turning up her Gibson and letting the blues flow.  She rocked our asses off and then took names.  And she writes a lot of her own songs, another incredible musician just waiting to be noticed.

But as we discussed, she's not waiting.  She puts on the sexy outfit and then grabs your attention.  This is probably part armoring herself to become what she needs/wants to be on stage, and part doing what she needs to do to get herself noticed.  I saw Samantha later on the Green House stage, solo on a beautiful walnut acoustic, and she was looking not quite as glamorous in the bright sun rather than the stage lights (still very glamorous though).  And she was just as good, perhaps better in a stripped down setting.

Yeah, they had the "Green Stage" thing going again, which was called the Tiny House stage at one point.  It's the little pop-up stage past the beer tent and before the porta-potties, and was very popular again.  Besides Samantha I didn't time it right to see many acts there, but others in our group did.  I caught bits of Ladama, Upstate, and Eilen Jewell there as well as Samantha.

OK, time to keep rambling and I wanted to catch at least some of Lowdown Brass Band downhill.  I was a little disappointed with their style at first but then warmed up to them quickly.  They featured more vocals and beats than jazzy brass, but were very talented.  Their tuba player was so powerful he often turned to the side or even to the back of the stage so his sound mixed with the others better.  And they have two very talented vocalists, including one who can croon with the best of them.

Headed back uphill with another detour over to the Parlor Room stage for a few songs and again, I was very glad I did.  Sean McConnell, who's written some Nashville hits but I'd never heard of before, was holding forth on a big red electric Rickenbacker.  Only took me one second to realize this was not boring solo guitar, this was the good stuff.  One of those guys with a very confident voice, just the right style on his instrument to back it up, and some great chops.

But ... I wanted to catch most of Tyler Childers's set and was back uphill and bellied up to the stage (or as close as I could get), this was authentic modern country and there were a lot of enthusiasts up there.  Tyler was up front with his guitar, his drawl, and his long gaze, as well as his excellent songs.  And he had another great band: keyboards, bass, drums, and two multi-instrumentalists whose default setting was "electric guitar" but also played pedal steel, banjo, mandolin, and probably stuff I missed.  He played most of the songs from his great record, Purgatory, and probably some from his about-to-be-released record, and he closed with a solo version of his popular Lady May.  Had the great thrill of turning around at the front of the stage and seeing a sea of people, back to the umbrella line, all standing up and rapt on Tyler's songs and his great band.

I was king of tuckered out by then and was able to squeeze in a trip to the car, to the Green Stage, and get some food from the La Veracruzana stand.  By then it was time for Low Cut Connie, and the crowd swelled for this act.  He started off on top of his piano, and just upped the theatrics from there.  Again, he had an excellent band and he opened with his hit, All These Kids Are Way Too High.  But it was time to ramble again, he kind of did the opposite to me of nailing me to my seat.

I didn't think I had much choice though, but headed downhill to check out Red Baraat and again, I was very glad that I did.  He probably tops my list of surprisingly good bands at the Festival, and there were many of them.  They had a rocking mix of winds (including tuba and soprano sax) and electric guitars and were led by Sunny Jain on vocals and dhol drum, kind of a double-ended big thick tom-tom that he beat with some sturdy sticks.  With their trap drummer going full speed too they whipped up a musical frenzy that was a lot of fun.

Yikes!  Time to head back uphill, gush to everyone I could about the band they just missed, and to settle in for The Wood Brothers.  I was really looking forward to seeing them, had heard them many times and loved them, but had never seen them.  And they did not disappoint.  Besides the great quirky guitar sounds and vocals of big brother Oliver Wood, younger brother Chris Wood was incredible on stand-up bass.  He bowed it, plucked it, rubbed it, and at one point got some white things out of his quiver and set the tension on the strings in some weird way and got some more sounds out of them.

And Jano Rix on drums and percussion was marvelous himself.  Late in the set, he grabbed a guitar and came up front for the trio to sing together.  BUT he did not play it as a guitar, he played it solely as a percussion instrument.  It had one string on it that he sometimes struck as a drone, had a gourd clinging to the sound box like a remora fish, and he played it between both hands.

OK, we were done and packed up to leave.  We were tempted to stay for The Stone Coyotes and to maybe catch some of Angelique Kidjo's set, but it had been a long day and we were ready to head back to the hotel.  Which we did!

One problem was that I realized I was starving, though I'd had several rounds of food throughout the day.  Tristan and Scott were still at the concert, but we met up with Michelle and DaveL down in the lobby, again with lots of chips and beer and much to catch up on after that great day of music.  Chips weren't going to do it for me though, but the breakfast room was not locked and I peeked in and foraged.  I made myself a bowl of raisin bran and peanut butter, which was fantastic!  That's going to be my new go-to dish.

Tristan and Scott showed up and we talked into the night, and soon it turned midnight.  And Michelle and Scott were ready with a bottle of champagne, which was so nice of them!  It was now July 14th 2019, Sarah's and my 40th wedding anniversary.  We poured champagne all around in hotel coffee cups and Sarah dug up some old pictures of our wedding, which was truly a long time ago.

More great conversation ensued and by the time I made my excuses and staggered up to the room and got to bed it was 2AM!!  So much for my Saturday morning plans of a mellow day with a nap and an early bed time.  But this was a wonderful day of beautiful Summer weather, discovering new and old bands (12 of them), and talking with friends.

Green River Festival 2019, rocking Friday

Again, we had an astoundingly marvelous time at the Green River Festival this past weekend.  It was marvelous because there are just so many great musicians in the world and I had the privilege of listening to a whole bunch of them, and astounding because large events like this are always associated with a long list of potential/real inconveniences when you're trying to plan, but can be delightfully easy when they actually come about, especially if the weather is as cooperative as it was this past July 12-14.

Our gang of GRF friends had decided after the hotel travails of the last few years that we were going to make reservations at the expensive but really close Hampton Inn at the end of Colrain Road this year.  And we did that and then got weekend passes (and parking passes) as soon as they went on sale.  And then we were very let down when they rolled out a totally underwhelming roster of musicians.

I apologize for criticizing musicians; my criticism is meant for the Festival organizers, who took our money and then announced one of the least marquee-oriented lineups ever.  It was only saved by featuring Eilen Jewell (though she'd been there several times before, both with her own band and with Sacred Shakers) and Rhiannon Giddens, and by having some interesting younger acts, such as Tyler Childers and Samantha Fish.  And Thank Dog that when there was a cancellation they were able to fill in with a superstar, Lucinda Williams headlining Friday night.

But make no mistake, GRF organizers.  We're used to churn: a great lineup every other year with some uninspired ones in between.  But this is two years in a row with a *way* below average bill.  We kicked ourselves many times over the Winter and Spring that we had opted for GRF instead of the Levitate Festival (which had a great lineup this year), and we will bail if you keep this up.

But anyway, back to happy.  We packed up our chairs and beer and sunscreen and summer stuff, picked up Dave from a balky Red Line at Alewife, and then hit the road for the Pioneer Valley.  You may be surprised to hear that we followed exactly the same pre-concert routine as we had the last few Julys.  We parked in (I think) exactly the same spot as last year in beautiful downtown Greenfield after sneaking around into town by the back door of route 2A, and then walked the few blocks over to The People's Pint through the hot day and bright sunshine.

We were right at the height of lunch hour and so service was not snappy.  But we were not looking for snappy.  I'd decided and had announced to Sarah and Dave that my attitude all weekend was going to be mellow.  I had had a great time at last year's Festival (and the year's before, and the year's before ... this was our tenth), but had often felt I had to put a lot of effort into it.  Most times the efforts had paid off and I was at the right stage at the right time to see the musicians I love the most.  But I had paid a price, particularly when the weather had been cruel (which for me is high humidity), such as in 2018.  This year my approach would be different: I would wander around with no set schedule and I would enjoy each moment as I found it.  And that's what I did, though you might be surprised to learn that this "mellow" approach led to seeing 23 bands over the course of the weekend!

After a Double IPA, a Soft Stuff IPA, an Artifact By Any Other Name cider, a Hope St. Amber ESB, and a Lawnchair Pale Ale (oh, and lunch, I got a bacon and mushroom quesadilla which was delicious), we pulled on out and moseyed down to the Hampton Inn, arriving a bit before 2.  Got a room (the desk clerk was a robot), stowed all of our stuff, texted our friends who were still on the road or about to be, and then motivated for the concert.

No problem getting our normal parking spot in the shade when we got there around 3:30 and then claiming a space in the rapidly-expanding line to get in.  We were back at GRF and the sun was shining through the emerald early-Summer trees!

Dave timed the no-bags line pretty well when the gates opened, and even though there was a mad dash for the in-front-of-soundboard spots on the lawn, we got some great ones to the right of the electrical conduit and set up our chairs.  P&D were not far behind us with their chairs.  Friend Steve was working the security, the vendors were cooking up a storm, the crowd was pouring in, and the Play It Again tent had used CDs at outrageous prices.  I picked up 10 for $20 (several of us were gleefully poring over them in the shaded tent), though I was really considering upgrading to the 100 for $100 plan!  I could have chosen 100 CDs I just had to have with no problem, but perhaps this wouldn't have been the best use of time.  Whatever, the secret was to be mellow.

OK, wasting time here, got some food and beer and then it was time for the music to start.  It was still brutally hot and bright on the main stage, but I stuck around for a few songs from Upstate, who feature some nice harmonies but didn't nail me to my seat firmly enough to put up with the heat, and so I started wandering.

Down at the Dean's Beans stage (whilom 3 Rivers Stage, etc.) I ran into Dave up front and we were both riveted by the Mtali Shaka Banda Oneness Project.  Wow, they were good!  This is a young and informal band, and Mali Shaka Banda took some time warming up.  But soon his vocal pipes started glowing and they had just the right grooves to get the Festival going for us.  Mtali had a guitarist, drummer, bassist, and keyboard player with him and they would start up a nice tune, and sooner or later Mtali would start growling some words or humming a lead, and then he'd sometimes add some riffs on his alto sax.  This may not sound like a recipe for the kind of music Jon and Dave like, but this was very, very well done and we loved it.  And his pants were on the verge of falling down, so that added a hint of danger to it.

Back up to the main stage (branded as The Tea Guys Stage) and caught a bit of Heather Maloney, whom we'd seen there before.  She's got a very nice indie-folk sound and I loved her guitarist, even before I recognized that it was the great Anand Nayak, whom I've seen many times.  Kept up the wandering as the lovely evening crept in and the temperature dropped just a little, a gentle breeze showed up at the least expected times, and the sun lowered slowly behind the Western hills.  Saw a bit of Ladama back down at the far stage (they had a bajo sexto guitat), and later a bit of Parsonsfield back  up on top.

But the real treat of my ramblings was that I timed it perfectly to catch the bulk of new Northampton band Dez Roy at the Parlor Room Stage.  They're a traditional country band that I'd caught a bit of on YouTube and was really psyched to see.  And even though my expectations were higher than they might have been, these guys just blew me away!  OK, they weren't great, but they had their act down.  Dez is the quintessential tall and skinny Western singer, does a bunch of twangy originals, and plays the heck out of his Telecaster when he gets the chance.  And he had another great guitarist with him (also on Telecaster, like a great Bakersfield band), a bass, drums, and a woman playing some very tasty licks on pedal steel.  I loved this stuff.

As mentioned in the last few years, GRFs have had "themes" to my ear over the last few years.  And to my surprise this year continued that pattern.  It was clear to me already that the theme of this Festival was "cavalcade of guitars."  I'd already seen some great Telecaster work by the country band and Mtali Banda's guitarist, as well as listening to a bit of bajo sexto and a lot of the fantastic talent of Nayak.  And then Lucinda came on with the incredible band, Buick 6 (Butch Norton on drums, David Sutton on bass, and Stuart Mathis on guitars).

I was totally swept up in Lucinda's set and was gushing about it all that late evening.  But the others who saw her weren't that impressed.  She was maybe a little toasted and wrestled with her words between songs.  But it was during the songs that I cared about and she was spilling her emotions all over the stage, with the band filling out her excellent songs and making me shiver in the hot evening. Her setlist was incredible, anchored by two of her most pained songs, Those Three Days and Essence and featuring some other wailing Lucinda blues such as Changed the Locks and Pineola.

Well, that was it for Friday night and it was a very quick trip back to the car and back to the Hampton Inn.  Quick trip up to the room to dump stuff and then down to the lobby, where a bunch of the crew had assembled.  There was a guy trying to get some work done on his laptop in the lobby, but even though we were pretty noisy there were no complaints from him or the desk clerk.  We had some beers and some chips and before we knew it, it had gotten late!  Got to bed around 1:00 or so.

No Filter 2019 At Gillette

It's weird how these things happen: the passage of time, the gradual lessening of expectations, the creep of reality.  But it happens to all of us that we somehow find that at some point we stopped expecting specific things we'd always desired.  It's sad when it's something that could still be achieved, but usually it's something like realizing that one will never be an astronaut.

And sometimes this happens without you really noticing it, just sliding away by small degrees from the "someday I will" through the "maybe I still can" to the "no way am I ever going to."  I for one had made up my mind and accepted at some point, probably way in the past now, that I was never going to see the Rolling Stones.

There are many reasons for this.  For one thing, all of us amateur actuaries thought they were going to kick the bucket at a young age.  And for another the price to go see them was always higher than what I would pay for a concert.  And there's the fact that since the 70s their shows had become ... well, shows rather than what a snob like me would consider a true music experience.  And I had decided that I'd never see a "concert" in a stadium (see prior post).  Without realizing it, in the back of my mind, I had become certain that seeing the Rolling Stones would never happen to me.

But they've always been genuinely one of the few best rock and roll bands in the world; their authenticity can't be questioned, though it might be covered with glitz.  Their most recent record is old blues covers, Jagger is finally showing signs of being human (having recently had heart surgery), and I'd just been to that excellent Dead & Company concert at Gillette Stadium, making me think that maybe another band could fill it with great sound.  I was ripe for my negative expectation to be exposed as false.

When I heard that there were still seats available at original price (not the inflated prices charged by re-sellers) for the Stones stop in Foxborough on their No Filter tour, I looked into it out of curiosity at least.  Because of Jagger's sudden medical difficulties their tour had been postponed and then the Foxborough stop was suddenly rescheduled for July 7th, probably an inconvenient time for a lot of people who had already made Summer plans.  The tickets on the field ($450) and in the first bowl ($350) were still ridiculously expensive, but there were a few at original price ($160) up in the third bowl, and we had no plans for that weekend.

I said to Sarah that if we were ever going to see the Rolling Stones then we were being handed the opportunity, like Satan tempting us to deal away our souls.  And she agreed that we just had to grab the chance.  David was seeing Phish at Fenway that Friday and Saturday and so opted out of the Stones in Gillette on Sunday, a tough decision he may regret many times.  But I went ahead and bought two tickets, sending myself into a state of shock!

We were suddenly going to see the Rolling Stones and I for one got very excited, like suddenly being told you were an astronaut.  I have to mention a few more details, since it was another beautiful early-Summer day and a great pre-concert experience.

• We decided to get there early again because we did not want to get stressed out sitting in a line of traffic, and they let us into lot P2 (near the Stadium, not across the highway), where we set up our chairs, had a beer and a sandwich, and talked with some nice Deadhead neighbors.
• There were many Dead t-shirts there (though way outnumbered by Stones shirts of course), including my own Dead/Bruins black shirt.  I was hoping for Paint It Black and dressed accordingly.  And I saw another guy wearing the same shirt!
• I realized I could go over to the ticket window early and there was no line at the Will Call window.  So I picked up my tickets even more easily than I had for DeadCo.
• AND ... then the band started up!  They were doing soundcheck and they suddenly were playing Bitch in the beautiful Massachusetts sky.  I and everybody else there (there were already a lot of people waiting for the gates to open) were very happy about this.  I could have stuck around for more soundcheck but went back to the lot for another beer and sandwich.
• We timed it very well, packing up our chairs and stuff and then making our way in past security after some delay.  A woman in front of us was trying to bring in a full-size purse.  What an idiot.
• After we got in it was a LONG walk up and up and up the ramps to the third bowl, don't think I've ever been that high up in Gillette before.  But they had great restrooms near our seats and a craft beer place with a lot of choices and no line.
• We were in the middle of the third row in section 308, about on the visiting team's 45 yard line.  The sight lines from there were excellent.  The stage was about on the home team's 35 and a pier extended out into the crowd to a smaller stage at about the 50.

And very soon after we got to our seats with beer and a mixed drink, Gary Clark Jr. came on as the opener.  He played a fantastic set of funk blues-rock, showing his great guitar style.  We'd seen him in videos with Phil & Friends and with a few other bands, and in the flesh as bandleader himself he was excellent.  There was an echo for us in the third bowl (and maybe lower in the Stadium) for his first few tunes, but they soon got it straightened out and I was pretty impressed by how good the sound was, including the sight lines as I say.  We were up on top and though we were pretty far away, we could see everything on stage clearly.

The Stones stage set had 5 huge (reported as "6 story") video screens, which were not totally fired up for Clark's set, but promised even more visuals.  But we didn't need them.  We could see everyone on stage fine, especially when the Stones set up on the small stage at the 50.

OK, maybe I'm wasting time here.  I really don't know how to describe the thrill of the Stones coming out and opening with Street Fighting Man and then ripping through a setlist to die for.  I could criticize a few things like Jagger's voice not being as dynamic as I'd hoped (they seemed to be mixing him in a tight range, maybe making sure the best parts of his voice were accentuated), Richards not shining on his two vocals, and a few slow spots where they lost their head of steam.  But that's more than enough criticism, this concert/show/whatever it was would have had me in tears if I'd been fool enough to cry.

Well, let me start with the setlist.  They only did one set but there was a slight break when they moved out to the small stage to do Play With Fire and Dead Flowers with just the core four on acoustic guitars and a small kit:

Street Fighting Man
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
Tumbling Dice
She's So Cold
Ride 'Em on Down (with Gary Clark Jr.)
2120 South Michigan Avenue
Play With Fire
Dead Flowers
Sympathy for the Devil
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Honky Tonk Women
Slipping Away
Before They Make Me Run
Miss You
Paint It Black
Midnight Rambler
Start Me Up
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Brown Sugar

Encore:
Gimme Shelter
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

They were changing instruments with almost every song and Jagger played guitar on several tunes, including a great rhythm on Dead Flowers; he also played some great harp, which was delightful.  This was enthralling!  The incredible moments just poured out from them to everyone in the crowd.  Say what you will about Jagger strutting, but he was all over that set, singing to everyone in the audience.  They did the tunes but did not hesitate to crank out measure after measure of the finest blues-rock ever between the buttons (er, verses).

She's So Cold was their crowd choice (they've been having the crowd vote on a song for them to play with every show on this tour) and that's still echoing in my mind.  Ronnie Wood was incredibly versatile, playing an electric sitar on Paint It Black; I was in heaven.  And Richards and Watts were like, Richards and Watts ... but they were right there in front of me.  People have been asking me, "How was the concert?" and I have to say, "It was just like watching the Rolling Stones."  I was there!

And their band was excellent, besides the core four it was: Darryl Jones on electric bass, Chuck Leavell on keyboards, Sasha Allen on vocals (she belted out Gimme Shelter like she was born to do it), Karl Denson and Tim Ries on saxophones, Matt Clifford on another keyboard and also French horn, and Bernard Fowler on congas and some excellent backup vocals.  As I say, they had their sound down, it was mixed amazingly well.  And a significant part of it was the support of Jagger's vocals on the low end by Fowler.

I was beginning to wish that they had taken a set break and thinking that maybe I could sneak out for a quick trip to the concourse between songs.  But as I say the tunes just kept coming and I decided that I was not going to miss a second, though the bathroom was a welcome relief when it was over.

They had a rack of clothes on stage for some reason, maybe so Jagger could change in full sight??  But instead he strutted off a couple of times and came back on with a different outfit, which he proceeded to rip off in his exuberance to bare his ubiquitous black t-shirt.  He had started with almost a Bruins jersey, a black and gold jacket-thing.  During one of his wardrobe changes Richards did his two songs, his own Slipping Away and then Before They Make Me Run, which were not up to par.

But then Jagger came back on and the night just went up and up and up from there.  I mean, look at that setlist!  Of many details I could mention, the most perfect touch for me was when they dragged out the bluesy ending to Midnight Rambler and Jagger was all over the stage, moaning, and then they brought it to a climax and he oozed out, "I'll stick my knife right down your throat," just like they did on Ya-Yas and just like my image of the bad boy Stones.

Oh well, what more can I say?  Gimme Shelter with Sasha Allen was as world-stopping as you might imagine.  And then they capped it off with Satisfaction, the first and last rock and roll song.

I was just so delighted I can't tell you.  Probably ended around 11:30 or so, I have no idea.  It took a long time to hit the restrooms and walk back and forth down the endless ramps with a full stadium of people of all ages, and make it back to the car.  We got out the chairs and sat there for another 45 minutes or so talking to our neighbors and chilling out (really, it had gotten a little breezy and I had my windbreaker on).  Finally the cars started moving and we joined the line, Sarah driving.

Still, it was a long slow (Harlem) shuffle out of the lot and up route 1 to 95, where the traffic didn't really let up.  Finally made it up to 128 and the long drive around to Woburn.  Had to feed the kitties when we got home and didn't get to bed until 2, but OMG, this was an amazing experience.