Grahame Lesh and Friends at the Cap, night 3

Got a good night's sleep in finally, but then the usual mosh pit for breakfast.  As I say, there were many Deadheads at the Hyatt House that weekend, more so than any other hotel we'd stayed at.  Everyone we talked to agreed that the shows had been fantastic so far, and that Bob Weir should show up on Sunday the 16th.

This show was going to be a very different band, Steve Molitz on keys, the dynamic duo of Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, Jackie Green, and Molo and Lesh.  They also promised special guests, and of course everyone's expectations were high.

After breakfast we played another couple of games in our room, went for a walk around parts of the West Harrison oval we hadn't poked into before, and then ate sandwiches.  Time for a big game of Parks downstairs, and then back up to the room for a group nap and a little TV before heading out to Port Chester.  The weather still wasn't sunny to any degree, but at least we weren't in a huge fog bank.  And Kiosko was as good as ever.  This night they presented us with free desserts, which were delicious.  We really like that place, and they seem to like us.  But who knows when or if we'll be back there?

Up to our fine center balcony seats again, and the band came on a little after 8:00.  We were delighted that Karl Denson was there (on sax, flute, percussion, and vocals) at far right, along with a to-be-filled guitar setup to his left, and Adam McDougall sharing the keyboards with Molitz.  Those two made some great sounds together.  Brian Rashap was again on Big Brown.  Here's the first set:

• China Cat Sunflower
• Deep Elem Blues
• Here Comes Sunshine
• Sitting on Top of the World
• Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning
• Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
• Sugaree

I really like Jackie Green's voice, and he started us off with a nice vocal on China Cat.  And with the next few songs they sure took advantage of having the great Campbell and Williams.  Larry was playing a sick rockabilly Telecaster and standing still in precise "musician" posture as always, though his sound was so infectious.  Deep Elem was a perfect song for everybody to get to know each other, and then Teresa took over with Here Comes Sunshine; she was not about to brook any argument.  Another great part of this song was Denson's ethereal flute.

Sitting On Top of the World was another great guitar workup, and then it was Teresa's turn again and we could see her getting herself psyched.  To any one there who wasn't familiar with Teresa or felt that no one could equal the female vocalists of the first two nights, hold onto your hats.  She wailed out Lamps at the top of her voice, shrieking and howling and bringing out the primal force of the song.

Somewhere in there (the flow of guests was sometimes sudden), Rashap retired backstage and Grahame took over at bass.  He can play it, but he's a guitar player, not a bass player.  Later, Adam Minkoff took over and he's a fine player, he used to play bass in Amy Helm's band.  And then another great special guest appeared, Tom Hamilton at the guitar setup next to Denson.  Tommie sang a lovely little Mississippi Half-Step on which he conducted the crowd on the "Cross the Grand Rio" bridge.  But as always, he was bursting to play us some ripping lead guitar and he certainly did.  Jackie closed the set with Sugaree, helped immeasurably by having Teresa on backup.

Yikes, just one more set to go!  It was another average length intermission and we were getting pretty exhausted.  But our seats were great, the crowd was well behaved, and we were having a fine time.  What was there left to play?  Of course Truckin', Shakedown Street, and Sugar Magnolia ... but there was one more night to go after this one too.  I spoke up for Pride of Cucamonga, and every time I see Larry I'm hoping for his When I Go Away (though it's not really a Grateful Dead song).  Would they open with a Dark Star jam yet again?  And if Jackie's in the house you can't go wrong expecting Caution or So Many Roads.  So here's what they played, yet another excellent second set:

• Shakedown Street
• Pride of Cucamonga
• Truckin'
• Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)
• Pride of Cucamonga
• So Many Roads
• When I Go Away
• Cosmic Charlie
• I Know You Rider

Well, it was certainly a jam to open, but you could tell right away it wasn't going into Dark Star, instead they started funkifying things and went into the Shakedown riff.  Grahame was still on bass but gave it up for Minkoff soon and went back to guitar.  And I loved it when they finished that and then went into Pride Of Cucamonga, with Larry excelling on one of the Dead's most country songs.

A pretty quick Truckin' followed, and then they went into a deep jam, deeper and deeper until the bass line of Caution emerged and Jackie stepped to the mike to tell us about going down to see the gypsy lady.  He sang, "And she told me that all you need is just a touch of mojo hand" in one syllable!  Pretty impressive, and then he went on to tell the other guys in the band that they needed to get some mojo hand themselves, though he didn't seem at all assured that they'd follow his advice.

Anyway, a tight return to the last verse of Cucamonga came out of that jam, and then they stopped and Jackie crooned out a lovely So Many Roads.  This was another part of the set where everyone sat down and I did too, but right after I did, I was back up.  What was that they were playing?  It sounded like, and it was, one of my favorite songs ever, sung by the guy who wrote it.  There was probably a bunch of people asking, "What's this song?" but there were another bunch of us dancing and grooving.  This is the quintessential memorial song IMO.

A nice little Cosmic Charlie calmed us down, we were all paddling that paper canoe.  And then the band jammed again and wound up in the partner to the opening number, I Know You Rider.  There was full band and crowd participation on this one, everyone was singing along and feeling fine.

Grahame came out after the set for another donor rap and introduced everyone again, though I missed the name of the guy who took the second drum set for the last couple of songs.  Grahame then started strumming Sugar Magnolia, and soon our music weekend was over.

Back out into another cool night, and a short drive back to a suddenly not-so-crowded Hyatt House.  Heading back home in the morning and we couldn't imagine that the traffic would be any worse!

Grahame Lesh and Friends at the Cap, night 2

Even though I'd brought my own pillow and humidifier, the bed was plenty big enough for tossing and turning, and the window was cracked so the temperature wasn't stifling, this was the first night in a strange place and so I didn't sleep well.  I was exhausted from the stressful drive down and the long and emotional evening's entertainment, but I was barely less exhausted by morning.  Oh well, it's not like I'm not used to this!

And the breakfast experience was not exactly a relief itself.  Yes, the Hyatt House had a good breakfast, but the problem was getting to it.  It's a huge hotel and over the weekend a lot of the people there were Deadheads.  But everyone went to breakfast at the same time and that meant a line to even get in the little breakfast room, empty chafing dishes when you got to the head of it, and an empty coffee dispenser too.  The kitchen staff was trying to keep up, but was short staffed and overtaxed.   And if and when you got your food, good luck finding a seat in that small room, which doubled as their bar in the evenings.

Back up in our nice room, we played a couple of board games (Splendor, then Azul) on the kitchen counter.  We would have liked to go downstairs to the bar to spread out a bigger game on one of their tables, but realized the breakfast brou-ha-ha would take a while to get cleaned up.  We had brought some sandwiches for lunch and stayed in to eat them.  We've gone for nearby hikes in other years, but the day was again very foggy and threatening rain.

Even so, after lunch we were determined to get outside for at least a bit.  The Hyatt House is set in a couple of acres in a large circle of highways.  Most of this hilly, rocky ground has been paved over and features immense, deserted parking lots and spooky, deserted office buildings.  There's also a huge Wegman's, a prep school, a couple of apartment complexes, and a massive gym/pool complex squeezed in there.  They've apparently struggled with groundwater though, and there are rocky dells with gaping culverts and (hopefully well positioned) holding pools between the huge buildings.  We explored around one of the apartment complexes and then the Wegman's parking lot.  Sarah braved the inside of Wegman's to get some spices (the Cap was doing a spice drive), though a laden Deadhead had warned us it would suck us in.

We then poked around the Histogenetics building, which looked like it dated from the 1970s or before, and was surrounded by a cracked, asphalt parking lot that seemingly hadn't been used in decades.  The large lot is arrayed over several hills, and one knoll had a deserted lunch/picnic area on top, mostly blocked off by fallen trees.  This was a spooky, post-apocalyptic office-scape, and seemed to be the norm around there from what we could see from the tops of the hills.  Back to our room for a short nap and then an abbreviated game of Parks in the breakfast room/bar downstairs ... and then it was time to head for the Cap again!

Another trip to Kiosko, and another excellent meal.  I had their Quesadillas de la Casa, Sarah got goat meat, and Dave had a very large piece of salmon.  Our timing was right on, and we were soon up in our center balcony seats, timing the squirrel.  The place had been pretty packed on Friday, but there had been a few empty seats.  This was obviously not going to be the story on Saturday though, as the crowd just poured in and there was not a space to be seen.  One usually has to stand through a show at the Cap to be able to see the stage, but strangely this did not hold true, however.  Maybe we're *all* getting old, but through most of another excellent show, a large number of people stayed seated.  For long stretches we could sit down and not have our view blocked, which was fine with me as my feet and legs were pretty worn out by the end of the evening.

The core of Lesh, Crosby, Krasno, Molo, Burbridge, Mitarotonda, and Hartswick were back, and we were excited to see that Natalie Cressman had joined her partner, Jennifer, and that there was yet another guitar setup over on the left side of the stage.  They were later joined by John Scofield with his singular guitar sound, and by Adam Minkoff on organ and drums.  Here's the first set:

• Friend of the Devil
• Deal
• Althea
• Peggy-O
• Crazy Fingers
• Stella Blue
• He's Gone
• Cold Rain and Snow

They opened with a formulaic take on FOTD and I remember thinking that of course I shouldn't expect a show as great as Friday's.  But then they jammed into Deal, and suddenly this was far from formulaic.  Hartswick and Cressman got their horns going, Oteil was doing his hopping-around thing again, they had Minkoff milking the organ and Crosby rolling on the piano, and we were all back smiling.  Althea was a Mitarotonda showcase, and then Scofield came out for a beautiful Peggy-O, with a great vocal arrangement.  Scofield stuck around for a great Crazy Fingers, on which he was as eclectic as ever.

But then it was time for a slow introduction to Stella Blue and the entire theater was staring at Jennifer with excited anticipation as she slowly took her mike off its stand.  She can sing this as well as it's ever been sung, and that's what she did, with Scofield adding some great guitar fills.  The crowd didn't even bother going nuts, this was church for all of us.  And after Jennifer ended they started another slow intro into He's Gone, and it was Natalie's turn.  She doesn't have the coloratura of Jennifer, but her voice is possibly more mind bending.  She can add a dimension of sincerity, originality, and soulfulness to a song like He's Gone, adding new notes and flourishes to the end of lines.  You've got to hear her.  And we all realized that she was singing He's Gone about Phil, and we all started tearing up yet again.

We'd seen Cressman do this song at the Cap before and it was followed by another Mitarotonda showcase tune, Cold Rain and Snow.  They did that combo again, and this time Rick's excellent vocal was backed up by the whole band, playing at their loudest.  This and Deal were possibly the songs of the set, though Stella Blue and He's Gone were untouchable in their own way.

Possibly a shorter set break that night, halfway through our annual(?) musical sojourn.  The guys came back out and mixed it up a bit.  Oteil had moved to the second drum set and Brian Rashap (Phil's longtime production manager) was playing Phil's "Big Brown" bass.  Also, John Medeski was now squeezed in with Crosby on the keys setup.  Here's the second set:

• Dark Star Jam
• Help on the Way
• Slipknot!
• Franklin's Tower
• King Solomon's Marbles
• Scarlet Begonias
• Comes a Time
• The Other One
• Dark Star

Again, they opened with a wild, long, out there Dark Star jam that wandered and wandered until we were a long way from Westchester County.  The whole weekend was more or less a tribute to Phil, and this sure was.  Their point was that, as Phil often said, Dark Star is always playing out there somewhere, and when our heads are in the right place we can tap into it.  They sure tapped, then Oteil moved back to bass and Minkoff appeared at the second drum set ... and then suddenly, brahnga-brah-dong!!! we were riding the crest of a wave.  Great stuff and so much like what Phil would have done.  This went into a great Slipknot! jam, which at times threatened to break out into the Allman Brothers In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, which made Oteil giggle.

Then a fine Franklin's Tower that threatened to swerve into Blue Sky, and this of course had the whole theater singing along with Jennifer (as if), and then another unexpected and acceptably tight twist, into King Solomon's.  I remembered the thrill of seeing Phil do this with Joe Russo in Boston in 2012.  Fantastic that they'd do both an extensive Slipknot! and then a huge King Solomon's in the same set.  Excellent Scarlet (which Jennifer topped off with the line, "Everybody's playing in the Happy Birthday Phil Lesh band!"), and another wonderful vocal from Oteil on Comes a Time.  He can be so self-deprecating and was seemingly embarrassed to be featured on vocal when Hartswick and Cressman were on the stage, but he's pretty good himself.

Oteil then switched from his bass to Big Brown and we all knew what was about to happen.  They launched into another loud and long intro, but you just knew that he was about to drop that bass run, and then we were off into TOO-land, and then ultimately into a tight Dark Star reprise, with Grahame up on the drum riser orchestrating the climax to the set.  Friday night had been great, but this second set was awesome!

Phew, time to sit down again and get a short break for our aching feet and legs.  Though we'd had some time sitting down during the second set, this had been a workout, physically and emotionally.  Pete Shapiro and Phil's grandson Levon came out with a cake, and we all sang Happy Birthday to Phil, though unfortunately he was not there except in spirit.  Then Grahame did another donor rap, which came out a little smoother than it had on Friday, but was still a bit hard for him to get through.  Then it was time for all players to come out again for introductions and the totally expected Not Fade Away, with lengthy crowd coda.

Another night at the Cap was over!  Back to the car in the foggy night and back up to West Harrison, where we fell into bed shortly.

Grahame Lesh and Friends at the Cap, night 1

 As mentioned, we've seen Grahame Lesh perform with his father for several years, and been quite impressed with his talent as a guitarist and a bandleader.  It's very sad to know that his father, Phil, passed away at 84 this past October.  But it's great to know that Phil's music and his legacy continues.  Grahame announced a couple of months ago that he'd be continuing the tradition of celebrating his father's birthday at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester.  He announced gigs there on March 14 and 15, and then later on the 16th and 17th as well, with different bands.  We got tickets to the first three of the four shows.

Though it's one of the most expensive options around and we'd been avoiding it, we got a room at the Hyatt House in West Harrison.  It's relatively very close to the Cap, was advertised as having a good breakfast, meant that we could avoid the Connecticut Turnpike and/or parkways by sneaking into Westchester County down 84 and 684, and we were able to get a suite with two separate bedrooms for a not outrageous price.  Something had to go wrong!

Well, of course the first thing that went wrong was traffic.  We picked up Dave in Quincy around noon on Friday the 14th, and headed North and then West on the Mass Pike.  It was Friday afternoon and I've rarely seen the Pike so crowded, and of course the more crowded it gets the more aggressive some drivers are.  We got off on 84 and stopped at a rest area for lunch.  This road was saner but not by much, and when we got to downtown Hartford the press of traffic slowed down to a crawl for the next half hour.  We stayed on 84, though Google tried to get us to turn off South, down to the parkways, which we were determined to avoid because of recent bad experiences on them.  We should have risked it though, as we ran into traffic jam after traffic jam all the way out to Danbury, most caused by accidents.  This was not a mellow trip, and Connecticut drivers are erratic.  Finally made it to 684 over the NY border, and this was better, though one car tried to swerve into me when the driver seemed to fall asleep.  And for most of the trip, the other side of the road looked even worse!  Especially on 684, where it was a huge parking lot of people trying to escape NYC.

Anyway, we got to West Harrison and checked into our suite, which was very nice.  We were in a corner of the 4th floor of the huge Hyatt House and the suite had two bedrooms with king beds and en suite bathrooms, a kitchenette, a small living room area, and three large TVs.  The best thing was that the windows actually opened, and we were able to air out the room a bit, though the hotel had not turned on air conditioning yet.  This place wasn't perfect and through the wall we could hear the elevator going up and down, but it was very acceptable.

Unpacked, had a beer or two, and then got things together and headed down Westchester Avenue for the pretty short drive to the parking lot behind Kiosko, where we'd eaten many times before.  They actually seemed to recognize us (they're probably aware of the Cap's schedule, half the people we saw eating there that weekend were definitely Dead-ified), and we had another great meal.  Walked down to the Theatre, checked out the new street sign, went through security, bought some excellent t-shirts, and wandered up to our center balcony seats.  We were in row D that night, row F Saturday, and row E Sunday, all very good center balcony seats.

The people were streaming in and the squirrel was rotating around the Theatre, and then the band came on at about 8:15.  The players they'd advertised were Grahame, Jason Crosby, Eric Krasno, John Molo, Oteil Burbridge, Rick Mitarotonda, and Jennifer Hartswick.  They said they'd also have special guests, which of course led to much conjecture.  The first to come out were Amy Helm and Alex Koford, and the band launched right into a beautiful, moving opener of Box of Rain, with those two and Grahame singing like angels.  Here's the first set:

• Box of Rain
• Cumberland Blues
• They Love Each Other
• Tennessee Jed
• Bertha
• Brown-Eyed Women
• The Music Never Stopped
• Casey Jones

I know there were tears in my eyes during that first song, and I think there were plenty more in the audience and up on stage.  But they pivoted quickly into another song favored by Phil, Cumberland, and then proceeded to take it higher and higher.  Oteil was on fire from the beginning, hopping around the stage in his bare feet and obviously taking this gig very seriously.  But it was clear that this was now Grahame's band.  In the past he'd done a great job of holding together bands assembled by his father with his rhythm guitar and backing vocals, but now his was the dominant guitar sound on stage.

Koford moved to percussion on a second trap set to the left of Molo for BEW, and then Ross James came out on guitar and shared vocals with Jennifer on Music.  As one expected, Hartswick was just surreal on both vocals and trumpet, and the crowd loved her.  There was definitely a problem of too many guitars on stage, but Phil had always done this too, and there were only a few instances of them all going silent at the same time, or them all playing discordantly at the same time.  Krasno really impressed us with some of his leads, and Mitarotonda was great too, though not as dynamic as he would have been in a smaller band.  And we loved it all, this was a really fun first set and of course a great setlist.

After an average length intermission, they were joined by yet another guitarist, Scott Law.  Koford stayed in the second drum seat for most of the songs, though Amy's son, Lavon Collins (named after his grandfather, who later changed his name to Levon), took over for the last couple.  And in the middle of the set, Holly F. Bowling came out to play piano on Eyes and then share the keyboards with Crosby for the rest of the set.  Here's what they played:

• Dark Star Jam
• Uncle John's Band
• Playing in the Band
• New Potato Caboose
• Morning Dew
• Eyes of the World
• Mountains of the Moon
• Turn On Your Love Light

This second set was even better than the first set, it had jaws dropping all over the theater.  They opened with a long, spacey, wild jam that morphed into Dark Star, and then found themselves in yet another song often played by Phil, UJB.  After a short PITB came yet another long and funk-adelic Phil song in New Potato, and the best was still to come.  Amy again duetted with Koford, and they turned in a soulful Dew, Holly came out for her incredible take on Eyes, and then it was Oteil's turn and he gave us a lovely tenor vocal on Mountains of the Moon.  And after that was a long rave-up of Lovelight, with Jennifer bringing the theater down on transcendent vocals.  OMG, this was beyond first class.

We were getting pretty tired by then and all had a seat and a few gulps of water.  But then Grahame came out and got us all crying again.  He told everyone how meaningful this occasion was to him, and was bravely trying to control his emotions.  At one point he almost couldn't continue and his wife danced out to give him a hug.  The extended Lesh family was all there to support each other, this was as special an occasion for them as it was for us.  Grahame then made it, with his voice cracking, through his father's Donor Rap, which he is bound to continue.

And then everyone came out for the encore, which of course was even more emotional.  Amy and Grahame did Attics of My Life, with help from the whole ensemble, and then they finished with an upbeat song, Touch of Grey, with Jennifer on lead vocals.  But of course the message of even such a sunny song is a little bittersweet, and also we remembered seeing James Casey singing this from much the same spot Jennifer stood in, soon before he succumbed to cancer.

Wow, what a night!  The crowd was filing out quickly, it was well past midnight by then.  We sat for a bit and then moved on out ourselves, up the street on a misty, foggy night and back to our car.  Then a short drive back up the road to the Hyatt House and soon to bed.

Jack White Returns To Boston

American music icon Jack White released (in his own way) a new album recently, and then announced a tour of small venues.  This guy could sell out stadia, but booked two dates in Boston at Roadrunner, the new club in Allston Landing, on February 17th and 18th.  Both shows sold out quickly, but we were able to get tickets to the second, Tuesday, February 18th.

The Boston area has been going through a cold, icy Winter.  Dave was over and we all three drove into Allston on another frigid night, where we parked in the Warrior Ice Arena garage and had a fantastic dinner at a packed Railstop, where we met Leen.

Jack White is the consummate music impresario, and has booked local bands to open for him on all stops on this tour.  He'd had one group on Monday, and on Tuesday had a different one, Weakened Friends from Portland.  The band consists of Sonia Sturino on vocals and guitar, wife Annie Hoffman on bass and harmonies, and Adam Hand on drums.  We managed to catch half of their thoroughly enjoyable set.  They were a crunching, dynamic, great opening act for Jack, and though they played it cool, they had to gush about what an opportunity they'd been given to play to a packed house of 3500 rock fanatics.

Roadies in black ties and hats re-set the stage quickly, moving the drum riser (Patrick Keeler from the Raconteurs) and bass amps (Dominic Davis, Jack's long-time bassist) back and to the left, setting up a keyboard (Bobby Emmett in dark sunglasses) back and to the right, and leaving plenty of room for Jack's three big Fender amps, a guitar rack, and one mike exactly in stage center, with a small synthesizer keypad hanging from it.  The guys came on right on time at 9:15 and tore the place up.

Jack alternated between three guitars: an orange and black one that had an incredible tone and that he played most of his classic songs on, one in his light blue color brand with white accents that he played when he needed a crisp sound, and an acoustic with lots of pickups that had the fullest sound I've ever heard from a wired acoustic.  His guitar tech ran out and grabbed each when it was discarded, then tuned it quickly and returned it to the rack.  Jack spent most of the time behind the mike and/or up on the drum riser, egging the band on, but sometimes he roamed to the front of the stage and egged the audience on, though we didn't need much egging.  Everyone knew the cues and Jack didn't have to do much to get us going, and singing/clapping in time.

As I say, we'd arrived in the middle of the opening set, but were able to scoot around to the left and find a nice place to stand, about 35-40 feet from the stage.  There was not much trouble with chompers, but many people had their phones out and obstructed others' view by holding them up.  Jack hadn't stood for people getting their phones out when we'd seen him ten years ago, but time has marched on and there's no stopping it now.  Anyway, here's the first set list:

• Intro Jam
• Old Scratch Blues
• That's How I'm Feeling
• Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
• Roadrunner (cover of the song the venue is named after, by Boston band The Modern Lovers)
• It's Rough on Rats (If You're Asking)
• Little Bird
• Corporation
• Why Walk a Dog?
• Screwdriver
• You're Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl)
• What's the Rumpus?
• High Ball Stepper
• Louie Louie (Richard Berry & The Pharaohs cover)
• Morning at Midnight
• Ball and Biscuit

These were basically played continuously of course, Jack rarely stops when he's got a guitar in his hands.  It's hard to pick out highlights, since all of the songs were done so well.  I was particularly thrilled by the classic Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (which I hadn't anticipated), the instant favorite, Rough on Rats, from his new record, and some great blues guitar on Why Walk a Dog?  High Ball Stepper was another highlight.  And what a bolt of energy for me, and then rippling throughout the crowd, when he rolled into Ball and Biscuit, one of his best examples of songwriting, and jammed it out to end the set.

As per normal, Jack and the band left the stage quickly, but only for a short, short break before coming out for a long encore, which was almost like a second set:

• Encore Rave Up
• Steady, as She Goes
• Archbishop Harold Holmes
• Sixteen Saltines
• That Black Bat Licorice
• Underground
• Seven Nation Army

We were beginning to get a little tired, if only because the energy coursing through the hall was exhausting.  Jack hasn't been altering his set lists much on this tour, but we were again delighted that he changed up a bit and covered Steady As She Goes and Black Bat Licorice.  And of course the crowd was more than primed for Seven Nation Army, and he didn't have to do much vocal work on that one as we all roared it out.  No Hotel Yorba, but we all had a great time participating with a Jack White show with all the trimmings.

By the way, the Bournes found Roadrunner to be a great, convenient venue.  Parking and dinner options were more than acceptable, and the hall featured fantastic sound.  It's also got a balcony with seats, which look like they have great sightlines, but are much more expensive than GA floor tickets.  Back into the cold night for us, and not a long ride home. 

Thursday At the Museum

 Went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston today and saw some of my favorites:

Madame Cezanne In a Red Armchair (Paul Cezanne)

Morning On the Seine Near Giverny (Claude Monet)

Houses At Auvers (Vincent Van Gogh)

Ollabelle Returns!

Ollabelle has embarked on a 20th reunion (of their first record) tour and stopped at the City Winery Boston this January 26th. We immediately got tickets of course, and drove into Boston on a cold Sunday, where we ate dinner at a noisy A&B Kitchen, while watching the end of the Commanders-Eagles playoff game, and then walked up the block to see them.

We've seen many great acts at City Winery in the few years it's been around, but this may have been the last!  They actually had a good sound system this time (they've added a couple of speakers), but in the past it's been underpowered.  But the site still has significant drawbacks, like the odd, long rectangle of a room, the crowded tables that force you to look sideways to see the stage, and the bad stage visibility.  But worst of all is that their menu sucks, you don't have room to eat on their small and crowded tables, they only have a few beers on the menu and are always out of them, and they've recently announced that they will require a minimum expenditure of $25 per person for upcoming shows!  This is ridiculous, if you don't want their overpriced food you will have to order several of their overpriced beers to get up to $25.  On this visit they were out of three of the five (canned) beers they have on the menu.

Anyway, Ollabelle came on not far past 7:30 and were great.  They were accompanied by Daniel Littleton on guitar (we'd seen him with Amy) and Duke Levine sat in for a few songs.  Left to right they lined up as Daniel, Byron Isaacs, Amy Helm, Fiona McBain, Duke Levine, Glenn Patcha, and Tony Leone on drums in the back.  They pretty much stuck to their repertoire from the past, though Fiona says they're working on some new material.  I hope they release a new record and keep touring, because I enjoyed this concert as much as I ever enjoyed them when they were a working band.

As great as all members of the band are, perhaps the best/most important player on the stage was Littleton, whose sonic tapestries and grungy leads are just fantastic.  Having a lead guitar allowed Fiona to concentrate more on her vocals and excellent rhythm (she switched between electric and a big acoustic guitar).  I remember when we saw them in Passim in 2011(!) that Glenn's keyboards were much more up front, and having the lead guitar also allowed him to concentrate more on color and fills.

They opened with Before This Time and got the older crowd riled up ... the room was only maybe a third full, which is criminal.  One of their strengths is their vocal arrangements, and though some of the songs below are associated with their lead vocalist, everybody chimed in, even Daniel.  The setlist may be posted at some point, but here's what I definitely remember:

Before This Time (all)

Get Back Temptation (all)

Soul Of a Man (Amy)

Elijah Rock (Fiona)

John the Revelator (all)

Be Your Woman (Amy)

Brotherly Love (Byron)

Ain't No More Cane (all)

See Line Woman (Amy)

Jesus On the Mainline (Glenn)

Northern Star (Fiona)

I Am Waiting (all)

No More My Lawd (Amy)

The Storms Are On the Ocean (Fiona)

Reach For Love (Tony)

Troubles Of This World (Amy)

Down By the Riverside (Glenn)

All of their songs were pretty short and they did a lot of them, but it was not a really long set.  They came back quickly after the standing ovation and played an encore of the song they're working up a new arrangement of for a memorial service for Garth Hudson, All Is Well, and then their wonderful cover of Brokedown Palace, rotating the verses between the band.

Just as cold when we got outside, but we had parked in a lot a few blocks away and then it was a quick ride over the almost completed Northern Avenue Bridge, through Charlestown, back to the highway and up to home.

Welch and Rawlings at CCA

We usually would crawl through broken glass to go see Gillian Welch, but we put off and put off buying tickets for her tour behind her latest CD, Woodland, almost until it was too late.  Boston and Portland were sold out by the time we got serious, but we were able to get what looked like acceptable tickets in the Chubb Theatre at the Capitol Center For the Arts in Concord NH on December 2.

It was rush hour as we drove up, and there was an accident on 93 in Southern NH, but we still got up there in not bad time, parked on Main Street near the venue, and had a fine meal at The Draft sports bar across the street.  The Draft filled up quickly with concert goers on a cold and dark early December night, and the Chubb filled up quickly too.

The balcony there gets horrible grades.  We'd been in the Chubb before, in the orchestra, and that's fine.  But don't go upstairs!  The sound system was pathetic and overtaxed; they tried to turn up the low end but just produced a disagreeable hum for the first few songs before turning it down to a tinny echo.  Luckily the crowd was pretty quiet, but they could easily have drowned out the band and we couldn't really hear Gillian and David when they talked in the mikes.  And the seats in the balcony were torture devices, crowded together closer than in Fenway Park!  Luckily the seat next to me was empty, so I could turn sideways and not break my knees, but it was close.  And their balcony bar was shuttered.  When I went down to the lobby for a beer I turned around immediately and climbed back up, because the line was about as long as your average TSA queue.

But besides that, we thoroughly enjoyed the show.  Gillian was on her acoustic and switched to a banjo for a couple of tunes.  David was on his tenor guitar, which sounded as good as ever.  And Paul Kowert joined them on bass for most of the songs.  Too bad we couldn't hear him.  We were thrilled that they opened with Caleb Meyer, but that was the earliest song they did.  As expected, they featured most of the songs from their new album and they mixed in some other great ones.  The setlist was excellent.

First set:

• Caleb Mayer
• Midnight Train
• Empty Trainload of Sky
• Cumberland Gap
• Wrecking Ball
• Hashtag
• Howdy Howdy
• North Country
• Ruby
• Red Clay Halo

Second set:

• Lawman
• What We Had
• Hard Times
• Sweet Tooth
• The Day the Mississippi Died
• Drag It Down That Dusty Road
• Wayside/Back In Time
• The Way It Goes

First encore:

• Look At Miss Ohio
• I'll Fly Away

Second encore:

• Hard to Say Goodnight
• Jackson

As I say, the sold-out house was quiet and the performers may have at first been a little puzzled by this.  But it was because we were all there to listen, not because we were frozen New Englanders.  There was much raucous applause and hooting after each song, but then we'd all shut up and listen to the delicate start to the next one.  They pretty much stuck to the recorded arrangements, but also threw in a few intricate intros and outros, and extended leads.

Cumberland Gap didn't have the fire it had had when we last saw them in Boston, but they made up for it later with a dynamic, four-dimensional Sweet Tooth jam.  I was very glad they did both Wrecking Ball and Wayside/Back In Time.  And two songs showed Gillian's uniqueness.  Hard Times is somewhere between a depressing, down blues song and an uplifting folk song, this one got a lot of crowd reaction.  And I feel that What We Had is one of the most astounding, excellent recent songs I've heard, while being out of character for even such an eclectic artist.  It's almost poppy blue-eyed soul, but still is wrenchingly authentic, and the harmonies in it are top-notch.

The crowd wouldn't let them go at the end, and they rewarded us with two encores, ending with their rootsy, country take on Jackson.  Great show and a quick drive back South to home!

Dave Keyes Band in Norwood

We were really psyched to go down to Norwood on November 8th, have dinner with our friends, share our shock at the election results, and go see the Dave Keyes Band in a rare NE gig.  It was on the calendar, I had the directions open in a tab on my computer, and then we forgot!  Luckily our friend Pam texted us that they were leaving the restaurant for the venue (The Fallout Shelter), and we said OMG and jumped in the car and dashed down there.

A fuck-up on our part but they saved us a couple of seats and we only missed a few songs, sidling into the seats in front of the stage, under the telescoping cameras.  They're really well set up to record/stream music from there (the concert is on YouTube), and we found the Fallout Shelter nice, small, with good sound (they got the volume way up there by the end of the set), and just right.

Dave was on his electric piano, wearing a trilby (guess he out-grew the scally cap) and dressed in his embroidered, black outfit.  He had Frank Pagano on drums, Jeff Anderson on electric bass, Chris Eminizer on tenor sax, and Arthur Neilson on stratocaster.  Dave played mostly originals in the first set, including his new show-stopper, The Invisible Man (written with Doug MacLeod, who's much older than he is) and his Faith Grace Love and Forgiveness.  He also did his tribute to health workers, 7 O'clock Somewhere, and closed with Ain't Doing That No More and Rosetta Tharpe's Strange Things Happening.

We all gabbed some during the pretty short set break, and then the second set was even better.  He opened solo with Leon Russell's classic A Song For You, dedicated to Pat, and covered some great gospel and blues, a couple of Robert Johnson covers (including a dark, dark Hellhound on My Trail), besides throwing in a few more originals.  His fingers aren't slowing down at all.  For an encore he did an absolutely funky, greasy, rockabilly version of Dylan's I'll Be You Baby Tonight, totally different from Burl Ives's cover.

We all milled around and gabbed for a long time after that, hadn't seen most of our college friends since before the pandemic.  And the Fallout Shelter was mice enough not to kick us out.  But finally it was time to go out into the suddenly Fall-like, windy and spitting night, and then drive back home, much more slowly than we'd driven down there.  A great evening that we almost missed!

Aurora Borealis Sighting

The news been saying that this is a prime opportunity for aurora borealis viewing, but we'd heard that before and had never seen it.  We went out around 10PM on 10/10 and there definitely was some red-pink glowing in the sky, but nothing spectacular.  Sarah took some pictures though and it's amazing how much more sensitive to the aurora phenomenon the camera is than the human eye.

Se we went back inside and I got ready for bed.  Then my sister texted and said we had to go back outside, it was amazing!  So we did (me in pajamas and slippers) and it sure was amazing.  We stayed out for about half an hour at the fork of our driveways and should have stayed out longer.  I later went up on our third-floor deck and it was perhaps more amazing from up there.

What we saw was a pastel red-pink, almost fuchsia at times large streak of color coming from the Northeast.  There was another long streak of lime green to the Southeast of that and basically parallel, but the green sometimes formed into a column and sometimes shimmered like a curtain.  It was amazing how quickly the colors and shapes changed, from pastel pink to brick red in the one streak and from almost a soft yellow to Kelly green in the other.  But it wasn't just two streaks, they were swirling to some degree and there were flashes of white, yellow, and blue kind of radiating from the Northeast but filling the whole sky in an instant.  The white was so bright at times you would have thought it was a huge spotlight someone was shining on the scene from the Southwest.  The three-dimensionality of it all was astounding too, with the red-pink glow making a background and the more brilliant streaks and flashes dashing in front of it.  And in the background was a white shape that sometimes faded and sometimes came forward, like a low sine wave pattern along the Northern horizon.

Remember that this was what the camera saw, not what our eyes saw:

We wanted to stay but were getting too  cold and so went in.  As I say, I later went upstairs and watched some more.  It was truly spectacular and now we can say we've seen the aurora borealis and also a full solar eclipse in the same year.  It made me marvel at the wind from our small yellow dwarf star, at the geomagnetic dome protecting our even smaller planet, and at the fact that we measly humans live there and can look up and see evidence of the frightening but beautiful forces shaping our universe.  

Quick Nova Scotia Trip, Sunday

We got up as soon as it was light on Sunday the 29th, we had a long drive in front of us.  It showed signs of becoming another absolutely gorgeous day, but was pretty foggy early there on the seaside.  We had some granola bars and room-made coffee, so after we dropped off the keys at around 7:50 we were bound to get as far Southwest as we could before stopping.  We had filled up the tank the night before … we got 6.3 on the trip to Cape Breton!  What this means is that when we switched the car to metric, it reported gas efficiency in liters per 100km rather than in miles per gallon.  So a lower number was better rather than a higher number … I kind of liked this.

Barely anyone on the pink highway early on Sunday, and we set the cruise control and just watched the trees roll by, down 104 towards Truro.  Kind of strange to go West to Maine!  We finally did stop at a Tim Horton’s (we had to go to one, it was as imperative as going to a Cracker Barrel in South Carolina) to get more coffee and a breakfast sandwich.  A bit West of Truro we detoured onto route 4 to avoid the only (sic) toll in Nova Scotia, but then re-joined 104 and soon crossed into New Brunswick, where the road became route 2.

I’m sure parts of New Brunswick are as beautiful as Nova Scotia, but all our time there except for our lunch break was spent on the superhighway … route 2 to West of Moncton and then route 1 down through St. John … and it was kilometers and kilometers of lovely trees, but not much in terms of rolling hills or vistas of the sea.  And all road signs there are bilingual, with the non-English language being French this time, as opposed to Gaelic or Mi’kmaq.

Finally got South of St. John and were desperate to find a nice little park or something, stretch our legs and take a lunch break.  We still had half our bologna sandwiches left!  Signs kept tempting us to detour down to the Acadian Coastal Drive along the South-facing New Brunswick coast rather than continuing on the highway.  We resisted because we wanted a “stop” rather than a “drive,” but took one of them eventually and down route 790 we found the lovely little town of Chance Harbour.  We continued along the loop and lucked into a small turnoff where we could park, walk around, and gaze out over a marsh to the ocean through the hazy afternoon light.

790 looped back up to route 1, and it was just another hour to St. Stephen and the border crossing back into the USA.  We crossed the St. Croix River, gained an hour, and had just a short wait to get through immigration.  They barely questioned us, just glanced at our passports and waved us through.  Filled up on gas again at the intersection of routes 1 and 9, and hit the road into Maine.  As much as we’d liked our trip, it was kind of nice to be back in the States … Canada never seemed abnormal to us, but this was definitely much more normal, or at least familiar.  And the Harris signs outnumbered the Trump signs all along route 9.

One last stop.  We love the Airport Brewing Company pub in Ellsworth but had never been to their taproom in Amherst ME.  So we detoured a bit and got a quick pint there, which was another great stop after having been on the road for almost eight hours.  Then one last hour through Ellsworth and back home to Sedgwick, where the cats were very happy to have us back.

How to sum up?  We had a great time, and it was an entirely successful, quick foray outside of our comfort zone of Northern New England.  We don’t know when or if we’ll ever be back in Nova Scotia, but we definitely concluded that it’s somewhere we’d love to go back to and spend some more time exploring.  Who knows?

Quick Nova Scotia Trip, Saturday

The rain petered out finally, in the middle of the night, and we woke to a crystal-clear, beautiful morning on Saturday the 28th.  Went back to the restaurant for another fine breakfast, with staggering views to the Northwest up the Canso Strait, which separate Cape Breton Island from the rest of Nova Scotia.  Packed up and hit the road North around 9:00 (after filling up on gas), crossing the Canso Causeway and turning up 105 in Port Hastings.  The highway was almost empty, and after an hour or so we were back driving along the coast, diagonally up the Northeast side of the island.

First Nations place names suddenly appeared, and many road signs were in both English and Mi’kmaq.  The culture was centered around the town of Whycocomagh and Whycocomagh Reserve.  We saw some gaming locales, and suddenly every other storefront had big signs saying, “We sell cannabis!”  Though it’s legal in Canada, these were the only dispensaries we saw, perhaps there’s a loophole in regulations for natives.

This was a beautiful drive on a beautiful day, up the interior coast past Nyanza and Baddeck toward St. Ann’s.  Here you’re supposed to turn West onto the beginning of the Cabot Trail around the Northern part of the island, but we realized that if we kept on up toward Englishtown, we could take a free ferry across St. Ann’s Bay instead.  This also took us past the Giant MacAskill Museum, which is a sister museum to the one we had seen in Dunvegan Scotland!  But it looked even dodgier than the one in Scotland had … the only sign for it was a small one at the end of a muddy, uphill driveway and we didn’t stop.

Our timing was perfect and we had to wait only a minute before they waved us and seven other cars onto the small Englishtown Ferry.  It was a very short, tumultuous ride over the narrow channel to the spit on the other side, and we’d probably saved significant time over taking the land route.  We joined the Cabot Trail, route 30, and did I say it was beautiful before?  This was just incredible as the Bay opened up into the North Atlantic, the wind and the waves kept coming from the Northeast, and we wound along the lovely coast up to Ingonish.

Liquor and beer stores in Nova Scotia are all branded as NSLC outlets … alcohol is well regulated in Canada … and we stopped in one in Ingonish, where we picked up a great assortment of beers and ciders and had a nice talk about the upcoming National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with the orange-shirted clerk.  My favorites of the Nova Scotia beers I sampled were Black Angus and Crazy Angus from the Cape Breton Brewing Company of Sydney, and DIPA from the Propeller Brewing Company and “The IPA” from Nine Locks Brewing, both of Dartmouth.

We also stopped at the Ingonish Visitor Center for the Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Ingonish, paid our entrance fee and picked up a map.  The National Park is one of the most spectacular, scenic, breathtaking, wild, places I’ve ever seen and I’m so glad we went there.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to hike any of their many trails and then get back to Auld’s Cove and Maine on schedule.  We’ll need to go back there someday to do it justice.

But we did stop at many overviews, we just couldn’t pass them up.  Some are down at sea level, where the massive swells from the ocean break on the cliffs, some are up high on top of the cliffs themselves, from which you can see for many kilometers up and down the coast and out to sea, some are at the bottom of lovely, peaceful valleys between steep hills, and some are at the heads of those valleys, from which you can see huge distances of Fall-colored forest.

We saw a little pink granite in the seacliffs and exposed hills, but it was mostly sedimentary rock: red, white, and gray, sometimes all in one rockface.  Some of the jagged rocks were so shiny gray they looked like aluminum or stainless steel.  The mix of trees was a lot like Maine, mostly spruce and pine, but with more deciduous trees, mostly oaks and poplars but also many maples and beeches.

The Cabot Trail leaves the Park in places, and it’s funny how the road surface instantly turns into a mangled mess of potholes and creases … it’s well maintained in the Park.  And the signs for every kind of tourist trap you can imagine pop up like campaign signs.  We stopped at one artisanal sandwich and pizza place and got some nice home-made lemonade and a couple of sandwiches, which turned out to be mostly bologna.  Then back into the amazing Park and we had a great mellow lunch stop at a picnic table in one of the hidden valleys.

Continued on and then down the Northwest coast, to Chéticamp, where the Park ended and the cheap hotels dominated.  We had a long way to go down the coast to Margaree Forks, where we kept right on 19, down through Inverness and Mabou to Port Hood.  I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t have as many glimpses of the sea as we had had on the other coast, but there were plenty of trees, run-down houses and neatly kept houses, farms, lakes, marshes, and sudden tidal gashes in the land.  At one point, Google told us we were about to go through Dunvegan, and we were psyched (we’d been in the Dunvegan in Scotland), but it was only a deserted intersection.

In Port Hood the road ran alongside the ocean for a while, and we realized we’d gotten farther along than we thought we would by that time of afternoon.  It was less than an hour back to Auld’s Cove all of a sudden.  So we put the brakes on and started looking for a nice turnoff, maybe a nice trail, and there weren’t any!  Oh well.  We poked around some and in Craigmore we found a road down to a beach and a muddy parking lot at the end of it (with a friendly dog), where there were some people in a camper van camping rough (we’d seen a few doing this all over the island, nowhere near as many as in Scotland).  We took a walk on the beach and then were going to press on but thought, wait a minute … we have a great view of the sparkling ocean out to Cape George Point to the right and the entrance to the Canso Strait to our left.  Let’s sit right here, have a beer/cider, and enjoy the end of the afternoon.  It was a great cocktail hour!

We were tempted to go straight back to our nice cabin from there, but wanted a little variety for dinner and, after going through Port Hastings and back over the causeway, stopped at 3 Square in Auld’s Cove for dinner.  They’ve just opened and have more plans for a nice restaurant than they have a nice restaurant at this point, but we didn’t care and the food they had was excellent.  Sarah had mussels in a curry sauce, and I had a pork belly bowl.  Back to the cabin for a beer/cider on the small porch and then a game of Azul when it started to get chilly.  It was Saturday night and most of the other cabins were now occupied.  There was a little late-night revelry, but it remained a peaceful spot.

Quick Nova Scotia Trip, Friday

Of course, the first night in a hotel, nice as the room was, neither of us slept well even though we were wiped out from the trip.  But we got up eventually and had fine coffee and a couple of nice omelets in their restaurant, and then got on the road a bit before 10:00 (9:00 by our clocks) on Friday the 27th.  It was a stormy, foggy morning and though we were just a block or two uphill from the harbor we could only see a few huge fishing boats right at the dock.

We found 103 West, which took us around the Southeast part of Nova Scotia, up toward Halifax.  There were very few other cars on the road, as was the story throughout most of the trip, and though it was raining … sometimes pretty hard … the scenery was stunning.  The sun tried to break out a few times but then the rain would come back hard.  It was savage, seaside weather, which we loved, and we caught glimpses of small fishing villages and vistas out to islands and the North Atlantic for the few hours up to the capital.

The traffic and the rain got intense and 103 ended and dumped us on local roads when we entered Halifax.  We followed 111 through town and over the MacKay Bridge, which suddenly required a $1.25 toll!?!  We’d been told that the only toll on Nova Scotia roads was in one stretch of route 104 and so hadn’t gotten any Canadian cash, let alone coins for the toll hopper.  Luckily there was an attendant out in the pouring rain, and she accepted five US quarters and raised the gate for us.

It was time for lunch, but we wanted to get out of the big city and finally did, continuing Northeast onto route 7 and eventually highway 107.  We had our eyes on the Rose and Rooster in Grand Desert on the Chezzetcook Peninsula, and this was a very mellow lunch stop in an artisan bakery/sandwich shop.  Sarah had excellent crab cakes and I had a very nice Cobb salad.

Just as it had always been low tide when we were in Scotland, it’s always high tide in Nova Scotia, by my scientific observation.  We crossed over and drove along several beautiful inlets of the sea, and briefly considered changing plans and exploring the peninsula more.  But we had objectives and didn’t linger, getting back onto route 7 and touring farther and farther up the coast, past quaintly named peninsulas and towns (Musquodoboit, Jeddore, Popes Harbour, Mushaboom, Watt Section, Dufferin, Necum Teuch, Ecum Secum, etc.) and more and more sudden views of the stormy sea.

We finally made it to Marie Joseph and the eponymous, deserted Provincial Park there, where we took a short break to stretch our legs and feel the stiff onshore wind coming off the Atlantic and through the offshore islands.  It was getting late by then, but we were still barely on schedule to make our reservations in Auld’s Cove that evening.  Route 7 turned North soon after that in Spanish Ship Bay, and it was a few more hours across the interior of Nova Scotia, past several long lakes, up towards Antigonish.

Place names familiar from our Scotland trip had started, and signs were now bilingual in English and Gaelic.  One of the lakes was Lochaber, and several towns in the North of the island had the ubiquitous “-ish” suffix.  We turned East on 104, a two-lane superhighway after kilometers and kilometers of pot-holed, severely twisting coastal and mountain roads.  Highways and gas stations are all metric in Cananda.  I can multiply by 0.64 pretty well, but after a while this got to be a pain and we changed our brains and the car’s dashboard display to kilometers.  Another unusual note was that much clay and rock in Canada is red, and so we were traveling on pink macadam.

In Havre Boucher the traffic came to a dead stop, there may have been some kind of accident, as no cars were coming the other way.  We took a quick (illegal) u-turn and got off onto route 4, which parallels the superhighway.  Another few miles on the Sunrise Trail up to Auld’s Cove, where we turned onto the D 31 Road out onto a peninsula, ending at the Cove Motel and Restaurant, where we were going to stay for two nights.

We loved this place!  We were in a touristy area, at the gateway to Cape Breton, and though this was one of the less expensive places it was still a pretty high price, but well worth it.  We got a secluded cabin off in a corner of the peninsula with a king-size bed, a table big enough to play games on, a nice bathroom, windows that opened, and wonderful views.  The rain and wind were peaking again, and after dumping our stuff we made our way back to the restaurant, where we had a fine seafood dinner and couple of beers.

Ty Wallace entertained the guests with his well-produced, solo country act.  He basically played karaoke tracks, accompanied them with his big six-string, and filled in with a very nice baritone.  He did all the usual suspects, Yoakam, Haggard, Travis, Jennings, Buffett, Denver, etc. but sadly didn’t cover any Canadians!  Oh well.

Quick Nova Scotia Trip, Thursday

For years I’d been staring at the map of the Atlantic Provinces and figuring we should take a trip there someday, but it had always been put off.  To get there you pretty much need to go through Maine, and when we’re up in Maine we want to stay put.  But this year the timing turned out perfectly, and we planned a quick trip up to Northern Nova Scotia and back through New Brunswick.  We knew it would be a lot of driving, but we really wanted to get up to Cape Breton and really didn’t want to leave the kitties for longer than three nights.

We packed for a few days of variable weather and took off for Bar Harbor on September 26th, where we caught the 3PM departure of The Cat car ferry.  Of course, after weeks of perfect late Summer/early Fall weather it was a dark, rainy day, but that was no problem.  The boat actually left around 2:45 and only held about a third as many passengers as it could have, though the car decks seemed pretty packed.  There were many cars from away, most from South of New England: Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, etc.  I watched from out on the side and rear decks with a few other hardy souls as we left Bar Harbor, cruised fast through the Porcupines, dropped the pilot South of Ironbound, and then gunned it out to sea at 40 knots.

I rejoined Sarah in comfortable bus-style seats in the forward-facing lounge.  It didn’t take long before the motion of the boat made us both feel a bit seasick.  I tried reading at first and then just closed my eyes, which calmed the nausea pretty much, and dozed for most of the 3½ hour trip.  We finally spotted land, and then the Cape Forchu Lighthouse.  We were still really moving fast and didn’t slow down until we’d turned up into Yarmouth harbor and past Bunker Island into the inner harbor.

There was quite a wait to get off the boat, and then again at Immigration/Customs.  Could be that their systems were down in Immigration, because they were moving very slowly.  By the time we got out it was already about 8:00 (we were now on Atlantic Daylight Time) and so we stopped immediately at Rudder’s Seafood Restaurant and Brewery, where we had some armor-plated haddock, fries, and a passable red ale.  Then just a few bocks up to the Rodd Grand Hotel, where we got a small but clean and totally acceptable sixth-floor room from the young, nose-ringed woman at the desk whose boyfriend was lurking in the shadows.  The bar was still rocking, though the streets of Yarmouth were empty at 9PM.

More Summer JRAD

JRAD is touring again this Summer and we had multiple choices to see them, but opted to go to the Boston Seafront Pavilion (currently called Leader Bank Pavilion) to see them on Saturday, August 3rd.

It was a beautiful, windy day on the waterfront.  We ate outside at the Lord Hobo Seaport and then cruised on over there, settling into practically the same seats we've had the last few times there.  JRAD had no opener and came out right on time.  Lots of empty seats then and it filled in quickly, but never got really packed.  Jon Shaw was sitting in for Dave Dreiwitz.  Here's the setlist:

Set 1: Tangled Up in Blue, New Minglewood Blues, Bertha, Saint of Circumstance, The Other One, Jack Straw

Set 2: Greatest Story Ever Told, Help On the Way, Slipknot!, Shakedown Street, Truckin', The Eleven, I Know You Rider

Encore: The Weight

Molly At the Opera House

Molly Tuttle and her great band are on tour again this Summer, and announced a date at the Waterville Opera House on July 25.  They also announced gigs in Boston and at the Ossipee Valley Festival in Southern Maine, but we settled for just the one.

Sarah and I drove out to Waterville on an afternoon which was threatening rain but then clearing up as we approached town, maybe.  We had looked at several places for dinner and settled on the Lion's Den Tavern, which had cold beer and very nice food.  It was pretty empty when we arrived but the crowd was right behind us.  The place was soon packed and while we ate a thunderstorm struck hard and  heavy rain soaked the downtown.

By the time we left, the sun was back out though, and after wandering over to check out the river we got our Will Call tickets and joined the line already waiting to get in about 15 minutes before doors.  Most concerts in the Waterville Opera House are reserved seats, but for this they did General Admission for the orchestra (reserved upstairs), and a woman announced that the GA policy meant, "You're free to sit anywhere you like.  So that means that if someone is standing up and dancing in front of you, you're free to move to another seat."  I wish they'd say stuff like that more often!  We opted for seats in the fourth row, on the center aisle, knowing that the front of the theater would jam up with people standing, and strategically insuring fine site lines and fine sound.  We were right, especially when, as they do in the WOH, they let people rush up into the orchestra pit.

The Chatham Rabbits opened and they're a fine, mellow, husband and wife, folk-country duet from North Carolina with a bunch of very good originals.  Sarah has a pleasing, untutored voice and picked workmanlike leads on her large banjo while Austin backed her up on guitar.  But after a long break the real deal came on, and the crowd erupted.

Molly Tuttle and her Golden Highway band, with Bronwyn, Kyle, Shelby, and Dominick, has been touring heavily for a few years, riding the crest of the wave of bluegrass stardom, and the people of Maine were Dooley (no pun intended) thankful that they'd paid us a visit.  They've become such a mature band, playing together flawlessly and upping the difficulty level with each show.  In one jam they rotated between each player soloing with four bars, then two bars on the next round, then one bar, then actually trading notes before Molly's guitar took dominance.  They can play downhome bluegrass and instantly switch to a baroque arrangement, and then finish the song like a rock and roll band.  Molly is of course one of the best bluegrass guitar players and female singers ever, and the rest of the band is of exceptional quality, particularly Bronwyn and Dominick.

They opened with the hard bluegrass of Over the Line and followed that with their excellent cover of the Stones'  She's a Rainbow and then just went on and on with their top notch songs.  It didn't take long for them to get to the spacey/spooky stuff, which on this occasion included Where Did All the Wild Things Go?, Stranger Things, and Alice In the Bluegrass.

She did so many of her other great songs too, including Downhome Dispensary, Crooked Tree, and El Dorado.  A high point for me was their unexpected cover of Queen Of Hearts, written by Hank De Vito (I'd thought Guy Clark wrote it) and covered by Rodney Crowell.  But the real highlight was when the band left the stage and Molly moved up front with her guitar and asked for requests.  Several were shouted out (I wanted Cold Rain and Snow), but she knew what she wanted to play, and gave us a priceless cover of Standing On the Moon, playing it like a folk song sung around a prairie camp fire.

She asked the Rabbits back out for the last song, and they traded verses on Big Backyard, which of course includes the line about the rocky coast of New England.  Molly said she and Shelby had taken a ferry out to Vinalhaven while they were up in the mid-coast, too bad the weather was not the best for them.

Great show, and then a long drive home through deserted country roads.

GRF 2024, an Overcast Sunday

There were some glimpses of the sun over the weekend, and at times on the last day it seemed it might clear up.  But though we got no rain and thunderstorms on Sunday, it never really got sunny.  And that's fine, we've spent enough time at the GRF in the heat.

Left the crowd at the hotel at about the same time and again there was no line when we got to the Fairgrounds at about 11:15 and snagged a great place by the soundboard at the Main Stage.  I'm not sure if they sold out or not.  The Fairgrounds can definitely hold a lot of people and they'd left a huge area for standing room in front of the Main Stage, which I never saw entirely full.  I never felt hemmed in by people, as I had the last few years at the GCC, and that's a good thing.

As mentioned, the 2024 Festival lineup was not that compelling, and Sunday may have been the worst.  Up first was another bad choice, and I started with Mon Rovîa at the Back Porch.  He played some quiet original songs and accompanied himself on a beautiful tenor guitar, which was almost as small as a ukelele.  His name is a tribute to the biggest city in his native country, Liberia, and he interspersed songs with harrowing tales of civil war in Liberia.

I wandered over to the Deans Beans stage where Katy Kirby was leading her band through some of her surprisingly good original songs.  One line of hers I loved was, "If the bears set a table for me, one of these days I'll have to sit down to eat."  Her bass player had a very pretty-sounding violin bass.

Time for Margo Cilker, a young country musician I was really looking forward to hearing, and she was on the Main Stage.  I went right up front and, though it never got that crowded up there for an early Sunday set, there were several very dedicated fans, as well as the Taylors.  And I really enjoyed her set!  Margo did not have a crackerjack band, she and they were all very mellow and I was reminded of seeing Zoe Muth, another laid-back Westerner, at the GRF several years ago.  Margo writes some great songs and has a killer presentation.

Her songs really sneak up on you, and the words pile up and pile up until she's almost rapping, though still with a Western accent.  At one time in her song about Tehachapi she was singing about traveling in the Southwest and she suddenly threw in a line from Lowell George's Willin' and her band played a bar of the chorus.  In another song she was singing the rote country line about, "If I was a preacher," and she suddenly sang, "I'd tell you how to vote, who to believe, and who to fuck."  On of her traveling songs has a shout-out to Singing Beach in Manchester-By-the-Sea MA.  Later in her set she switched from electric guitar to a classic, deep, Western acoustic that was as big as a bathtub and had a huge pickguard.  Again, I loved this set.

Wow, the GRF was almost over, but still a few things to see.  Sarah and I wandered down to the Deans Beans Stage for Dobet Gnahoré, who is an energetic traditional African singer.  She had a great electric guitarist, also a bass and drums, and she sang and played congas.  The most amazing thing about her set was the number of beads (bones? teeth?) she was wearing.  She had them strung in her hair, huge earrings, a choker and two other necklaces, armbands, bracelets, rings, fingernails, and two belts!

Almost time to leave, but got one last plate of beans, rice, and guacamole from La Veracruzana, and listened to a few tunes from Josiah and the Bonnevilles, who is a solo artist with a very strong right hand, an infectious harmonica, and some driving songs.

OK, that's it.  We considered seeing another set from Margo Cilker, who was just starting up over at the Back Porch or staying for the traditional Ukrainian folk of DakhaBrakha, but we were ready to head on back.  It had been another surprisingly fun time at GRF, even with the weather, and we'd seen and heard some stuff we loved.  Time to save our energy for next year!

GRF 2024, a Rainy Saturday

Our room at the Rose had two queen beds and was more comfortable than it might have been, but my bed kind of listed so much I had to lie diagonally, and the air conditioner just had two settings, on and off.  So it wasn't the best night's sleep, but who cares, we were soon up and hanging out with our friends on the veranda, eating weird stuff and drinking tea, coffee, and fruit juice.  As I say, my spreadsheet was praised and we planned for another busy day at the Festival.  Highly anticipated were the Wonder Women of Country and Mdou Moctar, and kind of dreaded were Fleet Foxes ... that was about right as it turned out.

Sarah and I took off before anyone else at about 10:45, there was no line when we got up to the Fairgrounds, and we got a spot on the Main Stage not quite as good as Friday's but still excellent.  More touring of the vendors, and then it was kind of a toss-up whether to start on the Deans Beans Stage or the Back Porch, since I'd rated both acts as "maybe."

Off to the Back Porch first for Love Crumbs, and I really liked them for a few songs.  They have two women singers up front and they sang well together, the hippie on bass took a lead, the nerd on piano had another good lead, and then the biker on lead guitar ripped off another one.  But by the time they started a fourth song I got bored and left.  All their songs were about bad sex and/or bad lovers.

Hurried over to the Deans Beans Stage for Prewn, whom I'd classed as "moody, reverb-y folk rock" in my spreadsheet.  And I loved them!  This is a small band fronted by Izzy Hagerup with a guitar, bass, and drums, and not too many people were there.  They were doing an innovative, goth song about ticks as I walked up, how they dig into your flesh without you knowing and poison your blood.  What's not to like?  Their guitarist sometimes made a spooky drone sound on his electric with a bow, and all of their songs degenerated into feedback jams.  I love this stuff!

It was starting to rain lightly and Izzy said, "Oh no, here it comes again!"  The humidity, the wind, and the approaching electricity made her long and unkempt hair frizz up, and the lights lit this like a purple halo.  That was a great visual, or maybe that was the gummy kicking in.  But suddenly the heavens really opened and I realized I'd better make a dash for the raincoat I'd left over at the Main Stage.  By the time I got there I was absolutely soaked from head to foot, and they were calling again for everyone to shelter from the lightning.

So, back in the car again with the cooler of beer.  Sarah joined me and this time we were there for a long time while the skies just dumped water on us.  Our car was soon sitting in a mid-shin-high lake.  Some of our friends had left the hotel, but were stuck halfway into the parking lot and then were told by the volunteers to just wait there.  They eventually broke into a nearby port-a-potty though.

Eventually the Festival re-opened, and we'd missed Willi Carlisle, though Tommy Prine and Trousdale apparently did abbreviated acoustic sets under cover, which we missed too.  And this was another day that really didn't qualify as a hot summer day, though it was long.  It wasn't cold, but the temperature never took off, I was chilly for the rest of the day from being sopping wet and kept my raincoat on and zipped, and our feet were beyond soaked and developing blisters from our sandals.

OK, time to get some food (the delays and the shortage of food vendors meant long lines most of the time), and then I went right over to the Back Porch Stage for what was the act of the weekend, as far as I was concerned, the Wonder Women of Country.  This is an authentic super-group of Brennan Leigh, Kelly Willis, and Melissa Carper and they sure had me riveted in place for their whole set.  Brennan is a fantastic songwriter and played a crackling lead guitar, Kelly has one of the purest country voices I've ever heard and played backup on her acoustic, and Melissa twisted the doghouse bass into knots while wearing her emotions on her sleeve with her cracked voice.

They swapped leads and alternated some originals by the band members with classic country.  Brennan sang Carole With an E and Fly Ya To Hawaii, Kelly did Another Broken Heart and A Thousand Ways.  And they closed with Melissa singing I Have Met My Love Today from John Prine's last record.  During one song she sang, my mind was trying to classify her (this was the first time I'd seen her), and it came to me in a flash: Melissa Carper is the Butch Hancock of the band, Kelly Willis is the Joe Ely, and Brennan Leigh is the Jimmie Dale.  OK, none of my friends knew what I was talking about when I told them that, but it's the truth.

Whoah, I could have listened to them for hours, but they took off after getting as thundering an ovation as I heard at the Back Porch all weekend, and then it was time for me to take off, back to the Main Stage where Bonny Light Horseman had already started.  I considered going up front, but stayed back at our seats on the now-almost-hot day.  I want to like this band better than I do, I consider Anaïs Mitchell a world-class talent as a songwriter, and a genius singer.  They do English folk, which I love.  And Josh Kaufman can play the kind of surprising and eclectic stuff I really like (he played a weird steel banjo-guitar on one song).  But while Eric D. Johnson has his moments and sings well with Anaïs, he's often a liability, they shouldn't let Kaufman sing, and their arrangements are too quiet, non-catchy, and not always there.  For instance, they did an excellent song about a mandolin, but did not have a mandolin in the band, which was problematic.  I should mention that they had an excellent bass player in Cameron Ralston, and a good drummer.

OK now, *back* to the Back Porch Stage for Willi Carlisle, who's earlier set had been rained out.  He's a large, unclassifiable, dynamic, multi-instrumentalist Arkansan, who will keep you guessing from one song to another.  In the half-set of his that I saw he played guitar, banjo, bones, accordion, harmonica, fiddle (on an offbeat cover of Richard Thompson's Beeswing), and hambone of course.  He had a large crowd, he's a very entertaining force of nature.

But ... it was past time for me to get something for dinner and I wanted to see Joy Oladokun, who's an immensely talented young musician who reminds me of a young Tracy Chapman.  She played some songs with a small band and some solo on her acoustic guitar.  There were no instrumental flashes, just her singing her hypnotic songs, sampling her guitar, and staring into the sky, or alternately talking directly to the audience.  She dissembled too much and called herself nothing more than a "queer Kermit" when she did a sunny, Sesame Street-like song.  Hopefully, she'll be around for a long time.

Sarah was there for her set too, and we did the smart thing of leaving her set a little early and I took our chairs back to the car.  We knew there was only a slim chance we'd stick around for the Fleet Foxes set, and we didn't want to repeat the mess we'd found ourselves in yesterday, where we couldn't locate our chairs in the crowd!

Ack, it was then time to hurry down to the Deans Beans Stage for the incredible Mdou Moctar.  I have never seen anyone play guitar like that, be it Derek Trucks, Molly Tuttle, Stanley Jordan, or whomever.  Moctar is a lefty and played a gray Strat, accompanied by the best bass player of the Festival, a rhythm guitarist who's arm almost fell off he was strumming so fast, and the best drummer of the Festival.  But Moctar is phenomenal and you couldn't take your eyes off him!  I couldn't believe that he could be so fast and dexterous without a pick, with just his fingers and his thumb, which he used most often.  And seeing his other hand work the fretboard was like watching someone from outer space, it was so unreal.  He played African blues/jazz, but it was beyond description.  I don't know what else to say about him, you need to listen to this guy!  All of my friends gushed about him, he's incredible.

Whew, that was quite an experience.  I texted Sarah and we met up at the actual Deans Beans coffee truck, where she was buying a cup for the next morning.  Fleet Foxes had started the last set on the Main Stage and we stuck around for a few songs.  My synopsis of them had been, "atmospheric prog-rock by relatively overrated veteran band," and that's what it was.  We liked what we heard but the other guys told us that after we left they went downhill.  Oh well.

OK, back to the hotel and soon everyone showed up, we all went out to the picnic tables, got the party lights lit, brought out the snacks and a few adult beverages, and talked and talked in the finally dry and almost chilly night.  Everyone had experienced the wet and cold I did that day, it's a good thing I had my shoes and socks and my sweatshirt!

GRF 2024, a Rainy Friday

We missed the Green River Festival last year (DeadCo claimed priority), and so were psyched to make up for it on the weekend of June 21-23 in 2024.  As referenced in previous posts, the Festival has gotten more and more popular, out-grown the site we loved at the Greenfield CC, dropped its charming hot-air balloon feature, and was ultimately sold from Signature Sounds to a Western MA concert production firm.

After all these changes, we hoped for a better-organized Festival and a great lineup.  But the lineup they announced was packed with acts I'd never heard of, and sadly featured a couple of tired veteran bands (Cake and Fleet Foxes) and a journeyman folk singer (Gregory Alan Isakov) as headliners.  Not a good lineup, but I determined to make the best of it, did some research, wrote down notes and grades in a spreadsheet and sent it to our friends for their edification, and felt I was pretty prepared.

Dave had to skip this year (he sat with the cats instead and we gave his ticket to Aldo), but Sarah and I prepared the usual stuff and then hit the road for Greenfield, on a beautiful late morning on the first full day of Summer, that had some dire rain/thunderstorm forecasts for the afternoon.  Most of the nation had been suffering through a heat wave, and the forecast was also dire on that score, predicting humid 90s even out in Greenfield.  What else is new for the GRF though?

We stopped at The People's Pint in downtown Greenfield for lunch.  I had an excellent plate of blackened shrimp tacos with beans and rice, and a couple of their beers.  Then out to Shelburne Falls to check in at the Red Rose.  We'd been texting with our friends all along, and they were right behind us, checking in themselves when we left for the 3:00 gates open.

As anticipated, the new owners have made a few changes to the Festival, with mixed outcomes.  A problem with the Franklin County Fairgrounds setup the last few years has been sound leakage between the stages.  They addressed this by moving the Main Stage a bit left and the second stage (Deans Beans) way farther back.  They eliminated the Green House Stage to allow for a more expansive Deans Beans setup, and lined up the food vendors so they'd form a consistent sound block.  They also changed the schedule so that big acts at the Main Stage did not step on quieter acts at the other stages.  These changes were successful.

One key thing that they did not change was excellent sound engineering.  This has always been a strength of the Festival and, though they had greatly shrunk the "low chairs" area that we favored and moved the Main Stage soundboard farther back, the sound at all three stages I was at was as good as ever.  I did not hear inadvertent feedback or dropped channels even once all weekend, and you could tell by the artists' reaction during their soundchecks that they were very pleased with the technical crews.  The two big stages had large VIP sections (which didn't have good sightlines), but very few VIPs.

They apparently had made things not as great for food and drink vendors, and there was less variety.  They had dropped Berkshire Brewing, the excellent beer vendor who served fresh drafts (including iconic Ginger Libation), and replaced them with a couple of not-best and expensive canned beers, as well as many varieties of hard seltzer/fruit drinks.  Yuck!  There were fewer food vendors, though the best ones were still there.

Also, one of the best things about the old Festival was the program they issued for free, with advertisements from the sponsors and with well-written thumbnails of all the acts.  But there was no printed program this year.  This was a huge failure, and so my spreadsheet was a remarkable success.  Several people printed it out and it was consulted very often.  I'd given a short description of every band (examples: "four weird white guys doing simplistic, straight ahead rock," "three loud chicks singing in unison, not bad") and a grade from "yes" to "no" with several gradients in between.  I thought people would make fun of me for over-obsessing, but there was remarkable agreement with my reviews, and the guidance was vital.

So anyway, we'd gotten there a bit after 3:00 and set up left of the soundboard at the Main Stage.  We admired the "Cake" brought by our neighbors, split up to check out the craft vendors and the stinky drinks selection, and then I ended up at the Back Porch Stage for Fantastic Cat at 4:00.  This was the "straight ahead rock" of my spreadsheet, Anthony D'Amato's current band, and they were excellent!  They wore cheap suits of different colors and white bucks and were loud and greasy.  The Festival was off to a rocking start.

But suddenly it came to a stop.  Jim Olsen (Signature Sounds was still very involved with the Festival, hosting the Back Porch Stage) interrupted the band in the middle of their fourth(?) song and told us lightning was on the way, everything was on hold, and the Festival was now under a "shelter" order.  I screwed for the car and had a beer there, and soon the lightning came in and the rain poured down.  Most of our friends were still back at the hotel and I texted them to stay there.

But then it started clearing and Sarah texted me that Fantastic Cat was still playing!  The volunteers (who didn't get good guidance from the management) let me back into the Fairgrounds, and I caught a few great acoustic tunes from Fantastic Cat.  They rotated between different places in the crowd and swapped instruments, this must have been planned as a contingency and was really good.  They did some great ensemble singing and then closed with a singalong of Ricky Nelson's Garden Party.

They ended and I hurried over to the Main Stage, where Oh He Dead were closing up their abbreviated set.  They're a soul band with some nice harmonies, would have liked to see more of them.

But soon it was time to head back to the Back Porch for the latest incarnation of progressive bluegrass band Twisted Pine.  The band is still headed by Dan Bui on mandolin and Kathleen Parks on fiddle and vocals, but now has Chris Sartori on bass (and excellent whistle) and the astounding Anh Phung on flute.  This was great, eclectic stuff!  I've seen them many times before, but had never seen Phung (who was rocking a corset and lots of eye shadow).  She was a dynamo on the flute and didn't excel on every song, but was aggressive and mixed perfectly.  They had a fantastic setlist too, alternating short, spacy songs and longer, well-arranged ones intertwined with samples, some of them traditional tunes.  They opened with Bill Monroe's The One I Love Is Gone and closed with the song of the set, John Hartford's Long Hot Summer Day.

The Festival was back on schedule, and I grabbed some food at La Veracruzana and went back to the Main Stage for Lawrence.  I'd followed them early in their career and then lost touch, but they're still out on the road and did a really fun set.  They're a large, soul-pop band with two saxes and a trombone, doing songs with good hooks.  And they're headed by a brother and sister, who are so comfortable with each other their ease translates to a fun, mellow show.

It was getting late, but I really wanted to see The Nude Party back over at the Back Porch.  Most of our group was there too, and we (mostly) all voted them as the band of the day.  They're a young rock band wearing embroidered jean jackets with a very good singer up front with an acoustic guitar.  They've got a great LA-country feel to their songs, featuring an excellent steel player, a great hollow-bodied Gibson rocking the leads, a mean Telecaster playing rhythm, a drummer, and a percussionist who fills in on keys.  At times they almost channeled the Doors, especially when they turned up the reverb on the piano, which would hammer out the lead while the singer frowned at everybody.

OK, now it was really late after a long day.  Sarah and I wanted to stay for a few tunes from Cake, but it had suddenly gotten so dark we couldn't find our chairs at the Main Stage!  Finally got oriented and found them, but after a few songs we decided it was time to call it a night.  Cake was pretty good, as I say, they're veterans who know what they're doing, and they had the crowd dancing and grooving.

Got back to the Red Rose and washed the grime and suntan lotion (that hadn't been needed) off my legs and thankfully changed to shoes and socks.  Though we'd been prepared for roasting, the day had been rainy and gloomy and never got very warm.  We waited up but no one else was back yet and we were toast, so soon to sleep.