Grahame Lesh and Friends, 2026 part 3

Not the best hotel sleep, but still above average, and we gathered in a nook of the chaotic breakfast room.  They had pretty good food, but must have hired a consultant to make it as impossible to navigate as can be humanly done.  The plates are here, the eggs are there, the silverware is hidden, the coffee urn is perched up dangerously high, and they have granola, but just a few teaspoons.  And don't get me started about the tea.

Anyway, we played a game and then our outside excursion was just a walk around the neighborhood, checking out the abandoned-in-the-seventies Histogenetics building, and the local residential blocks, which really are just blocks, though colored "gaily."  I would not want to live in this place, where the rents are astronomical, you're surrounded by highways, the apartment buildings are plug-ugly, there's a massive Wegman's down the street with constant traffic, and the only recreation is gyms filled with sweaty people.  They advertised Vitamin C showers and Contrast Therapy.

Anyway, I say again ... time for a mellow lunch of the last sandwiches, a nap, and then another game in the common area of the hotel, where a bunch of 40-something Deadheads were having a pizza party and kept trying to rope us in.  Finally got to be time to go ... show was at 7:00 as opposed to 8:00 that Sunday night, the 15th (Phil's birthday).  And we saddled up and headed down to Kiosko for yet another excellent meal.  Hopefully not our last one there, but who knows?  Current favorite dish there is the Veracruzana Sea Bass.

Up to the balcony and this time we had the best seats of the weekend, slightly to the left of center and just a few rows up.  Thankfully, I don't think Sunday was sold out and we had room on each side.  But jeez, this was the lineup to die for!  On keyboards it was Bowling again, but this time paired with Steve Molitz.  In the guitar slot (and also playing fiddle) was the world-class Larry Campbell, with his wife Teresa Williams joining him on vocals.  Amy was still there, and this night it was Tony Leone and the incredible Cody Dickinson on drums.  Grahame led the band on rhythm guitar of course, and to his left was Dave Schools, who alternated on some songs with Sam Grisman on electric bass.  Kanika Moore was also back, and to her left was the phenomenal Stanley Jordan.

We couldn't figure out Jordan's setup at first, but when he came out and sat down with his guitars it became clear.  He's the master of the "tap" style on electric guitar.  So he had one guitar on a stand that he could tap or strum with his right hand, and one on a strap around his neck that he could tap with his left hand, and sometimes soloed on with both hands.  God, that guy is incredibly talented and he could have filled the whole theater with the sound of just his guitar(s).  Many times that evening it sure looked to the casual viewer as if he had four (or more hands), like a Hindu god.

And Bowling was back, this evening a little more subdued but still pairing incredibly well with Molitz.  She's such a great solo performer, but is also incredibly dynamic when adding to a band.  Again, this was an embarrassment of riches, and maybe there were too many great musicians on stage.  Dickinson for one never seemed to mesh with the ensemble, Jordan was on another planet, and sometimes seemed not to be aware that there was a full band just to his right.  And Larry's sick Telecaster (he actually had two of them) is such a dominant sound that when he winds that baby up, everyone else has to take a back seat.  But though you could criticize, this was amazingly excellent stuff.  Sunday was the night of the weekend.

Here's the first set:

• China Cat Sunflower>
• I Know You Rider 
• Ship of Fools 
• Till The Morning Comes 
• Deep Elem Blues
• Tennessee Jed
• Friend of the Devil 
• How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)

We'd discussed what they had left to play, and I'd called China Rider, which was excellent and got us off to a running start.  I can't describe how awesome it was to have Larry F. Campbell on one side of the stage (with Holly F. Bowling right behind him), Lesh playing the song like he'd been hearing it since he was two months old in the middle of the stage, and Stanley F. Jordan to the right, nodding his head and tapping his dual guitar setup like a bizarre science fiction movie.

Kanika led the group in an excellent Ship Of Fools, and then Larry and Teresa stepped up for Till the Morning Comes.  Cody sang lead on a rambunctious, filthy Deep Ellum, and then Larry did the "Levon" arrangement of Tennessee Jed, as Dave had called.  Sam Grisman then came out and sang FOTD, not best but his bass playing sure was.  Who knew he could play an electric as well as he plays the dawghouse bass?  And then it was Teresa's turn to lead the band in How Sweet It Is, accompanied by her husband on that stinging Telecaster.

What a band!  This was just fantastic, and though it was our third day on Lesh Island we were jumping around like everyone else in the crowd.  Time to sit for a bit, hydrate, and time the squirrel again, and then the guys came back out for the final set.  And quite a set it was:

• Dark Star
• Over the Rainbow
• Here Comes Sunshine
• Pride of Cucamonga
• Bird Song
• The Other One
• Stella Blue
• Cassidy
• Not Fade Away

Dark Star was a little disjointed vocally, but this seemed to be the effect they were going for.  No one seemed to know who was going to sing what part until it came around, and this worked fine.  This was a long one, and eventually the song wound down and what emerged from the dark interstellar night was Stanley's trademark take on Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  This was beautiful, what a song that is.

And this was just the beginning of another long set.  We've heard some excellent covers of Here Comes Sunshine at the Cap, and this was another one, with five people singing the choruses.  At one point, Kanika was hopping around exuberantly, and Stanley was so moved he sidled over and started hopping in time with her.  We've seen him do some acrobatics on that stage.

I'd hoped for Pride of Cucamonga and here it was, such a great country song.  But perhaps the song of the set was next, a surreal Bird Song coming out of a long jam, sung by Kanika in an operatic style, and again the choir on backup.  Then they got down, jammed some more, got even further down, and then Dave Schools let loose with the excellent bass run beginning to TOO and we were off on that psychedelic bus, riding to never ever land, which is somewhere over the rainbow.

This was such an incredible set.  Next up was Amy singing a crystalline, heartbreaking Stella Blue, another highlight of the weekend.  And then time for a rocker, and the seabirds flew on a neat, perfectly timed Cassidy.  What was left for the band, but to start us clapping along to the Buddy Holly beat and end the set in traditional fashion with Not Fade Away.

Time to sit for a bit, and then hop back up when Grahame came out for yet another donor rap, and to acknowledge his Dad's 86th birthday.  The band straggled back out too, still a little pumped up from such an inspiring set.  We figured they had to play Box Of Rain, and we really wanted to hear the foursome of Larry, Teresa, Amy, and Grahame sing Attics.  So they did both for an encore, just exactly perfect!  They even got Sam back out there for Box Of Rain, so they had twelve people on stage for the final encore, and the final bow.

Wow, this was quite a capper to an excellent weekend of music.  Got out of there for one last time, onto Westchester Avenue, up to the car, and back to Harrison.  As much as we were looking forward to returning to Massachusetts and seeing our kitties, this had been a lot of fun and we were sad it was over.  Oh well, maybe it'll be even better next year!

Grahame Lesh and Friends, 2026 part 2

Got a good night's sleep in, and we all made it through the chaotic breakfast room unscathed.  There were a lot of Deadheads infiltrating the place.

Spent a mellow morning and then went out for an excursion to the  Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, next to Playland Park in Rye.  It was very windy on the LI Sound coast, but the visibility was great and it was not too chilly.  Parked in the Playland lot and walked into the Sanctuary, where we followed their trails counter-clockwise, onto the shore (where we could see as far as the Throgs Neck Bridge to the West, up to their spooky bamboo grove, past their apiary, and around through March mud and bare trees, past the tidal lagoon separating it from the shore, and back to Playland.

The morning was warming up a little, so we took a left into Playland, around their promenade, and out onto the nearby city pier.  It was a nice walk and the deserted Park was entertaining, probably would not be at all though, when crowded with screaming kids.  Back to the car and we debated going somewhere for lunch, but ended up going back to the hotel and eating sandwiches I'd brought along in our suite.  Board games and a nap after that, and soon it was time to head back to Port Chester for Saturday's concert.

Had another great meal at Kiosko and, as they'd done the year before, they surprised us with complimentary deserts.  It's such a great place!  Though my answer to most places that ask, "Would you recommend us...?" is a straight no, I'd recommend Kiosko to anyone.  Up to the balcony after that and this time we were pretty far up and on the right side, not too far right though.  And on Saturday night not only was it sold out again, this time everybody showed up.  Though the chomping was not too bad, the guys in front of us, and many people around us, were more interested in having a good time than in paying attention to the concert.  Oh well, we've experienced much worse.

On Saturday the 14th, the left to right lineup was: Holly Bowling and Crosby on keys (Jason alternated on fiddle), Rick Mitarotonda on guitar, Graham on drums, Helm and Rose on vocals, Lesh on guitar, John Molo on drums, Kanika Moore on vocals, Burbridge on electric bass, and for several songs, John Kadlecik on guitar.  Here's the setlist:

• Jam >
• Shakedown Street 
• New Speedway Boogie 
• Row Jimmy
• Jack Straw 
• They Love Each Other 
• Tangled Up In Blue
• Mountain Song
• Brokedown Palace 

More fantastic stuff, they started with a Jam (and debatably stopped) before going into a mega-funky Shakedown, sung by the very talented Kanika Moore.  Another vocal highlight was Row Jimmy, sung by Rose.  The girls were again shining, though the male vocals were below average.  Crosby actually took the "Shannon" part on Jack Straw, but did not add to the song.  Just the opposite for TLEO, which the girls sang the shit out of.  JK came on for Tangled Up In Blue and we were really glad to see him back on stage.  He did a decent job singing that long and tangled song, and was as good as ever on psychedelic guitar.

But the high point of the set was Mountain Song.  Grahame mentioned that he might be playing songs written by his brother, Brian.  This song has a long pedigree, but the version they sang was the one Brian contributed to, performed by Furthur without the definite article.  AND, the sound of the first set (not to mention the second) was Holly F. Bowling on piano and organ, as augmented excellently by Crosby.  Those two seemed to be having as much fun playing keyboards with each other as we did listening to them.  Bowling is just jaw-droppingly good.

OMG, halfway through the weekend already!  That had been a fantastic first set, and we hunkered down to wait (and time the squirrel) while the crazy, packed crowd seemed to cramp our space more and more.  Oh well, I say again.  The crowd was late-arriving and the concert had started a bit late, and then that was a really long first set.  The break was not bad, and the guys came out and did:

• Jam >
• Unbroken Chain
• Estimated Prophet >
• Eyes Of The World 
• Terrapin Station
• Scarlet Begonias > 
• Fire On The Mountain 
• Days Between

They *had* to play Unbroken Chain at some point, and they did a fine version of it.  Dave and I have commented that Grahame and Rick have very similar guitar sounds and play some great stuff together, and on this they really jammed out there, finally bringing it back to the end of the song, on which the female vocalists again shone.

Eyes was sung by Amy (who was really dressed up, with a fluffy hair-do and heels, which she took off at some points) and this was definitely a highlight of the set.  Another highlight was Scarlet Fire, with the latter sung by Kanika Moore.  This was another long, long set with a lot of jamming.  And the keyboard playing was simply surreal, with long stretches of Holly just eating everybody's lunch, egged on by Jason, grinning like a banshee.  She started Eyes on organ and you knew she was going to move to piano during it, but Jason wasn't about to give it up until she pushed him out of the way.

The band finally calmed down to do a closing ballad, and Oteil stepped up and sang a heartfelt tenor on Days Between.  It's such a delight to see him hopping around in his bare feet and to feel that bass beat.  He's always one of the most talented people on whatever stage he's on.

Jeez, how late was it?  We were already almost past midnight and the show was not yet over.  Thankfully, Grahame leapt back out for his donor rap after not too long, though the band was apparently too tired to leap behind him.  They gradually came back though, and settled down for a long encore: One More Saturday Night of course, on which Maggie Rose did an excellent duet with Rick, and then The Weight for a closing sing-along.

Whew, that was quite a night!  We drank our water and weren't out of there yet, but we finally made it down to the lobby, out to the street, back up the hill to the Kiosko lot, and then drove the few miles back up to Harrison.  Had to decompress some, though we were exhausted, and finally made it to bed by 1:30 or so.

Grahame Lesh and Friends, 2026 part 1

Grahame Lesh announced another set of "Unbroken Chain" concerts this year in the classic Capitol Theatre venue in Port Chester, and then elsewhere in the country, centering on California.  How lucky we are that this tradition continues in the Northeast.  We've been doing a more or less annual pilgrimage to Port Chester for years and it's gotta stop sometime, but not this year.  We got tickets (to nights 2-4 of the four dates he announced) as soon as they went on sale, booked a suite at the hotel in Harrison where we'd stayed last year, and waited through a long, cold Winter.

Finally beginning to hint at Spring and we hit the road, picking up Dave at his place, and then heading down the Pike, 84, 91, and the parkways over the line into New York ... a less painful trip than some other times for sure.  Grahame had announced an extensive array of musicians, and they'd added a few "special guests" also.  We were really looking forward to seeing Bill Payne particularly on that Friday the 13th, as we'd never seen him before.

Trying to keep this short.  We hung out in our ground floor suite and played a game of cribbage, then headed down Westchester Ave to Kiosko, where we had another great Mexican meal and a few drinks.  We've done this before.  Over to the theatre for the 8:00 show, checked out the merch table but nothing caught our eyes this time, and up to our left balcony seats to time the squirrel.

This was a sellout, but some seats around us were not occupied and we had room to spread out a little and dance.  And the sight lines and sound at the Capitol are just amazingly good.  It's a great rock theater and if we lived nearby we're go there more often.  The band came out about 15 minutes after the hour and lined up across the whole stage like this:  Bill Payne on organ and pianos, Jason Crosby on organ, pianos, and violin, Daniel Donato on guitar, Tony Leone on drums, Amy Helm on vocals, Maggie Rose on vocals, Grahame Lesh on guitar, Adam Minkoff on drums, Oteil Burbridge on electric bass, Laura Cwass on guitar, and Mikaela Davis on harp.  Phew, what a band!  Cwass was only out for the second set, Amy played mandolin on Atlantic City, and she and Maggie were not out for all songs.  Here's the setlist:

• Jam >
• Cosmic Charlie 
• Sugaree
• Brown-Eyed Women
• High Time 
• Passenger
• Atlantic City
• Samson & Delilah
• Born Cross Eyed 

The "and Friends" bands assembled by Phil and these days by Grahame can be a mixed blessing.  Fantastic talent on stage but sometimes not enough space to let everyone excel, sometimes a lack of practice, and sometimes less than excellent parts.  On these nights I was never that impressed by the male vocalists (with the exception of Oteil), though the female ones turned in some great stuff, particularly Helm and later Kanika Moore.  But the instrumental arrangements were uniformly great, there were some fantastic individual performances, and the set lists were far from repetitious.

Highlights of this set were opening (after the Jam) with one of my favorite songs, Maggie Rose's vocal on Sugaree, Oteil's on High Time, and Amy's on Atlantic City, the electricity of Passenger, great combo drumming on Samson, and the totally unexpected excitement of the closing Born Cross-Eyed.

Whew, again just the first set was worth all the planning and the treacherous drive down there.  Hit up the funky men's room and it was not a long break before the band came back on.  Here's the second set:

• Jam >
• Uncle John's Band > 
• Playing In The Band >
• Morning Dew
• It Must Have Been The Roses 
• Saint Stephen >
• William Tell Bridge >
• The Eleven >
• Casey Jones

More incredible quality from such a large band!  Morning Dew was of course a highlight, with Grahame singing the "male" part and Amy and Maggie Rose duetting on the "female" part.  Great chemistry between those two, and they followed it up with more ensemble vocals, including Mikaela Davis, on It Must Have Been the Roses.  After that tune, Grahame called over stage manager Brian Rashap for a panicked request, after which they started into a majestic St. Stephen ... and then Rashap came running back out with a piece of paper which he put on Grahame's music stand.  We realized it was an emergency printout of the complicated lyrics to The Eleven, on which Davis did an excellent backing vocal.

Great playing by Payne and Donato (and maybe Davis, but she was not miked well), great fiddle from Crosby on UJB, crackling lead on Casey Jones from Donato, but perhaps the most amazing parts of the set were the totally unexpected electric guitar leads from Cwass ... got to hear more from her.

Again, wow!  We had paced ourselves well and sat down for some water during the short break, and then Grahame came out for a nice donor rap and band introductions, after which they encored with a fine Truckin', which delightfully broke down into an extended Feedback exercise.

Great first night for us and not a long journey back to the car and up the Avenue to the Hyatt House in Harrison.  That had been a long two sets and we had to decompress some before bed, but lights off by 1:00 or so.

Eilen Jewel Returns to Shirley

 ... for a last time?  Eilen suddenly has been around for a long time, we first saw her in 2008.  And this has been long enough for there to be several phases of her career, pre- and post-motherhood and divorce.  She made her fame and wrote most of her iconic songs while living in Massachusetts, but then moved back to her native Idaho and now tours rarely.  But she announced another tour, and that she'd be at the Bull Run on March 12th, and since then has hinted that it may be her last tour ever.

We were too late to get seats at the front table, but got the center one in the second row.  Sightlines in the Bull Run can be terrible, but this was pretty good, and just about perfect for the sound.  Eilen came on with her longtime guitarist Jerry Miller (who played seated for the whole concert), her ex-husband and manager Jason Beek on drums, and Matt Murphy on bass.  She started off with a couple of her newer songs, but then covered the whole span of her career in one long set, including some classic covers, and didn't seem to get tired at all.

Here are some songs I remember her playing, though this is by no means complete or in the right order!

• Mess Around
• Winnemucca
• Rich Man's World
• I Remember You
• Rain Roll In
• Dusty Box Car Wall (Eric Andersen)
• One of Those Days
• Mess Around
• The Pill (Loretta Lynn)
• Where They Never Say Your Name
• Heartache Boulevard
• Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) (Woody Guthrie)
• Sea of Tears
• Green River (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
• Bang Bang Bang
• If You Catch Me Stealing (Bessie Smith)

The band walked off stage but not very far, and it didn't take much coaxing to get them back, where they surprised me by encoring with another great cover, The Doors' Soul Kitchen.  Out of there quickly after that and an uneventful drive home.  This was our 12th time (and last??) seeing Eilen play, and our 44th(!) concert at Bull Run.  Off to Port Chester tomorrow.

Tim O'Brien With Grisman and Furtado

We hadn't seen the great Tim O'Brien for many years.  In fact, the last time we saw him he was playing guitar for Sturgill Simpson!  But he was booked at the Bull Run for a January 15th show, with Sam Grisman and Victor Furtado backing him up (billed as "Tim O'Brien & Sam Grisman with Victor Furtado").  We delayed getting tickets for long enough to not get one of the best tables, but we got a pretty good one shortly, the table to the left of the stage where we'd sat when we saw Asleep At the Wheel in 2014, and also Steve Kimock in 2016.

Got tickets for Dave too.  He'd never seen Tim before and was psyched to see Grisman after we'd gushed about the show we saw him at in Beverley.  He was over for the day and we headed out to Shirley at the tail end of rush hour.  And when we got there a little over an hour before the show was supposed to start, the place was already packed with as noisy a crowd as we'd ever heard there!  One thing we love about the Bull Run is that the fans are generally knowledgeable and have driven a long way to see and hear the band.  The performers had put out the message that this would be an acoustic show that would reward listening, and we were all ready for that, though loud conversations preceded it.

The overworked wait staff finally took our drink and food orders and the few empty seats were soon filled.  The guys came out with Furtado to our side of the stage with his banjo, Grisman center stage with his bass towering over him, and Tim a bit to the other side of the stage.  The guys all had mikes for their instruments, one central mike for ensemble sound, and a vocal mike for Tim.  And though they have an incredible array of speakers in the Sawtelle Room (Tim mentioned how pleased he was to play a room named after his old friend, Charles), they kept it quiet so we could hear the sound on stage.  This took a few tunes to straighten out, but was soon fantastic.

Tim sang lead on all except one song, I believe, and Sam chimed in with some very spare and lovely harmonies.  They opened with a couple of mid-career Tim songs (Let's Go a-Hunting and Turn the Page), then did a couple of John Hartford tunes, and then played some from all over.  Furtado was pretty good on banjo, sticking mainly to the background but stepping up for a few leads.  Grisman was as great on bass as we remembered, trying not to upstage his hero, Tim, but leaning toward the common mike for the harmonies and waltzing with his bass partner.

And Tim was as amazing as ever, starting on mandolin and then switching to guitar and then fiddle.  He did his great version of Jack Of Diamonds/Drunkard's Hiccups on fiddle and tore the house down.  We were all silent during the songs but the crowd roared at the end of each.  They did a few Dylan songs (Sam gushed about how Tim's Red On Blonde meant so much to him), and Tim almost made it all the way through a *fast* cover of Subterranean Homesick Blues before stumbling on the words ... there's lots of 'em.

Most of us were probably aware that Bobby Weir had just passed away, and they did a couple of songs that the Dead had covered, such as I've Been All Around This World.  But their real tribute to Bobby was a cover of the song Tim had won a talent contest with, singing with his sister in their teens, Morning Dew.  Grisman had a great bass line on this, but the thing is that Tim O'Brien is one of the best musicians I've ever heard.  The quality of his voice sneaks up on you (Dave said, "Now *that* is a bluegrass musician"), and his mandolin playing is awesome, fast, inventive, and perfect.  But his fiddle playing is absolutely some of the best I've ever heard, amazing tone and subtlety.

They did two sets of pretty good length, and closed the second with Working On a Building.  The trio all bowed to the very enthusiastic crowd, then did a short encore. They were heading up to Portsmouth the next day and then Waldoboro Maine, though Tim had to be told what state it's in.  All done by 10:00 and then not a bad drive home.