More Hot Club at the Me and Thee

Hot Club at the Me and Thee??  Of course!  Usual meet in Salem for dinner and then got to the M&T just as the line was forming.  Stood in the rain for 25 minutes or so while many others assembled behind us and got the front-row seats we like best.

Jon Shain opened with one accompanist with a suitcase full of harmonicas.  As had been the schedule with Tim O'Brien, Hot Club then came on and played another half hour or so for a first set, then we had a "liquor-mission" according to Elana, and then a long second set.

Hot Club had their new album for sale, which was a very pleasant surprise (release is set for late next month).  They played a number of songs from that such as Avalon, Slow Boat To China, Minor Swing, Dark Eyes, The Continental, I'm In the Mood For Love, and Back In Your Own Backyard, as well as a few from their What Makes Bob Holler record, such as Stay All Night and Oklahoma Hills..  They played many other songs from throughout their repertoire, and were nice enough to ask for requests with a few songs left in their set.  People shouted out "Orange," and "the Pussycat song," and I asked for "Exactly."  Elana knew what we meant and they launched into Exactly Like You followed by Pussy Pussy Pussy (she chided us for not meowing loud enough), and ended the set with a scorching Orange Blossom Special.

We were right in front of Jake and he was at his fret-board slapping best, which humorously had a few people stunned. We heard some wondering out loud how he got that sound, with one theory being that he had castanets on his wrists.

They then came out with a nonplussed Eva (Elana's dog), and did a three song encore.  The house was as packed as I've ever seen it and we all just roared.  I got the impression that Hot Club hadn't been sure if they'd do as well coming back there for a second time, and they did even better.  Now they've got the M&T pencilled in for a third time (and more), I hope!

Bob Dylan in Lowell

We broke our oath to never attend a concert in a hockey rink again (kept since 1979) and went to see Bob Dylan at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell before he dies, and to see Dawes open.

Had a nice dinner outside at the Lowell Beer Works beforehand (it was finally warm enough to sit outside!), and then a nice walk over there down a scenic canal with a beautiful pre-sunset sky.

I was really looking forward to seeing Dawes and they played well but the sound sucked.  Their drummer sounded like he was sunk in a pit of mud and their bass was so loud and sharp it was almost painful.  The sound in the arena would probably have been better if it was full, but at its peak the crowd only filled half of the arena.  OK, here are my bitchy points and then I'll stop bitching:

• the sound sucked, especially for the opening act
• even though the arena was only half full they crammed us into little seats, worse than Fenway Park
• everyone stood up throughout Dylan's set ... not because they wanted to dance but because they couldn't see; the stage was too low
• for some periods of his set, Dylan was just coasting on the value of his songs and it was not an inspired performance

Now the good points:

• it was Bob Fucking Dylan and he has written some of the best songs ever
• his band was great and almost overcame the lousy sound; they were drums, two guitars, bass, and pedal steel; the pedal steel player also picked up the mandolin and the banjo on a few songs
• Dylan was up front singing without an instrument for a few songs but for most of them played electric piano and harmonica, and he had some great runs on piano
• they opened with Things Have Changed and of course they had, they did this with almost a reggae tempo and it was great
• they did a few of the old songs, like Visions of Johanna, All Along the Watchtower (though they cut this short after 2(?) verses), Tangled Up In Blue, and Ballad of a Thin Man ... I was very glad
• they did a few excellent numbers from the recent album, Tempest: Soon After Midnight (a song I love but the sound for this was terrible), Early Roman Kings, Pay In Blood, and Scarlet Town (one of the best songs in the set, Dylan was just on fire)
• another high moment of the set was the pair of Beyond Here Lies Nothin' (with words by Robert Hunter) and a scorching, funky, soulful version of Blind Willie McTell
• saw our friends David before the set and Kathy at the encore

Here's the set list:

1. Things Have Changed
2. Love Sick
3. High Water (For Charley Patton)
4. Soon After Midnight
5. Early Roman Kings
6. Tangled Up In Blue
7. Pay In Blood
8. Visions Of Johanna
9. Spirit On The Water
10. Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
11. Blind Willie McTell
12. What Good Am I?
13. Thunder On The Mountain
14. Scarlet Town
15. All Along The Watchtower
16. Ballad Of A Thin Man (encore)

Carolina Chocolate Drops at HoB Boston

On Saturday the 6th, after a beautiful and sunny afternoon at last, we drove into Boston to the House of Blues to see David Wax Museum opening for the Carolina Chocolate Drops.  Both acts were spectacular and the house was packed.  Highlights:

• met a fellow music fan in line and she guided us through the vicissitudes of being at a high-crowd, high-anxiety music venue; she was delighted when I told the young girls trying to elbow us out of our spots to fuck off
• David Wax Museum played their usual high-energy set, but walked out into the middle of the floor to sing one song a capella (ok, Suz had her fiddle out) ... very successfully, though many people found it strange; see Reid Simpson's video!
• Dom Flemons joined them on bones (Suz was on her jawbone of course) for Yes Maria Yes; they closed with their recent mega-hit (folk standards, remember), The Rumors Are True
• there are many strange things about popular music like, why do so many people without much musical taste like the Carolina Chocolate Drops?  oh well, I can't argue with this
• Rhiannon introduced Country Girl without saying the name of it, I called it out and she smiled, though most people there had apparently not heard the song before ... what's up with that? (see above)
• one instrumental highlight was Rhiannon playing an old, huge banjo with a beautiful tone
• another instrumental highlight was Leyla McAlla throwing down her bow and actually finger-picking the cello like this was the most natural thing in the world ... I'm still amazed at the sounds she milked out of that thing with her hands
• vocal highlight was Dom enticing the crowd to bellow out Trouble In Mind with him ... lots of fun

Another great night of music, and then a pretty quick trip home!

The Great Tim O'Brien Again

Geez, I realized last night that I'd better watch out.  No one can touch the Grateful Dead of course (the last time we saw Tim O'Brien I loved his comment that he had always struggled to find traditional tunes to play that neither Doc Watson nor the Grateful Dead hadn't done first), but after last night I've seen Tim at least a dozen times ... this is approaching my record of 20 for the GD, and that number isn't growing.  I've seen Tim alone, with his sister, with the O'Boys, with Hot Rize (of course), with Darrell Scott, with Steve Earle, with his Cornbread Nation band, etc.  I've even seen a band called Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers that had a guy that looked a lot like Tim.  Maybe I should stop seeing him play, but then again, maybe I should cut off a leg or two.

Tim played the Me and Thee Coffeehouse at the UU church in Marblehead again last night, and we were there, after the obligatory slog through traffic and fun dinner at Gulu-Gulu in Salem.  Got there a little earlier than normal and even though a line had formed already we were still in time to grab seats in the first row.

Old Man Luedecke from Nova Scotia opened (Tim produced his recent album) and showed some very impressive chops on the claw-hammer banjo, as well as showcasing some of his quirky, fresh-perspective songs.  He also had an instrument called a porchboard under his left foot and he pounded out the rhythm on that to excellent effect.  I talked with him between sets and he was pleased to hear that the porchboard's sound produced an echo that was amplified by the stage ... he couldn't hear this from on top of the stage.

This was a great introduction to Tim naturally, who's got some of the best acoustic chops and quirkiest songs on the planet.  Tim came out on stage as soon as Old Man Luedecke finished (he'd actually been watching from the shadow of the door to the sanctuary, like a parent anxiously watching and giving encouragement at his child's first recital).  Tim finished the first set with 6-8 songs or so, before he let all us old folkies take a bathroom/dessert break.  It was only then that I noticed that the late-arriving crowd had not only filled the main part of the church but had overflowed to fill most of the entrance hall with some chairs rapidly set-up by the crack M&T staff.

Tim was perfect.  Oh, he made a couple of small mistakes, but he played exactly what we wanted to hear and he showed us (yet again for me, see above), that he can produce some of the best music around.  He had his old guitar with him and he played some tunes on his faithful bouzouki and his fiddle.  I've never seen or heard anyone better than him on fiddle and he was masterful on that last night (Chinquapin Hunting/Sugar In the Gourd), but he was feeling it on the guitar and he just rocked through his most complex songs on that. What can I say?

A guy in line (who'd never seen him before) said that he'd be in heaven if Tim played Pretty Fair Maid In the Garden ... he opened with that.  I recently listened to his surreal Traveler record and he played Kelly Joe's Shoes and I've Endured, which are two of the best songs on that record.  The song I most wanted to hear of his incredible repertoire was Look Down That Lonesome Road (I'd never seen him play that), and he played it, dropping in some jaw-dropping leads.  He didn't do his remarkable version of Lamps Trimmed and Burning, but took a gospel bow with Working On a Building, which he did as an homage to Bill Monroe, in his style.  Tim also showed his remarkable ability as a singer-songwriter with his beautiful ode to his father (Not Afraid Of Dying) and his beautiful song about knowing your children are out there in the world, and struggling with the emotional meaning of that (Letter In the Mail).  This is not to mention his ability to tell stories about working, history, and human relationships, as showcased in My Girl's Waiting For Me and his version of the traditional Love Is Pleasing.

Again, what can I say?  Tim walked off stage when he was done and we gave him a bit of applause.  He'd brought Old Man Luedecke back up and they (along with Old Man's mandolinist, Joel Hunt) did a great cover of Lightfoot's Early Morning Rain, and then Tim encored solo with his cover of Woody Guthrie's Buffalo Skinners, with its raw, murderous denouement.  We watched him walk off into the wings of the M&T and I was thinking that this is a musician I'll be going to see as long as I can, who cares if he edges out the Dead?

Shaina Taub at the Middle East

On Monday the 25th we met my old college friend Mike (and "anonymous" friend) at the Middle East in Cambridge to see his daughter, Shaina Taub, play the upstairs room with her trio.  We had an ok dinner and a nice talk, hanging out before the show and having a couple of beers.

Shaina and her Trio are excellent, we enjoyed their set thoroughly (photos here).  They mixed in covers of Joni's Help Me I Think I'm Falling In Love Again and a song by Beyoncé with a great assortment of Shaina's songs.  Every song featured inventive lyrics, technically adventurous (and successful) and well-sung arrangements, and some fine musicianship.

Shaina obviously comes from a musical theater background and her songs have plots, twists, and irony to them ... shocking!  And her performance is striking too: she opens verses and choruses with distinct diction and perfectly struck notes instead of sidling up to the words like a rocker or folkie.

Their set was only 45 minutes or so and then they had to give up the stage to the next act.  That was ok with us older folk, it was a Monday night!  Back home and some more time talking and having one more beer with Mike and [anonymous friend] before bed.

This is an older song of Shaina's that she didn't do last night, but showcases her way with words and her singing ability:

Emmylou/Rodney and Richard at the Orpheum

There’s lots I have a hard time describing sufficiently well about the concert we saw on Saturday night, 3/23 at the Orpheum.  It was Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell (with band), with Richard Thompson (with trio) opening.  These are three iconic musicians and three of my favorite musicians ever.

It was a Saturday night and the time slipped by, then we drove into the city quickly and grabbed a bite to eat in a Government Center bar before the show … I think most of the other people in the bar were going to the show too because it had been packed but then cleared out when opening time approached.  Walked the few blocks over to the Orpheum, my first time seeing a show there in over 35 years and it apparently hadn’t changed a bit, it was exactly like my memories of a cramped, worn-out old hole-in-the-wall theater and it was so full of people you could barely move through the crowd.  Emmylou mentioned how much she liked it, but from the audience perspective you might get some argument.  We ran into some country/folk friends there we hadn’t seen for a while, grabbed a couple of tall beers, and made it to our seats as the lights flashed and dimmed.

Thompson came out and was fantastic.  His trio was just incredible, with bassist Taras Prodaniuk providing just the thunder you want to back up Richard Thompson and singing some incredible harmony, and drummer Michael Jerome being the kind of acrobatic drummer people rave about, using his long limbs to pound those skins so fast he was a blur.  They played for maybe 45 minutes and did a number of songs from the new album such as Salford Sunday, Sally B, Good Things Happen To Bad People, and (thankfully!) Saving the Good Stuff For You.  His trio left him alone for 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, which of course brought down the house.  Richard never moves the guitar even when he’s playing the most incredible solos and never moves his expression even when he’s spitting out the most intense verbiage.  He was fantastic.

Then we got a break and soon Emmylou and Rodney came out (with lead guitar, pedal steel, drums, bass, and piano and with them strumming their killer melodies on acoustics, Rodney in a wide-brimmed black hat and Emmylou in the hair).  I had been a bit annoyed that we weren’t up front; even though I had been checking frequently for the tickets going on sale I’d been just a bit late getting them and we were relegated to maybe 25th row, orchestra right.  But I soon had to admit that if we’d been up front I may not have been able to take it.  Their sound was just a wave of perfect harmonious, funky, easy country-folk that washed over me and left me almost struggling for air.  Most of the others around me were hanging their jaws open and/or gasping for breath themselves; we were all in church listening to some of the saints whose teachings the church was founded on recite them in front of us.  OK, Emmy and Rodney are just people and that’s one of the things that make them such charming performers.  But I and seemingly everyone else around me, including some I testified with between sets, had been listening to this sound for years, and … well, I guess I’m past my ability to describe it again.

They played for well over 90 minutes, maybe two hours; here’s the set list.  There was not a moment of it that wasn’t over the top great, or 10 times as good as that:

• Return of the Grievous Angel
• Wheels
• Pancho and Lefty
• Earthbound
• Till I Gain Control Again
• Tragedy
• Luxury Liner
• Hanging Up My Heart
• Invitation to the Blues
• Dreaming My Dreams
• Back When We Were Beautiful
• Chase the Feeling (another fantastic Kristofferson song, maybe my favorite from the new record)
• Black Caffeine
• Spanish Dancer
• Bluebird Wine (Rodney admitted that he'd re-written the first two verses a bit)
• Old Yellow Moon
• I Ain't Living Long Like This (with Richard Thompson; here’s a (low fidelity) performance of that song from earlier in the tour that may give you a hint how excellent this was)
• Still Learning How To Fly
• Leaving Louisiana In the Broad Daylight

Encore:

• I'll Be Your San Antone Rose
• Love Hurts

Don’t take my word for what a surreal experience it was, read this Boston Globe review … it’s rare to hear a professional music reviewer gush as much as I do!

Amy Helm Band at the Bull Run

You've probably heard me say this before, but as soon as I heard XXX was playing locally at a hall I love, we snapped up tickets.  This time it was the incredible Amy Helm at the Bull Run and we got tickets at the front table, where we've seen acts like Hot Tuna, Dan Hicks, Patty Larkin, et al.  We've had some great times at the Bull Run and this was another one.

The Sawtelle Room was only half full and this is ridiculous.  I feel that Amy Helm is the kind of remarkable talent that, several years from now if she sticks to it and releases a few records, people will be running to go see.  She's been in the shadow of her Dad, lost a bit in the varied talent of her earlier band Ollabelle (whom I *hope* gets back together), and trying to mix family with career, but when you get a chance to see a musician like this you should not pass it up.

I can't say I feel Amy is the greatest singer, the greatest songwriter, the most amazing multi-instrumentalist, or the greatest bandleader.  But she has all those tools, mixes them well, and is one of the most soulful, affecting, sincere performers I know.  Don't take my word for it, look up her videos and recordings (her first solo album will be out in "the fall"), and ask Scott who saw a few of her videos, came out last night, and was blown away.

Thea Hopkins and her accompanist Andy Hollinger opened and played a fine set.  Thea presses her guitar close to her chest like a security blanket and is a bit reminiscent of Diana Jones in using her warbly voice to sneak some great verbal images almost by you.

Then Amy came out with her band of Daniel Littleton on a funky old acoustic, Justin Guip on drum kit and box, and the great Byron Isaacs (whom I didn't recognize at first because of the Coke-bottle glasses he was sporting) on bass-shaped-like-a-ukelele and guitar.  Amy stuck to mandola and vocals.  The legendary Ronnie Earl also sat in on a few tunes.  When Justin switched to the box he also brought out an instrument that you could set to a key and squeeze for it to blows air over its reeds, kind of like a cross between ... well, a lot of things.  He talked about it some and mentioned its name (which I forget), but in my mind I called it Glenn Patscha. :)

They stuck mostly to recent Amy-penned tunes in the beginning of their set.  We were disappointed that her album isn't released yet but I'm sure we heard most of it.  Two of her remarkable recent tunes are Roll the Stone and Sky's Falling and she did those second and third in the set.  Jeez, it was another case of we could have gone home then and been more than satisfied.  Sky's Falling in particular is awesome ... better and better each time she plays it.  And then the jaw-dropping soulfulness and intensity just kept coming, with songs like The Battle Is Over, Calvary, Guthrie's I Ain't Got No Home, Dylan's Every Grain Of Sand (the most beautiful, moving version I've ever heard), and the closing rendition of The Band's It Makes No Difference.

Take a look at Sarah's pictures and some videos she took.  Also, here's another review of a recent show.

Ol' Brown Shoe at the Spotlight

We'd been hoping to get Dave out to see my friend Larry's band during his vacation, but he had to go back to college during the day on the 16th ... so we went ourselves!  Drove over to the Spotlight Tavern in Beverly and got there while they were setting up; they started playing around 9:45 or so.

Larry and the other guys in Ol' Brown Shoe have been playing together for a while and have quite a repertoire at this point ... they rolled out a few new covers and even played Larry's great original.  They opened with an excellent cover of That's What Love Will Make You Do, did Boogie On Reggae Woman (one of my favorites), Big River, Sugar Magnolia, China Cat into Larry's original, debuted Cold Rain and Snow (Jeff on vocals), other stuff, and then took a break.

The second set was even better, with an excellent new work-up of Paul Simon's Late In the Evening, a rocking, tight Shakedown Street, perhaps the song of the evening in a psychedelic Glass Onion, another candidate for song of the evening in Scarlet Begonias, and just a wonderful, jamming version of Blue Sky into Marvin Gaye's What's Going On.

Edged out into the chilly March night after the warm show, drove back home, and got to bed by 2 or so ... another late night for us older rockers.

Good Snow at Cannon

We've had a lot of late-Winter snowstorms this year, and most of them have been big in the New Hampshire snow belt as well.  So when we scheduled a ski trip (at last, first one this year!) for Sunday the 10th we decided to try Cannon, which is an intriguing mountain but has been icy and raw every time I've gone there.

Dave was home for vacation and he, Marnie, and I headed North on the first morning of daylight savings ... quite an early start.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and we were a little dismayed that as we started gaining elevation North of Concord there seemed to be no more snow by the sides of the road than in Massachusetts ... less in fact.  We considered bailing and opting for Waterville, but we continued to Cannon and it turned out to be a good decision, the snow there was fantastic and the crowd was not bad at all.

One of the highlights of the day actually, was stopping for lunch.  We were just getting off the tram at 11:30 or so and decided to take our pre-lunch-crowd break in the cafeteria at the tram-head, where none of us had ever been before.  As it turns out we got a great table in their beautiful bar/lounge with wrap-around windows (it was such bright, sunny day that Mt. Washington could be seen clearly), the beer was cold, the paninis were not really outrageously expensive, and the bartender was playing Grateful Dead!

Tracy Grammer at The M&T

The Me and Thee Coffeehouse has booked an incredible lineup this season, even though Patty Larkin was cancelled by snow a couple of weeks ago.  For instance, on Friday night (3/1) we made our way up to Marblehead (after the regular meet-up at Gulu Gulu in Salem) to see Cliff Eberhardt opening for Tracy Grammer and Jim Henry.

There was a short line that was just being let in when we pulled up, but we were still able to grab the best seats in the house, first row right in the pole position.  Cliff came on and played a thoroughly entertaining set, mixing humor and a wide range of songs, all done with his home-spun style.  We were delighted that he played his two mega-hits (well, mega-hits for folk): Memphis and The Long Road.  Memphis has been covered by everybody and, though he didn’t bring out Richie Havens, The Long Road was done beautifully ... an extended apostrophe.

Then Tracy and Jim came on and, though Cliff had been great, the talent level just soared off the scale.  What can you say about Tracy Grammer?  She’s just a supremely talented musician who was blessed by her years with Dave Carter and continues to carry that musical torch.  They didn't do the two best songs in the world (Blue Wing and Gypsy Rose), but did a bunch of other Dave songs, some she’d written, and some covers.  For an encore they got Cliff back up on stage, unplugged, and led a sing-along on Townes’s Pancho and Lefty.

The highlights of the night for me were Little Blue Egg, Better Way, Hard To Make It, and The Mountain … cosmic folk poetry with beautiful licks.  They also did Vincent Black Lightning, apologizing that it took two of them to play it when Richard Thompson does it himself.  Tracy told a great story about Dave thinking that finally he had written a country hit in Better Way and starting out on the road to Nashville to peddle it ... and then the muses came back to him in the car and told him, “Dave, there’s a fourth verse to that song.”  He turned around and went home.

Summer is over and her temples are grey.
And I guess you'll be looking 'round for somebody new.
Or maybe you found him and you're just not saying
'cause he makes you feel the way I used to do.

Oh, Babe, if there's a better way
to love you, show it to me.
'Cause I could not live
and let you get away
knowing there was a better way.

Well, out on the highway a mean wind is screaming
and it cuts right through you when the rain bites hard.
But I'd walk beside you to share in your dreaming
And while you were sleeping, I'd be standing guard.

Chorus

Well hard roads bust open with bitter words spoken
and hearts can be broken and dreams undone.
But hearts can be mended and hard words forgotten.
And roads we turned off of where they started from.

Chorus

Death came to my window in the form of a maiden
But she didn't say nothing, she just stood and stared.
And round about midnight, she lay down beside me
But when I awoke, there was nobody there.

Chorus

Del and Sam in the Snow

Drove up to the Stockbridge Theatre at Pinkerton Academy ... a prep school in Derry NH ... to see two bluegrass gods, Del McCoury and Sam Bush, on Saturday night (2/23).  Really, these two are at or near the pinnacles of their respective bluegrass specialties and as soon as we heard there were tickets (this was a rescheduled show from October of last year), we snapped them up.  We also got tickets for Matt and Jeannie and we were all very excited to sit in this beautiful, wide theater with a big stage and listen to those guys.  It was only about two thirds full and I assume that's because of the total lack of publicity.

There was yet another snowstorm forecast for New England that day, but it was turning into mostly rain as it arrived, though it was pretty snowy in Derry when we got there and when we left.  The pair came out and were their understated, deferential selves, but absolutely ripped the air waves with their bluegrass pyrotechnics.  Sam stayed on mandolin all night except for one song on which he switched to a weird mandolin/mandola thing with a resonator plate.  I shouted out, "What *is* that, Sam?" and he answered "It's a weird mandolin/mandola thing with a resonator plate that Curtis Burch [original New Grass Revival member] invented."  Del stuck to his old Gibson all night except for one song on which he picked superb banjo.  The climax of the night was, of course, an incredibly hot take on Thompson's Vincent Black Lightning.

Staggered out to the cars in the snow and made it back South over the border before it turned to rain.  Just amazing that we had just been in this bluegrass bubble in a backwoods prep school theater with a couple of the finest musicians in the world, only 40 minutes from downtown Boston.

Kelly and Bruce at Johnny D's

Went to see Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison at Johnny D's on Valentine's Day, Thursday 2/14.  We got dinner tickets and had a good table, between a couple from up in NH who were about our age and dying for some good country music, and a cute couple who seemed more interested in the occasion than the music.

The band was one guy on pedal steel who alternated on lead guitar, and a guy on stand-up bass.  Kelly and Bruce both played excellent acoustic guitars and, of course, sang like there was no tomorrow.

Yucked it up with Kate, Mager, and a bunch of SMC fans between sets and we all had a great time!

Carrie Rodriguez at Passim

Went to see Carrie Rodriguez and Luke Jacobs at Club Passim on Tuesday, February 5th.
We were right in front of the stage this time, instead of our regular table that's in the front row but slightly to the left.  We suffered through it, though it meant we had to talk with the band.

Carrie just released a new record and it's arguably her best so far.  She's a great songwriter, an incredibly skilled fiddler and after starting her career (after a stint at Berklee College of course, studying with Matt Glaser) with that jaw-dropping string of records with Chip Taylor, she's just taking off as a solo artist.  Carrie's got a distinctly Texas style of fiddling to my ear, but she's so incredibly powerful and loud and produces such true tones that she becomes a unique musician while playing in a traditional idiom.

Luke was looking dapper with a hat and suspenders, but then Carrie came out and upped the elegance level just a bit :) ... she was wearing a flouncy, sexy brown print dress, had her curls done very tightly, was sporting a whole cosmetics counter's worth of makeup, and had on these huge, shiny, black high-heel shoes.  As we learned quickly, these shoes were not just for looking good, they were stomping shoes, and she shook the whole stage stamping out the beat while she almost busted her fiddle with her powerful strokes.  On one song I was amazed that her bow was holding up to her abuse ... and then on the last lead it suddenly gave out and shed a quarter of its stings.  She just smiled and picked up a new bow.  Speaking of bows, don't stand too close to her while she's doing a song; a few times I thought we (in the front table) were going to get whacked over the head with it the same way a nun uses a ruler to whack students who aren't paying sufficient attention.  Needless to say, I paid rapt attention.

They did a number of songs from the new record, opening with Devil In Mind and then the swing-tinted Lake Harriet, complete with finger-snaps.  They later did Brooklyn, Sad Joy, and I Cry For Love from it also.  Carrie mostly stuck to the fiddle, but also showed her talent on tenor guitar on a few songs and on her glittering mandobird.  Luke switched between his acoustic guitar and a beautiful Gibson electric, and also played a tune on lap steel.  They did her early Seven Angels On A Bicycle (which had said clearly that she was going to have great post-Chip career), 50s French Movie, Merle's Today I Started Loving You Again, She Ain't Me, and eventually closed with Never Going To Be Your Bride.  Great stuff!

Could barely make it out of Passim with the crowd buying CDs for her to sign.  Another great but cramped concert at that small venue!  Here are some pictures from our close seats (more pictures here):

There've been questions as to why I chose this picture (above), which is not one of the best.  It's because it shows all 5 of Carrie's instruments (top to bottom): her voice, her tenor guitar, her fiddle (resting in its case), her mandobird, and her right shoe.

Stray Birds on Columbia Point

Drove down to UMassBoston's campus on Columbia Point to see the Stray Birds do a Member Concert.  They were named New Artist of the Year for 2012 by the station and the concert in Whalen Auditorium was "sold out."  We showed up for the artist's reception, where food was advertised but they only had cookies, as opposed to the previous artist's reception we'd been too.  Another change was that the artists didn't show up at the reception, but we had a nice conversation with GM Patty Demenico, standing in the non-heated concrete bunker next to Whalen Auditorium.  UMassBoston was really strange when I took graduate school courses there in the '80s and it hasn't gotten any less strange, though it apparently now has plans of becoming  a residential college rather than a commuter one.

Anyway, we all filed into the auditorium sooner or later and the Stray Birds came on for a long set (after the raffle; Maya won one of the drawings and was delighted ("I never win *anything!*) ... I love college radio).  They have one and a half records out and already have developed some signature songs, like the opening Birds of the Borderland, the hauntingly beautiful I Dream In Blue, and the closing My Brother's Hill.  This last one is the kind of song that you hear on the radio and think, "they could never do that live," and then they do it even better live.

Tall, redheaded Charles Muench was amazingly nimble on the double-bass, bowing it as often as plucking it and producing a fabulous tone.  Maya de Vitry (who studied at Berklee under Darol Anger and John McCann) and Oliver Craven swapped guitar and also alternated between banjo (Maya), mandolin (Oliver), and fiddle (both).  Oliver is a virtuoso on the flat-top and Maya is one of those people who seem to be able to play anything with strings.  She's also written some delicious, atmospheric songs like Harlem(?) and her song remembering her teacher, McCann.

They did some non-originals too, like Townes van Zandt's Loretta and the traditional Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor.  Their singing is near-indescribable, as they've worked out excellent vocal arrangements (Loretta was 3-part harmony all the way through) which are gems.  You've gotta hear these guys!  I feel UMB has swung and missed badly on some of their New Artists of the Year, but they've also hit some out of the park, like Kate Campbell long ago and these guys this year.

Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem at the Club

We haven't been to as many concerts lately, but we have a full lineup scheduled over the next few months, which started with Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem at Club Passim on Friday, Jan. 25.  We met brother Andrew at the Mexican restaurant for a few beers and then walked over through the very cold evening to Club Passim, where we had Table 5 again.

The stage was set up with all kinds of instruments, and we thought they might have expanded the band, but we had a nice chat with Rani and then with Anand when they fussed around the equipment, and they explained that the strange instruments were for the opening band, Elixir.

OK, the instruments weren't really "strange," they were a clarinet, a trombone, and a trumpet ... and the band was great!  You could call Owen Morrison the front man, as he played an excellent guitar and held the band together, but Anna Patton on the clarinet was just as fantastic, and the rest of the band were very good too.  If I had to tell you what style of music they play, I'd say urban alt-Quebecois ... but with a twist. :)

Then Rani and friends came out and played one of the best, most assured shows I've ever seen from them, and I've seen them a lot.  Rani was in fine voice, that powerful alto, Anand Nayak was as bright and solid as ever on the guitar, Scott Kessell played an excellent rhythm (though his chief box is wearing out and his kick-suitcase is looking a little beat), and Andrew Kinsey was in top form on vocals and bass.  Of particular note was Rani doing a song she'd recently written, which the rest of the band wasn't too sure of but was the gem of the night.  Other highlights were opening with Hear Jerusalem Moan from their new record, the subtly swinging Miami Moon, their haunting take of O Death, their signature Red Haired Boy, the traditional Travelin' Shoes, and Scott playing the kalimba to accompany an excellent vocal turn by Andrew on a song I can't recall.

Of course they topped the set with Sean Staples' Joy Comes Back, and then Rani's above ethereal Crossing The Bar, which everybody in the place sang along with ... if you haven't heard this song then you have no idea what you're missing, it will send shivers up your backbone and stir your soul.  Elixir came out and joined them for a few sing-alongs, including some wonderful clarinet solos by Anna.  Great fun was had by all.

p.s.  There are *many* recordings of Crossing The Bar on YouTube, most using the tune written by Rani, though there don't seem to be any videos of Daisy Mayhem (or Salamander Crossing) doing it.  Oh well ... if you seek these out you'll be rewarded.  I won't tell you which ones I like best because part of the magic of the song is listening to it and feeling its relationship with your own soul.

Billy Joe in Shirley

Went to see Billy Joe Shaver at the Bull Run on Friday, 12/7.  He had a drummer, guitarist, and bassist with him and he strummed a few chords, but admitted that he couldn't play much because of shoulder pain.  I ran into him downstairs before the show and chatted a bit, a wonderful guy.

They played a long show and crammed in an incredible number of songs, sometimes jamming out on them a bit and sometimes compressing a bunch together in that "I've got too many hits to cover" way.  He also did some songs in a rap, talking-blues kind of style when the spirit moved him to cover them and he knew the band didn't have them down.  They didn't officially take a set break but did in essence, when they did the first half of a take-no-prisoners version of Thunderbird, and then left the stage to the drummer.  He played one of the best drum solos I've heard, never leaving the groove of Thunderbird but making some great sounds from damping his toms with his elbows and feet, and rocking out on his tablas, which he'd fastened to the side of his kit and played excellently while keeping up the beat with his feet on the bass drum and high-hat ... great stuff.  Then the band came back out and told us some more about those joyful but ominous times when drinking cheap wine was a lot of fun.

Billy Joe held up well for an older guy and had the almost-full house roaring.  I hope he comes back to Massachusetts soon!

Dead On Live at Berklee

On Friday the 30th of November we went to Berklee Performance Center to see Dead On Live, Marc Muller's "Grateful Dead tribute band."  The theme of their live shows has been to recreate Dead records, and though this was billed as their '71-'72 show, we weren't sure what songs to expect.  We'd never seen them before, in fact we just heard about them a few months ago when I got a BPC email about this show.  I got tickets right away and we were in the front row at that great hall, which was only about a quarter full if that.

Can/should people be criticized for playing or going to see a re-creation of a musical performance?  I don't think so.  This was a scholarly endeavor, though that isn't required to my mind.  Lots of people get lots of joy out of Frank Sinatra or Elvis re-creations.  A conscientious person looks for sincerity as opposed to artificiality in recreations, and Dead On Live impressed me as entirely sincere in that they cared very, very much about getting the sound right, they played with spirit and enthusiasm, and they dove right into and reveled in all the phrasing and effects that a rock band in '71-'72 would use.

So there we were in the front row after a nice burger and some fine craft beers at Bukowski's, and the Deadheads and looker-ons started to filter in a bit.  Some people were there just to see a curiosity and some were truly Deadicated.  We were a curious mix and there weren't that many of us.  Muller and band got right into it ... opening with a note-for-note take on Bertha, what else?  Muller eventually introduced everyone in the band, but if he really wants to share credit and not seem like a hobbyist he needs to flesh out his website some.  Tom ?? was fantastic in the Bobby role all night and started us off right with the ringing rhythm of Bertha.

They stayed with Skull and Roses after that and did Mama Tried, Me and My Uncle, Wharf Rat, and Playing In the Band.  It was the eeriest feeling ... I'd heard this record before!  And it was somehow really, really comforting and somehow bizarre to hear them get every inflection right.  I could see right in front of me who played what in this bridge or that chorus and it was fascinating.

After that they changed gears a bit and did Garcia's first record, which I feel is an overlooked masterpiece and so am perhaps a bit touchy about being treated respectfully.  They did Deal of course and then went out on a limb and did To Lay Me Down, which I've never heard done perfectly (and was definitely not done perfectly on [first] Garcia).  They got the album version right though, and then covered the more accessible Loser before doing a superlative recreation of An Odd Little Place into The Wheel.  That was worth the price of admission!

Back in the time machine for another quick adjustment, and then we were in Europe '72 with He's Gone and Jack Straw.  Strange to speak of those tunes as pieces that could be evaluated unto themselves, but those two songs, though note-perfect, were somehow lacking in panache.  But they followed that with China/Rider and they sure kicked out the jambs with that one, especially their drummer (who looked familiar but whose name I did not catch).  Back to the textbook with Tennessee Jed, but then ...

Another quick jaunt and we were in Ace's studio listening to the throbbing bass of Greatest Story Ever Told.  They got some Berklee students out to play the horn charts and fell apart a bit on Mexicali Blues, though this had some excellent spirit.  The next one was great too, as they rocked the covers off on Saturday Night, even though it was Friday.

They were feeling good and had the crowd in the palms of their hands ... this was really enjoyable, how could you not like professionals doing their sincere best to cover these great songs?  But then they went a bit over their head and though they started off well with Weather Report Suite part 1, they then showed a lack of practice when they segued into the great Eyes Of the World, which finally included some original jamming.  Oh well, I'm sure they'll have it together when they come back to Boston with their next show, which I will definitely attend!

Time to go a bit off-script and they got us all up dancing with the ending Good Loving.  Again, how could you not love this?

The Kennedys After Thanksgiving

We had family over for Thanksgiving ... which was a lot of fun ... and then took everybody out to Shirley on Friday the 23rd to see The Kennedys at the Bull Run.  They played in the small room upstairs (the Ballroom) while J. Geils (the person not the band) played in the big room downstairs.  The Ballroom was packed with probably twice as many people as I've seen in it ever.

Maura seemed not in top voice, probably a bit of a cold, but Pete brought 4 guitars, his electric sitar, and his ukelele and the two of them put on an excellent show.  They opened with River of Fallen Stars (which is like the Dead opening with Morning Dew ... you know they're serious), followed that with Half a Million Miles, did Breathe and 9th Street Billy and their great covers of Wall of Death, Chimes of Freedom, and of course Dave Carter's When I Go and Gypsy Rose.  They also did a few tracks from their new record, Closer Than You Know (I'll Come Over, Winter, and Happy Again), which is very much a Maura record to my ear and doesn't quite have that jangle-pop sound I love in their music, even though it's very good.

They took a set break somewhere in there and Dave and I had a nice conversation with them, Dave gushing about the sitar Pete played on Matty Groves, the closing song of the first set ... Pete gave him details about the adjustable frets on it).  I told them how much I had enjoyed seeing them at the Wilbur with Nanci Griffith in May and mentioned particularly Nanci joining them for Daydream Believer.  They were psyched to remember that and said that that had been the best night of that tour in their minds.

Maura was a bit more warmed up for the start of the second set, but you could tell her voice was not right and she was getting tired.  We were getting tired ourselves and had a long road back so left in the middle of the second set.  A great time was had by all of us, most of all by my Dad who was just delighted at the richness of sound they produced, the poetry in their lyrics, the ambiance of the Ballroom, and the fact that he was able to share something we love doing, going out to see world-class musicians in hole-in-the-wall places.  We were delighted he liked it!  Now if we can just get him to a Furthur concert...

Iris Dement in Londonderry

We'd seen Iris Dement back in January and when we heard she was coming to a hall we'd never been to in New Hampshire we were not immediately psyched.  But then I heard her new record.  If you aren't already familiar with her new record, please stop reading this and GET familiar with it ... it's at least the record of the year and possibly of a much wider span than that.  We scooped up tickets to the Tupelo Music Hall pronto!


Struggled through the North-bound traffic on 93 after work on Thursday 10/8 and met our friend in a Londonderry pizza joint where we gushed about the concert we were about to see and had some ok slices.  The Tupelo Music Hall allows you to bring beer (for a charge) and so we took our seats about mid-room and had a couple before the show.  It's a nice looking room but they crowd the people together so much we had very little hip room or leg room.  They also have an under-powered PA that did its best to keep Iris's voice down; they need another stack of speakers on each side at least and enough amps to kick them up when the singer growls or soars the way an artist like Iris can.

Anyway, she came on and opened with one of her new songs, Before the Colors Fade, and then followed with the song-she-has-to-do-whenever-she-plays, Let the Mystery Be.  She was playing their beautiful (both visually and auditorially) wood-grain grand piano and trying out her voice and that damn PA.  Then she got to it and played the rest of her new album, switching to guitar for a few songs in the middle of the set and then returning to the keys.  She ended up leaving off only two tracks from the record (There's a Whole Lotta Heaven and Out Of the Fire), and encored on guitar with another of her have-to-play-it songs, Our Town, and then closed the evening with the Carter's Keep On the Sunny Side, which she dedicated to "those who's guy did *not* win the other day" (a bit over half of the audience hooted and hollered at that).

OK, there's the facts and the subjective slant on it is that ... OMG it was great!  Again, if you aren't in love with her new record already then you have to listen to it.  When we saw her in January she played a couple of the songs from it, Before the Colors Fade and Mama Was Always Telling Her Truth, I believe.  But they sounded raw and almost like throw-aways back in the winter, as if they were hooks she was trying out and might work.  She released the record at least six weeks ago and so must have recorded the songs at least six months ago, and they were transformed on the disc and when we heard them.  Iris must have been hit by a genius stick sometime in the early Spring, that's the only thing possible!

Not only are the songs incredibly moving lyrically (when she played the showstopper, The Night I Learned How Not To Pray on guitar, the lady next to me almost hyperventilated she was so affected by it), Iris showed consummate mastery of her voice.  She has a style of mixing tremolo, notes she slides off of and flats, notes she soars up to, and notes she strikes precisely like a hammer, all in the same few measures.  A number of the songs have "la-la-la," almost yodeling passages, and Iris hits them perfectly on the record, probably after a few takes.  When she wasn't perfect on them live, she rolled her eyes up and missed the next note too ... she needs to give herself a break and drive through these passages if she wants to be a great live performer, but you can tell she knows that and it's part of what makes her so charming.

We would have loved to hear her sing all night, but she was done after Our Town, on which she played a signature guitar part, just a simple, constant strum like an old-time musician would do, though her left hand betrayed her mastery of the spell she was creating.  We sang along with Sunny Side and then crawled out towards the exit.  Luckily we hung behind a bit and overheard someone saying that she was signing the new album in the back ... Iris does not promote herself well.

We made out way back there, waited in line, and then had a few words with her while she signed our CDs.  I asked her if she'd really written all those songs recently, as she'd hinted on stage, and she said that no, they had mostly been batting around in her head for a long, long time.  I told her that we'd seen her back in January but hesitated to ask the question I was really wondering about, for fear of being rude.  The question was what the heck happened so that she knew that these songs that she had kept suppressed for so long and/or that only existed in raw form were suddenly ready to record?  How did she know that it was time to get some great musicians together (Bo Ramsey, Dave Jacques, Al Perkins, et al.) and lay down those incredible tracks?  Oh well, guess I just have to let the mystery be.

Battlefield Band at the M&T

On Friday we were excited to go to the Me and Thee to see the Battlefield Band.  Normally intense trip on 128 to get there, and then absolutely madhouse-level crowds and traffic in Salem.  Here's a hint, don't go anywhere near Salem MA on the Friday before Halloween unless you're wearing a costume and want to wander aimlessly around.  But we got to Gulu-Gulu and got a fine crepe and some fine beers, then got the heck out of town and wound up in Marblehead.

No opener but Battlefield Band gave us two full sets of absolutely superb Scots music (note American use of the word "set," not Celtic).  The church was about 75% full, which was a much better crowd than we expected, but we got good seats in the third row.

Besides Mike Katz, their normal piper, their new member Ewen Henderson picked up the bagpipes off and on during their two sets and this was the highlight for me: hearing a duet of two instruments that I rarely hear and, when played well, are at an apex of the wind instruments.  Alasdair White was extraordinary on fiddle and whistle, but I would have loved to hear him play the bodhran too.  Another wonderful feature for me was Sean O'Donnell's style on guitar.  He had a finger-pick on his thumb but usually strummed with his other fingers and then hit a drone note with the pick.  This was not a rock or bluegrass style at all: his right elbow was at or below the middle of the guitar rather than held up high and he was almost pulling down on the strings rather than pushing them away.  He strums were always below the soundbox and he had just one pick-up, right in the middle of the sound-hole.

Here's a video Sarah took starting with Katz playing a wonderful bouzouki and Henderson on the pipes, then the dual bagpipes effect ... but listen to that goddamn guitar!



They didn't cook any squid on-stage, but they could have:

Zoe Muth in Cambridge

We were back from Maine early and so at the last minute were able to go see Zoe Muth at Club Passim.

Parking was a bitch ... Cambridge has decided to make the spaces around the common into resident parking for some ridiculous reason.  Where's Scott Brown when you need him?  There was a dirty old van with Washington state plates taking one of the best places and I figured they were tourists and would move soon ... then I realized that was the "tour bus" of the band we were going to see!

I finally found a spot and met Sarah across the street from Passim and then we sidled in there past a rude truck that was almost blocking their entrance.  Geez, the Boston area in the Fall can get very crowded.  We had our "usual" table and sat own at 7:?? or so for another crackerjack vegan meal and extremely limited beer selection.  They're so cute.

Anyway, then the band came on and were really fun and really friendly.  As I've commented before, her mando player (Ethan Lawton) is close to the top echelon to my ears.  Mike McDermott on bass had a funky hat and a few good runs.  Greg Nies on drums mostly played brushes but his timing and cymbal clashes were excellent.  Stell Newsome played some kick-ass telecaster ... nice old guitar ... and got some great sounds out of it, especially strumming the rhythm while Zoe crooned.

And boy did she croon!  Zoe writes and sings songs that are essentially straight-ahead country but she does them in a style that perhaps isn't as accessible as a Merle Haggard or (Dog knows) a modern "country" star. She looks to get at the feeling inside them and I think she gets there remarkably often.  At some moments last night I felt she really succeeded at elevating the song and the souls of all who cared to listen the way a Haggard or Williams would do.  She mumbles and slurs and skips over syllables and it's great, captivating, sincere stuff.  Go hear her!

The set list was great too.  She kills Dock Boggs' Country Blues on her new record, which is hard to do since it's been recorded by so many people, and they did that live even better than on the recording.  She did the "hits" like Walking The Line, You Only Believe Me When I'm Lying, Let's Just Be Friends, If I Can't Trust You With a Quarter, and Moonlight Hotel.  The band left her alone for two beautiful solo tunes (I can't believe I can't remember the second of them, which was just incredibly moving), and then they finished the set with her outstanding cover of the classic Get It While You Can, and my favorite song of hers, I've Been Gone.

Back for a quick encore and then off to the night.  They've been on the road for a while and I, for one, really appreciated them stopping by Cambridge!

Recent Kayak Trips

Gone for lots of kayak trips lately on the very low local rivers and ponds:

• another wonderful Ipswich River paddle where I had to portage around three beaver dams and saw a huge turtle swim under the kayak
• got Marnie out for an paddle on the Concord on a beautiful early Fall afternoon
• met up with Brian for a trip around Lake Cochituate
• trip yesterday after work, downstream from 225 with no one else on one of the most beautiful spots of the river
• and several others

Erin McKeown at the Me & Thee

They've got a great lineup at the Me & Thee in Marblehead this year, and we were eager to see Erin McKeown.  Both times we'd seen her before had been on a crowded, distant stage and we were looking forward to seeing her up close.

Had a great dinner at Gulu-Gulu after a long slog to Salem and then mosied on over to Marblehead for the concert, snagging front row right.  Barnaby Bright opened and impressed with their songs and their vocals.

Erin came on and did not disappoint, playing a few songs from her upcoming record, a few songs from her repertoire, and one shocker from her anti-Holiday record, Santa Is An Asshole, which is really quite a perceptive sentiment.  They had their wonderful-sounding grand piano out and Erin tickled the ivories for a couple of tunes, which delighted us since we were right next to it.

She closed her set with her "hit," We Are More ... which I really like ... and then encored with another new song.  I picked up the anti-Holiday record, which is aptly titled "Fuck That!"  It's quite atmospheric, especially "Visions I have Had While High."

We're looking forward to a good number more Friday trips to the Me and Thee this season, including for Hot Club of Cowtown and Tim O'Brien!

shovels, kayaks, and rope

Thursday, 8/23 went for a kayak after work, downstream from the 117 put-in, through Fairhaven Bay, and a bit down river.  It was another hot, humid late-summer day in a succession of them, but we'd had some rain and the river and the life it supports were doing well.

Saturday, 8/25 had some friends over to harvest the hops and then play a cracking croquet game.  Went to see Shovels and Rope at Johnny D's afterwards and had a nice table.  There was quite a crowd, filling the dance floor with the standees.  They did a great job of keeping up the beats, sharing the same instruments (they both excelled on their dark tan guitar), and harmonizing in their take-no-prisoners way.  The distinctive thing about their set in my mind was that some bands will carefully edge their way into a chord change, but these guys went full tilt into and out of every one.  Sarah took a few videos, such as:



'Twas an excellent set and the crowd loved them ... especially when they came back out and encored with El Paso.  A woman standing next to me asked me afterwards how I knew them so well.  I told her this was the first time I'd seen them and she said, "But you knew all the words to that last song."  She needs to listen to a few Grateful Dead (or Marty Robbins) records.

The next day (Sunday 8/26) I put in late in at lower Mystic Lake in the beautiful afternoon ... the humidity had left and we had a couple of late-August days to die for ... and then paddled down the river and up Alewife Brook again.  Lots of huge carp as before, as well as gray herons all over the place, cheering from Dilboy Stadium, and car noise from Mass Ave.

Here's more Shovels and Rope:

2MGB at Passim

We were at the 2Man concert at Club Passim last night (8/9) and they were great.  Andy Bean had an electric tenor guitar and he really cooked on it.  And yes, it was very hot and they were dripping sweat but put on a great show anyway.  I reminded Andy of GRF last year and he said that that experience convinced them to ditch the suits when it's this hot.  They were in business casual ... with suspenders.  They did a bunch of tunes from their new record and encored with a great cover of My Blue Heaven, and then closed with Fancy Beer.

But as good as they were, what really knocked us over was the opening act, Tricky Britches.  They did a fantastic, Flatt and Scruggs-style cover of Salty Dog, a bunch of originals, and of course a Grateful Dead song.  Really fantastic to hear a young bluegrass band that can do authentic, hard-driving style, and also writes some wonderful originals.  They kind of reminded me of seeing Northern Lights when they were young and energetic, though Tricky Britches was more authentic than "progressive."

Greg Brown at the Bull Run

Greg Brown had been booked for the Bull Run for months, but we hadn't gotten tickets, not knowing what we'd be doing on a mid-summer Friday.  As it turned out we were going to be around and when I checked, one of the front tables was available (must have been a cancellation).  So we did the after-work thing on Friday the 27th ... had a nice dinner and then sat back to see, arguably, the best folk singer in the world.

Greg came out 20 minutes late with his accompanist, Bo Ramsey.  Bo played Stratocaster and another electric and was just fascinating, setting down the mellow groove and throwing in some funky leads.  He played both guitars without picks, hitting the top three strings with his thumb and alternating between his first two fingers on the bottom strings.

Greg played without picks too, on his steel-string acoustic.  He mostly strummed with his thumb and the two of them together made some excellent sounds.  This was bluesy folk song-writing, singing, and understated playing steeped in Greg Brown's world-class style.  They only did three songs we knew: Hey Baby Hey (from his 1996 disc), Iris Dement's Let the Mystery Be, and the second encore.  The rest was recent originals and the songs and melodies were fascinating.  As I say, quality stuff ... but before we knew it he was done!  He came on late and played an hour set.

We got them back out for two encores and for the second Greg did a Pete Seeger song (This Little Light of Mine) that everyone could sing along on, but then he was gone.  Oh well, Bo looked very tired and you can't expect musicians to play all night every night.  We would have liked more but got home in time to watch the last hour of the Olympics opening ceremony!

Couple of Low Kayaks

Went for a couple of short kayak trips recently on the very low local rivers ... still probably much above the water levels most of the country is suffering.  I put in at 225 in Bedford and went downstream on a lovely evening on Friday the 20th and then put in at the route 27 place in Lincoln on Monday the 23rd and went upstream.  Along this route you could see row above row of muskrat condominiums, all high and dry above the water.

Got To Try To See a Little Furthur; Bethel Woods 2012

-- by guest blogger, David

Furthur’s concert on July 15th, 2012 at Bethel Woods was the fifth time Ricky and I had seen them, and it was by far the best.  The weather was cool and drizzly as we walked down the path to the lawn in front of the stage and found a good area just a little left from the center of the stage.  Maima and Rose certainly aren’t Deadheads, but they were almost as excited as Johnny, Ricky, and I (the Deadheads) were for the show.  The tensions was building as people filed in and waited for the band to take the stage, and we were getting antsy for the first notes of tuning to ripple through the air.  We took this opportunity to look around at our neighbors for the first set, and it seemed to be the familiar assortment of drunk old hippie couples, strange mountain people (this being upstate New York), neo-Deadheads about our age (dreadlocks, shaggy clothing with Dead logos, and a lot of brown), and college hippies.  A little off to our left and in front of us was a mother, her friend, and a child who would spend the concert in a cosmic game of fetch where the boy would run off in his neon green shirt and she’d follow after him and bring him back after anywhere between ten seconds and two minutes.  There were also two 40 year old hippies who Johnny had parked next to who were smoking – ahem…tobacco pipes all night long.  Finally the ads on the gigantic TV screens on either side of the stage went black, the few house lights we could see in the daylight went down, and the band came on.  Needless to say, Ricky, Johnny, and I screamed like maniacs, Rose and Maima rolled their eyes at us, and the band started tuning up.

Tuning is always an interesting moment for a Deadhead who believes in the alchemical powers of the Dead.  It’s much less them testing the tuning and settings of their instruments than it is them testing the vibrations and qualities of the atmosphere.  The riffs and melodies soar over the audience, feeling out the potential energy that lies therein.  After they decide they’re satisfied with what they find in the soggy crowd in front of them the band cracks into Cold Rain & Snow, and there’s no turning back now.  John has a new guitar this tour, and it has added to the palate of colors with which this genius can play.  He sings us a beautiful version of this classic song, and he opens up the first jam section without hesitation, Jeff wailing on the organ to fill in the empty spaces right beside him.

They close the song nicely, and already the rain is starting to recede.  The band then jams into a Ratdog song, Two Djinn, which we were unable to identify immediately; a new song is not only unfamiliar in its words and chords, but with a band like Furthur it’s hard to pinpoint where a jam ends and where a song begins.  The crowd around us seemed spilt between people who are ready to see what newer things the Dead’s members have created, and purists whose only reaction to Ratdog songs is “shut up, Bobby!”  Johnny was in the latter camp, and there is some validity; who wants to hear an old man singing “sassafras?”  On the other hand, the arrangement of the song is very neat, and it is easy to tell that the band has a lot of fun playing it.  There’s a great hook that cycles throughout it that’s something like a tropical Slipknot, and conjures up a nice desert delirium feeling.  They finish up the jam at the end with grins on their faces, and Rick and I nod our Deadhead approval of the song, and the start to the first set as the rain continues to wane.

The band then rolls out one of their best songs, in my opinion: They Love Each Other.  While it’s a song that the Dead did well into the ‘80s, I always think of it as a ’73 song.  Tonight they played it as if they were back in those golden days, with Bobby rolling across John and Jeff, and Phil thundering in the back.  This was also a great example of how Joe Russo can play his drums like a melody.  He rolls right along with Bobby, hitting notes that aren’t just rhythmic accents, but the true backbone of the song.  In the jam sections the band shows us how tight they’re going to be tonight, with everyone listening to everyone else; the homo gestalt is fully functioning.  Jeff and John clearly have a carnival stuck in their minds the whole show, with melodies whizzing in and out that could only have come from some merry-go-round from the fifth dimension.  Needless to say, we enjoyed every second of this song, and when the line “got to try to see a little further” rang out, even Maima and Rose yelled along with the crowd.  Lord, you could see it was true.

Next up was a song that Rick, Johnny, and I all heard before in Binghamton, Black Throated Wind.  We were a little disappointed to get a repeat, but it was well worth hearing.  Bobby was singing and playing very coherently all night, and it was great to hear such a beautiful song being sung instead of mumbled.  While it’s always funny when Bobby forgets the words, I’d much rather hear what he’s trying to sing, and tonight he didn’t forget a single word.  The rest of the band also played the song better than the first time we saw it, which served as more proof that they were going to be on point all night.  By this time the clouds had lightened up and there would be no more rain for the rest of show.  All signs were pointing towards an amazing night.

Before I go on to the next song, I want to make a quick aside about the expectations of a show.  The weeks before going to see any Furthur show, there is usually a list in our heads that narrows down as the show gets closer.  This list consists of the songs that we really want to get.  Usually we don’t get any of them and the only things that have dropped from the list before this show are Dark Star and The Eleven.  The list leading up to tonight, then, was Terrapin Station, The Other One, Help On the Way/ Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower, Eyes of the World, Wharf Rat, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, and Bird Song.  Rose and Maima only had one, Ramble on Rose.


And Ramble on Furthur did!  It was just like Jack the Ripper!  And it was really long and funky to boot, at just about 10 minutes.  If I haven’t mentioned that the band was on point yet, let me take this opportunity: they were perfect!  John and Bobby traded lyrics seamlessly, and as they all sang “ramble on rose,” we all danced around Rose - she was understandably embarrassed.  The jam section in the middle unfolded into John’s cosmic carnival, Phil tumbling down as Jeff climbed up over Bobby’s sideways shuffle, until Jeff brought the jam to what we thought would be the only summit of the song.  Waves of piano broke and crashed around us, erupting into trills that slid down the keys and returned to erupt again, and then John, with some help from Joe, brought the crowd to tears, and swiftly returned to the lyrics.  The sun was starting to slowly push through the clouds, and we were turning into animals at the mercy of the music.  As John took us to the leader of a band, we jumped and shouted, acknowledging that while the grass ain't greener and the wine ain't sweeter either side of the hill, it was still a really great hill!

The set felt close to an end, but we were going hard.  Suddenly a tuning riff ripped through the air and Ricky and I go bug-eyed…was that…?  IT WAS!  Help on the Way had arrived, and I went nuts, knowing that Slipknot! was hot on the heels.  The band proceeded to absolutely kill this gem from Blues For Allah, Bobby and John once again trading off lyrics with Sunshine and Jeff Pherson singing back-up.  The jam opened up and John shredded across the air, followed close by the swirls of Jeff’s piano.  Phil and Bobby helped Joe in laying down the foundations of the song while simultaneously tearing them away.  The lyrics came to a close and the energy started to build even higher as the song slipped away into Slipknot!  Of all the Dead’s instrumental numbers, this one has got to be the farthest out.  While much of the material from Blues for Allah is far out and beautifully arranged, this song combines the structure of a song with the formlessness of something like the Other One or Dark Star; the ‘70s version of the Eleven.  Furthur absolutely nailed this song at Bethel, the band acting as the epitome of group consciousness in coming out of the void into the Slipknot! hook.  The band sped up at the end to give their transition more fire.  Transition into what you say?

Into Franklin’s Tower of course!  John’s guitar exploded into shooting stars on the very first chords, and the sun erupted from behind the clouds.  Everybody was standing and dancing in an ecstatic frenzy; even the one little kid stopped running away from his mother to dance with a grin a mile long plastered on his face.  Jeff’s organ shot waves of energy through the crowd as they rose and fell in the circles he was laying down.  Phil’s singing elicited the cheers it normally does, and everyone was singing “roll away the dew.”  John took his time getting down to business in his first jam, but as soon as Phil sang “if you get confused, just listen to the music play,” the fireworks began anew.  The crowd was starting to get soggy again, but from sweat instead of rain this time, and no one minded.  As the song came to the last lyrics Phil started bouncing his bass along the hillside and the band couldn’t help but bounce right along with him into a beautiful lull before exploding again and slipping back into the ending of Slipknot! to finish the set.  “We’ll be right back,” promised Bobby, and we sat down to reevaluate our situation in life and the world.  The sunset was illuminating the clouds in a way that couldn’t possibly have been real, and a rainbow shot up from somewhere behind the stage.  Maima asked “what now?” and Ricky and I groaned - intermission would be a long time.

INTERMISSION

The sun having long set, the second set was signaled by the downing of the house lights.  Furthur currently has a wheel of lights as their lightshow’s centerpiece, and we were looking forward to having that visible now.  Tuning rippled through the air again as Ricky and I tried to figure out the opener for the second set; would it be a Beatles tune?  An ‘80s tune?  Would they do the rest of Blues for Allah (having done all of Anthem the night before)?  Terrapin Station.  They opened the set with one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced.  I saw Phil & Friends do Terrapin in San Rafael, but I knew at the time that it would never compare to a Furthur Terrapin, and I was right.  Phil Lesh became a whale carrying Terrapin cross the ocean, coming from all directions at once, and John, apart from some filter issues at the beginning of his solo, was playing pure genius.  The main jam in Lady With a Fan (the proper name for the beginning of Terrapin) sounded like it was going elsewhere, but it was just the Grateful Dead machine turning over, and they came beautifully back to Terrapin with maybe a hint of Dark Star.  The Terrapin Jam was as epic as anyone would imagine, and I won’t waste time trying to describe what happened; it was just awesome.

Then they slid, maybe a little sloppily, into a slowed down Estimated Prophet.  While Bobby was very articulate and all the words came out with the proper syllables, Bobby sounds like a schizophrenic old man when he does the song now.  He plays on the line “the voices tell me what to say” just a little too much, but the song (another welcome repeat) unfolded excellently.  The syncopation and time signature (7/4) make in an interesting ride, and the funkiness is undeniable.  The middle jam and final jam both came to full crowd-pleasing-fruition, with angels in shafts of light everywhere.  The end jam was going along wonderfully when suddenly…

Jeff decided to be a prankster and tease the Other One, which they did last night and we had therefore ruled out for tonight.  But then it was more than a tease, and it evolved into a full band Other One Jam in 7/4!  While this felt like it lasted a good 5 minutes, the tape has it at only 2…it still felt great to get part of a song on the list after getting so many already.  We couldn’t have been happier or more far out at the time, and we could feel it was building up to something…but what?

A familiar riff, but it seemed so out of place.  That progression comes from another song, but it was never the Other One or Estimated Prophet…what was it?  And then it started to come together: Supplication Blues!  This made some sense for two reasons: 1) It is also in 7/4, and 2) Furthur has done Supplication Jams before, but never with its original partner, Lazy Lightning.  We were happy with the jamming, thinking they would leave soon, but instead Bobby flew into the lyrics and things were kicked up another notch.  John was shooting off spinning stars and fireworks left and right as the band rocked on and on.  The jam coming out of it was in good shape, until a twist in the vibrations from the crowd came and the jam dissolved into chaos.  Phil, however, seemed to have a master plan as he grooves along and finds a riff then launches the band onward…

…into Eyes of the World!  It was a different intro to the song than I had ever heard, and it took Rick a bit to recognize it, even with me and Johnny looking bug-eyed at him.  It was spectacular to witness.  All night long the light show had been stabbing shafts of light out into the crowd and then retreating to the circle above the stage where they would rotate, but now the lights were going absolutely nuts.  After Phil sang the first lyrics Jeff’s solo section came and it rocked us all right in the face.  His piano brought seeds to life that burst into bloom and decayed, and then whipped us off to some grand ballroom in space where pianos roamed freely in the wild.  John brought us back to his merry-go-round from space a few times, and Phil was just having a great time all around.  The end jam going out of Eyes used to be the Phil Zone back in the ‘70s, but now it was just a jam-fest for the whole band, and the jam they whipped up started morphing into something very familiar to Rick, Johnny, and me.

We first got the Eleven in its proper place, after St. Stephen, back at the Vibes last year, but had since seen that Furthur can be very flexible with it, putting it into all sorts of places where you wouldn’t assume it belonged.  Eyes of the World would not have crossed my mind as a place where it could be fit; just goes to show I guess.  It wasn’t as fast as the others we’ve gotten, and maybe the slowness harmed it a little, but it was still a great time.  While not at its most daring in this version, the band was still very tight, and they absolutely nailed the fierce jam coming out of the Eleven in a way I’ve never seen them do before.  It was going along like a savage, and then, in another example of the group mind, went seamlessly into another repeat for us, and a pleasant one.

Standing on the Moon is one of the ‘80s songs we can stand, and it was damn well time for the cool-down song in the second set.  We would have preferred Wharf Rat, Morning Dew, or something from American Beauty or Workingman’s Dead, but Standing on the Moon is nice.  It’s another one that Bobby took over in the post-Jerry world of the Dead, and one that he has a particular knack for in my opinion.  The crowd was starting to thin at this time, but there was no way we were going anywhere; why leave early?!  The parking lot scene was pretty cool, but you pay for and show up for a concert, the parking lot’s free and is there long after the show ends.  Either way, we enjoyed getting more breathing room and a chance to catch our breath.  The song ended and we braced ourselves for the end of the set.  Would we get another Goin’ Down the Road?  Sugar Magnolia?  Throwing Stones (no thank you)?

The hum of Phil feeding back rumbled through the crowd, and John came straight from a Middle Eastern desert with waves of sand and sun.  Maybe they were doing that Pink Floyd song Time?  Wait, Joe has an idea…and John lifts us back into Terrapin!  At a Siding was never performed live by the Grateful Dead and I’m not sure which post-Jerry iteration of the Dead started it, but we knew that Furthur could wind out a mean Terrapin Suite.  We were disappointed when they left Terrapin to go into Estimated, but to envelop the entire second set in Terrapin was the kind of creativity we love Furthur for.  Bobby sang us through the new arrangement (much more syncopated than the album version), and the band came to the At a Siding jam, trading licks between Jeff and John over the drum fills that Joe was laying down.  The band was starting to let their instruments feedback either out of tiredness or to push the envelope, but it worked out excellently in the end.  Finally the band came into Terrapin Flyer to close the show and we all lost it.  Phil brought us to our knees, John brought us to tears, and Bobby brought the funny mustache.  We waited for the Donor Rap, cheered for Cody, and then came the encore.

Being Sunday, it was time for a spiritual number: Samson & Delilah.  A great rocker, and a great way to end a show, they gave it an a capella opening that felt just a bit folksy.  They wailed out some great rock and roll that got us back on our feet.  I was incredibly sore by that point, but I couldn’t help but dance as hard as I could; I actually danced holes into the ground.  The end fell apart a bit with John missing his cue, but they brought it back together right away and ended on a strong note.  All in all, it was the best show I’ve ever seen, and I want to see more!

Green River Festival, Sunday 7/15

After sleeping a bit late, going down for the textbook continental breakfast, and then hanging around with our friends some, we were back at the festival again, by 11:15 or so.  And again there was already a long line.  This time people were a bit more polite and festival personnel herded us a bit better.  But I think they've got to consider opening the gates earlier and/or organizing the crowd outside a bit better.

Oh well, everyone was nice and we got inside in time to grab a great piece of lawn, just a few rows behind that invisible "don't sit closer than this or you'll get trampled" border area that a lot of festivals develop.  It had been incredibly sunny and hot on Saturday and we were relieved that it was overcast on Sunday, though we knew that at some point in the afternoon the clouds would gather and start dumping rain on us.  Oh well, that was in the future!

Martin Simpson - Martin Simpson was another performer that I'd been listening to on radio and record for years but had never seen.  He did not disappoint and lived up to his billing as a distinctive wizard of a guitar player.  He came on a bit early so he'd be able to stretch things out a bit and played four songs that were cut by diamonds, they were so precise and shone with such brilliance.

Elizabeth Cook - I'd seen Elizabeth several times and had told my friends that if they were going to watch one act at the festival, it had to be her.  Though it was early on a gloomy Sunday afternoon, she lived up to my expectations and exceeded them.  She played the hits, like Heroin Addict Sister, El Camino, and Balls, but then she did the song of the festival.  She launched into her cover of Hot Burrito #1 and rolled her head back and shook her hair slowly and hit all those changes on the rhythm guitar and sang so gently and soulfully  but you could tell she was screaming from her inner being just like Gram used to about wanting no one but you to love me.

Brown Bird - Ran down to the Yonder Stage again to catch Brown Bird, a local (Rhode Island) band about whom I'd heard some great stuff.  They're very eclectic themselves but also fit right in with the tradition of acoustic bands that have found their own mix of instruments and their own sound and end up producing music that sounds centuries old.  David Lamb hits that guitar hard while also singing his complicated songs and beating out the rhythm on the kick drum and a wood block and/or tambourine with the other foot.  MorganEve Swain sings harmony and a killer cello, double bass, fiddle ... and you get the feeling she could knock you dead with a banjo, mandolin, or ukelele too.

Chris Smither - Then ran back up to the main stage to see one of the great musicians of the day, Chris Smither.  He brought a funky band this time and I managed to catch a few tunes, then break off for some more veggy/chicken wraps!  No rain yet, but things were getting a bit darker.

Richard Thompson - Yes, much darker.  Richard Thompson is an enthralling musician who plays guitar as well as anyone on the planet and rivets you with his imagination and his effortless stylings.  He will get vibrato from bending different strings in different directions while strumming them in the same chord for an eighth note and then twist into another pretzel on the fret board while sounding a lonesome and whining tenor before diving into a baritone chorus.  Though Cook had the shining moment and Rubblebucket (below) won the crowd, Richard Thompson was the star of the festival.

Winterpills - Calmed down a bit after Richard and the local indies Winterpills came on.  I only stuck around for a couple of songs and then stopped by to see Kate and dragged her off to see The Good Stuff...

Peter Mulvey and the Crumbling Beauties - Because at the Meltdown Stage (a.k.a. the kids stage), Peter Mulvey (whose latest CD, "The Good Stuff" uses the same phrase as is used by Sunday Morning Country's tag line) was just starting up.  Mulvey has a great band, including the ubiquitous David Goodrich on guitar.  He did a number of his recent, very successful songs and should have gotten a larger audience than he did.

Rubblebucket - OK, back to the main stage area in time to get dinner (more wraps) and get totally stoked for Rubblebucket.  I meant to stay back at our seats, but abandoned Sarah when they came on ... meaning to just stay up front for a song or two ... but then stayed there all set long.  I was right in front of the stage, jumping and grooving with a couple of other 50+ guys and a vast sea of 20+ people.  They opened with Worker, did Silly Fathers, Triangular Daisies, a couple of Blondie tunes, Came Out Of a Lady, Young As Clouds, and we all danced and danced and danced while they jumped into the crowd, ghosts appeared on stage, robots roamed through the audience, Kalmia painted faces, and Ian Hersey blew my mind with his guitar licks.  If you aren't familiar with Rubblebucket, you need to get familiar.  This was their third consecutive time at GRF (a record) and they had the crowd eating out of their hands.  This was more fun than a universe of monkeys ... I hadn't really noticed that it had started to rain steadily during their set..

Ozomatli - It was about that time when we didn't know whether to shit or wind our watches.  The steady rain that had been threatening all day continued and settled in for the long haul, but unfortunately it didn't cool things down a whole lot.  Scott and Tristan showed up (the families had gone back to the hotel) and we were all exhausted, but then Ozomatli came on and we danced in the rain for another hour.  Salsa rap is not my style, but these guys knew what they were doing and were kicking out some excellent grooves that kept us all jumping.  They had Kalmia and Alex Toth come out and join them for a couple of songs.

Dragged our drenched asses back to the car after the GRF was totally done and drove slowly back to the hotel with the defroster going full blast.  Changed into dry clothes and hung out for a while, talking about what a great concert we'd just seen and everything else.  Can't wait for next year!