Lucinda Live in Harrisburg
After hearing this terrific recording of Lucinda Williams‘ March 28th show in Harrisburg, PA, it’s pretty apparent I better buy tickets to see her live on May 4th at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix. She’s on the road in support of her latest album, West, out on Lost Highway Records.
Lucinda’s dynamic, raw, and very genuine presence is alive and well in this show. On the last four tracks, she’s joined by Alejandro Escovedo. The masses can have their Faith Hills, their Carrie
UnderwearsUnderwoods and Martina McBrides. Beneath the surface, we have Lucinda. And God, does she kick ass.Pretty great quality here, methinks you’ll like.
Lucinda Williams
The Forum, Harrisburg, PA
March 28th, 2007
w/ special guest Alejandro EscovedoPineola
Drunken Angel (false start)
Drunken Angel
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (false start)
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Lake Charles
Fancy Funeral
Crescent City
I Lost It
Out of Touch
Too Cool to be Forgotten
Righteously
Come On
Essence
Unsuffer Me
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
Joy *
Get Right With God **
Everything Has Changed **
West *** with Alejandro Escovedo
** with Alejandro Escovedo and his orchestraHave you ever had a Garage a Trois?
Howzabout a little Garage a Trois to end the weekend / kick off the week? What we have is a side project of Charlie Hunter on his 8-string guitar, Galactic’s Stanton Moore on drums, and Skerik on sax. On this 2003 release, Emphasizer, they had Mike Dillon help out on percussion and vibraphone.
Laid back acid jazz/funk comin’ your way.
Garage a Trois –
Hard Headed Rio aka Rio Cuca Dura(mp3)Buy Emphasizer:
Garage a Trois’ Official Site.
Listen to a whole GaT show on Archive.org: August 3rd, 2005 at the Fox Theater in Boulder. That’s my birthday, mark your calendars and save your money.
McDowell Mountain Profile: 2 Tone Lizard Kings
On to the second act of next Friday’s McDowell Mountain Music Festival. In my opinion, you just can’t go wrong with a good horn section. In the last year or so, I’ve had the chance to catch some mighty impressive horns: Springsteen and his Seeger Sessions Band, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. So I consider myself spoiled.
The 2 Tone Lizard Kings, a ska band local to the Phoenix area, is a 7-piece outfit made up of a three piece horn section: sax, trumpet, and trombone. I see they have some Specials songs in their repertoire (another band that I had the privilege of seeing a few years ago). Hard to be a ska cover band and not have some Specials on the set list, I suppose.
The Lizard Kings will be kicking off their set at 2:30 in the afternoon. Get their early to drink $2 Sierra Nevadas and catch some live ska action.
2 Tone Lizard Kings:
Nite Klub(mp3) – Specials coverVisit the 2 Tone Lizard Kings web site | MySpace
A handful of more mp3’s available here.
Current lineup:
Adam – Vox
Anthony – Trumpet
Grant – Bone
Mario – Drums
Jack McGroin – Sax
Pat McGroin – Bass
Oliver McGroin – GuitarPrevious Profile: Gelatinous Groove
Dead: Eyes of the World, 1991
Thanks to my Canadian buddy Cam for the email full of tasty music recommendations and classic nuggets of goodness like this “Eyes of the World” from 6/17/1991 (an East Rutherford show that Cam attended). Check out Bruce Hornsby grinning and fawning over Jerry like a smitten schoolboy…
A week from now, I’ll be watching Jerry’s old bandmate Bob Weir jam it up live with Ratdog at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival.
New Music: Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts
Who’s into Joseph Arthur & the Lonely Astronauts? I just flipped on to one of their tunes on Sirius the other day, and liked what I heard. Originally from Akron, Ohio, Arthur moved down to Atlanta to hone his chops. He was actually “discovered” by Peter Gabriel, who signed Arthur to his label, Real World, back in 1997. Much like Keller Williams, who I posted about a few days ago, Arthur started out as a one man band, incorporating looping techniques in his performances. But in 2006, he formed a backup band, the Lonely Astronauts.
Well, this past Tuesday, their new album, Let’s Just Be was released. Check out this one – a catchy, roots-rocky number, with some great guitar riffs, maracas, and great vocals from Arthur that range from low and dirty to a punky falsetto.
Joseph Arthur & the Astronauts:
Diamond Ring(mp3)Buy Let’s Just Be…
Joseph Arthur’s Official Site | MySpace
He just embarked on quite an extensive US tour, so check him out if he comes to your town. As is usually the case with acts I’d like to see live, he’s not making a stop in the Phoenix area. I need to start booking bands.
McDowell Mountain Profile: Gelatinous Groove
So my girl and I will be spending next Friday, April 27th – all day, all night – at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. From noon to 2pm, Sierra Nevada (the sponsor) is throwing a little kick off happy hour with $2 beers. It’s the perfect opportunity to get soused in the 85 degree heat before the first note is even played. Look out!
The music kicks off at 1:30, and goes through 11pm. The lineup for the day is:
Gelatinous Groove (1:30-2:15)
2 Tone Lizard Kings (2:30-3:15)
Tea Leaf Green (3:45-4:45)
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (5:15-6:30)
The Neville Brothers (7:00-8:30)
Bob Weir & Ratdog (9:00-11:00)I thought I’d spend the next week or so profiling each band in Friday’s lineup. So we start tonight with the festival opener, local band Gelatinous Groove.
They came together in early 2004 in my former home of Tempe, where I spent six years living dangerously close to ASU hang-out Mill Avenue and great local bar Casey Moore’s. The boys in GG lay down the laid back jam-bandish vibe. Usually these types of bands thrive in the live environment, and I haven’t seen them yet, so it’s hard to judge them from the three tunes available on their MySpace page. I’ll give you some better perspective after the show next week.
The band is made up Mike Roberts (keys, vox), Matt Vestal (bass), Steve Allen (alive and well! on guitar and bass), Mike Hatley (guitar), and the lead vocalist drummer Cory Yardley. And you can’t forget Richard the head. They rave about Richard on their MySpace page, and have a song all about him. Richard apparently goes everywhere with them. I’ll make sure to get an in depth interview at the show. You can see Richard representin’ in the pic above.
Gelatinous Groove:
Big D and the Darwin Theory(mp3)Check out their MySpace here.
Join me at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival in Scottsdale, AZ.
An AZ Music Festival and some Keller Williams
The Phoenix area has its own cool little happening called the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. It’s coming up on April 27th and 28th at WestWorld in Scottsdale. I’m excited about the opening night, which features the Neville Brothers and Bob Weir’s band, Ratdog (among a lot of others, shown here). If you’re in the southwest, come on down.
I’ve seen both bands a few times each, but not since the mid 90’s (the best was seeing both at Laguna Seca Daze in Monterey, Calif.). So this is a must see for me, with both bands together in my own back yard. You gotta think there will be some sort of collaboration too. We’ll see. I’ll be there listening in, snapping photos, and maybe even chatting with some of the talent.
Regarding Bob Weir, he makes an appearance on the latest release by guitar and loop whiz Keller Williams. Dream was released back on February 6th. Admittedly, I didn’t know much about Keller Williams until this album, so I have some catching up to do. But this CD has been on steady rotation since I got it. It’s his 11th release dating all the way back to 1994. Maybe a KW fan here can recommend their favorite, and steer me in the right direction for my next purchase (the boys at Hidden Track, maybe?).
Keller is known as a one-man jam band. At live shows, he jams by himself on mostly acoustic guitars (many of them 12 string) while looping the guitars and vocals with a Gibson Echoplex Delay. On Dream though, the concept was collaboration. Some of the folks helping out on this album are Bela Fleck, Charlie Hunter, John Scofield, Steve Kimock, Michael Franti, the String Cheese Incident, and Victor Wooten. The album is downright pleasing to the ears, folksy and relaxed. Highlights for me are the Kimock/Williams tune “Twinkle”- an instrumental with some tasty and wholly unique guitar licks and effects ; “Lil’ Sexy Blues”, which incorporates Indian instruments like tablas and the hansa veena (with special guests Samir Chatterjee and Sanjay Mishra) ; and a cool reggae tinged tune with Franti called “Ninja of Love”. Unique sounds are a theme throughout the album.
And that brings us back to Bobby Weir, who teams up with Keller on “Cadillac”. I never thought of Bob Weir as the kind of guy to sing lyrics like: “and Jesus be riding bitch seat / cuz he’s good like that”. But here he is, doing just that. Oh, and Bob’s dog, Jackson Hamlet Weir, contributes with some quality barking. Keller, by the way, will be on the road with Ratdog this summer.
Keller Williams –
Cadillac(mp3)- Keller’s Official Site.
- Keller’s Hoooka.
- Keller taking on Zep’s “Ramble On” in 2000. You get to see the loops put to good use. Try your best to ignore the static. It’s worth it.
Buy Dream.
Steve Earle on Bob Harris Country
I have to get a hold of one of those shirts.
From the 2000 Transcendental Blues Tour, here’s a nice set from Coventry, England. It’s part of a BBC radio broadcast called Bob Harris Country. A nice snapshot of the opening set list at the time. Take it Dukes…
Steve Earle and the Dukes
“Bob Harris Country”
Warwick University
Coventry, UK
May 25th, 200001. Transcendental Blues
02. Everyone’s In Love With You
03. Another Town
04. I Can Wait
05. Steve’s Last Ramble
06. I Feel Alright
07. Lonelier Than This
08. I Don’t Want To Lose You Yet
09. The Galway Girl
10. Copperhead Road
11. South Nashville Blues
12. All Of My Life
13. The UnrepentantBuy Transcendental Blues:
Radio Free Boss – WBCN 1973
I came across this 1973 radio broadcast of Mr. Springsteen live in the WBCN Boston studios. Brucebase has the details…
Bruce’s first-ever radio station performance and still the earliest circulating “live” material with the E Street Band. The silky-voiced female DJ is the legendary Maxanne Sartori. The very good quality circulating audio (recorded off the airways and available on the CD “BOUND FOR GLORY”) includes the entire show except that it’s missing nearly all of “Blinded”, plus some concluding discussions about Bruce’s upcoming tour plans. Allegedly a complete (but poor quality) tape of the show was circulating briefly in the Boston area during the mid – 70’s, but it seems to have vanished from the tape trading pool. There are some funny moments in this show. Bruce introduces Clarence as his biological brother. At one point Sartori asks Bruce to perform his mysterious “long-lost hit from the 60’s” – to which Bruce replies that people will have to come to Paul’s Mall to hear it in the “Las Vegas part of the show”. In addition to the band (minus Lopez), co-manager Jim Cretecos, roadie/soundman Albee “Albany Al” Tellone and CBS rep Ed Hynes are in the broadcast studio…
The earliest radio Boss broadcast. Nice!
So while we Boss fans await his next move, let’s jump back to the beginning… (links are MP3’s).
Bruce Springsteen
WBCN Studios, Boston
January 9th, 1973Satin Doll
Bishop Danced
Circus Song
Song of the Orphans
Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?The Future is Now
Hey, it’s my first post from my sweet new iMac! I tell you, there’s a lot of different little habits I need to break and re-acquire. Right clicking, for example. You don’t get the ol’ right click menu in Mac. But this thing is awesome. My poor family…
Starting off the Mac era, we go into the future. I was sitting in a Flagstaff, AZ bar several years ago (the Flagstaff Brewing Company, to be exact), and they were playing this cool David Byrne show. On came a familiar tune, and lo and behold, Byrne was covering Prince’s “The Future”, the opening track on his 1989 soundtrack to Batman. I’ve been trying to track it down since, and thanks to Zack on my Prince forum, I found it!
So take a listen. Then, take a listen to a pretty decent remix of Prince’s version.
David Byrne:
The Future(mp3)Prince:
The Future(mp3) – remix
