• Jam

    Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country

    There is some sort of magic, some mystical talent, that some songwriters possess – the ability to compose a piece of music that captures the listener just seconds into a song. If you appreciate the rock & roll, the twang of Americana & country roots, the scoot and groove of a tasty guitar lick, then Daniel Donato’s “Justice” is for you. I mean, 20 seconds in, there I was, nodding my head and smiling. That doesn’t happen every day.

    Daniel Donato is a Nashville musician, in his mid-twenties, and a whiz on the Fender Telecaster. He’s professed his appreciation for the country virtuosos of our lifetime – Waylon & Merle and such. And, after discovering their music over the last decade, he’s a card carrying Deadhead. The Grateful Dead in and of itself were a melting pot of influences – folk to psychedelic rock to country to blues – and Daniel Donato soaks it all up into his own “Cosmic Country” style.

    “Justice” is the opening track on his full length debut, A Young Man’s Country, an album that also features covers of Waylon’s “Ain’t Living Long Like This,” John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery,” and a 9 minute version of the Dead’s “Fire on the Mountain.”

    You can stream it in its entirety on Bandcamp, and pre-order the limited edition vinyl there too. I’m looking forward to what Daniel’s got in store for us down the road. For now, we’ve got “Justice” – and it cooks!

  • Jam

    Live Dead on YouTube: 3-28-81 at the Rockpalast Festival

    There’s an insane amount of live Grateful Dead shows on YouTube these days, and I’ve fallen hard into the rabbit hole the past couple of weeks.

    I’ve spent some time traveling back to the late 80’s at Alpine Valley (to think I was a clueless 18 year old just 45 minutes away at this moment), the early 90’s at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl in Las Vegas (where I saw my final Dead show), and most recently – today in fact – over in Germany at the 1981 Rockpalast Festival.

    The show really takes off midway through the first set, with the run of “Sugaree”, “Me & My Uncle”, “Mexicali Blues”, and the funky disco-jamming of “Shakedown Street.”

    Here’s the Dead at the Rockpalast Festival in March 1981 – all three hours and twenty-two minutes – featuring a guest appearance late in the show by a Mr. Pete Townshend.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldse7hpLphY

  • Jam

    Phish + ACL Music Festival? Yes. Please.

    If this rumor turns out to be true, then it’s clear to me that the music gods are on my side. A few weeks ago, I tried for a ticket (one ticket) to see Phish play Telluride’s Town Park in August. My folks live there during the summer, my first Phish show was in Colorado twenty years ago, yada yada yada…

    I would even have forfeited my October trip to the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

    But I had no luck. Telluride tickets sold out in minutes. “It wasn’t to be,” I sighed and told myself.

    So the ACL Festival it was. I secured my three day pass on April 20th, booked my flight and hotel, and all was well. I’ll be returning for my third ACL…

    And NOW look – straight from the rumor mill – it’s looking like Phish could be announced as one of the headliners for ACL! Could this be any more perfect (other than a lineup also including Springsteen, Prince, 70’s Stones, and a resurrected Joe Strummer and Elvis Presley)?

    Phish. ACL Festival. Yes. Let it be.

    Source: Coventry Music: – Phishy Rumor: 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival

  • Jam

    Ticket Giveaway: Late Night at the Compound with Steve Kimock & Crazy Engine

    What are you up to this weekend? If you can make your way to north Scottsdale’s Compound Grill, you’ll find the surroundings taken over by the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. Vehicles will be kicked to the curb, sod will be laid down, a big stage will go up, and the people… they will come. Look forward to sets by Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Trombone Shorty, Robert Randolph & the Family Band and others (see MMMF’s site for full lineup details).

    Late Saturday night (showtime @ 11pm), within the cozy confines of the Compound Grill, Bay Area guitar whiz Steve Kimock will take the stage with his new band, Crazy Engine. Steve has been part of the jam/psychedelic/prog rock scene for a number of years. He co-founded Zero in the 80’s, formed his own Steve Kimock Band in 2000, and has played a part in Bob Weir’s Ratdog, Phil Lesh & Friends, and the Other Ones.

    Joining Steve in Crazy Engine is longtime Jerry Garcia Band member Melvin Seals on Hammond B-3 and keys, Trevor Extor on bass and vocals, and his 22-year old son John Morgan Kimock on drums.

    I’ll be there enjoying the show, so why don’t you? I’m giving away a pair of tickets. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment below. Keep in mind this is a late night show that starts at 11pm and will jam into the wee hours of the morning. If you’re serious about rocking out all night long with Steve Kimock & Crazy Engine, drop a comment in below. I’ve heard Steve’s a pretty amazing guitarist to see live, so this should be something extra special given the small club feel of the Compound Grill.

    I’ll pick a winner from the Comments section on Thursday. Good luck!

  • Jam

    Phish confirmed for Telluride Town Park

    If the ticket gods are kind, then come August 9th and 10th, I’ll be in one of my favorite places on earth – Telluride, Colorado – to see Phish! My first Phish show was 20 years ago, when Phish came to my school (Colorado College) for an outdoor Earth Day show with Pike’s Peak in the background. Since then, I’ve seen them play in Arizona, Las Vegas, Wisconsin, and London.

    When I heard that Phish may play Telluride this summer, a heavenly spot where my parents live during the summers, I knew that I’d need to find a way. Well, if I can score the tickets, I will be there! Oh hell yeah…

    See all the dates from their just announced Summer Tour right here.

    And here’s a “Lizards” from their Colorado ’88 collection (the cover features Trey & Mike crossing Telluride’s main drag, Colorado Ave).

  • Jam,  Prince

    When Doves Cry / Beautifully Broken

    It’s been a while since I’ve discovered a gem in my own music library – one that I don’t recall ever hearing. I’ve listened to Gov’t Mule’s 2003 live album (Deepest End: Live in Concert) before, but I don’t remember hearing what I heard tonight: a slow and bluesy “When Doves Cry” sung by Warren Haynes. Prince’s classic tune bookends the tune “Beautifully Broken”. Only the chorus is sung, but the way it weaves its way into the full song makes it one of the best interpretations of a Prince tune I’ve heard.

    I’m sure there are a few groups in the jam band scene that have tackled Prince’s music. The only cover that comes to mind is Phish’s take on “Purple Rain”, which always seemed like more of an attempt to be humorous than a respectful and heartfelt interpretation of the work (must be the vacuum cleaner solo).

    With an artist like Warren Haynes though, you can bet that he’ll put his heart and soul into any song he performs – and it’s evident here with “When Doves Cry” and “Beautifully Broken”. There’s a passion in the vocals and every pluck of his guitar string. And with a heavy duty powerhouse like Gov’t Mule backing it all up – well – I’m damn sure I’ll have this on regular rotation for some time to come.

    From The Deepest End: Live in Concert.

  • Jam,  New Orleans,  Rock

    Good Times at the Telluride Cajun Festival

    The nature of vacations is that they fly by way too quickly. And my first 2 week vacation since, well, since I started working for a living, is about to draw to a close. After I celebrate my 39th year on earth tomorrow, it’s back to the grind on Tuesday.

    My family and I just spent 11 great days with my mom and my dad in Telluride, Colorado. My folks live up there during the summers, and it has become a yearly tradition to strap the car-sick-prone kids into the vehicle and brave the 9+ hours to the San Juans of southwest Colorado.

    As fate would have it, along with the hiking, fly fishing, restaurantin’, Smugglers Brewpubbin‘ and such, I managed to catch some quality live music during our visit. Early on, it was James McMurtry playing for free in Mountain Village. And Friday, for our final day in town, it was the Telluride Cajun Festival, featuring Louisiana native Papa Mali, with new BFF (and drummer for the Dead) Bill Kreutzmann in tow…

  • Bruce Springsteen,  Jam

    Bonnaroo: Bruce Springsteen on stage with Phish

    As a Bruce and Phish fan for more than a quarter century and almost 20 years respectively, my mind was just about blown last night when I was reading through my Twitter feed, and saw this from Bruce’s official Twitter:

    I guess the opportunity was ripe, with Phish and the Boss co-headlining the festival, but it just didn’t seem within the realm of possibility that these two forces in popular music – different realms of the spectrum, one could argue – would collide and collaborate. But it happened. At the end of Phish’s 1st set on Sunday night, Trey Anastasio introduced his “boyhood and still hero”, Bruce Springsteen.

    They tore through “Mustang Sally”, “Bobby Jean”, and “Glory Days”.  And suffice it so say, I’ll be scouring the interwebs for any and all video of this moment. Bruce was also spotted taking in Band of Horses earlier in the day as well. It just keeps coming together, doesn’t it?

  • Jam

    Phish Returns

    This past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, Phish played their first shows in five years at the Hampton Coliseum (aka “the mothership”) in Hampton, Virginia. I was one of the lucky ones who saw them in their very early years, during their first forays outside of the northeast. In 1990 and 1991, Phish stopped through my college in Colorado three times, and I was introduced to the wonder and weirdness that was the live Phish experience (two of these were costume-required Halloween shows, which added to the weirdness).

    Since those college years, I’ve seen a healthy pile of shows here in Arizona, Las Vegas, Alpine Valley, and London – and have watched them soar in popularity as one of the premiere live acts of our time. I was saddened when they shut down shop in 2004, possibly for good.

    But this weekend, the boys returned for a much anticipated run of shows in Hampton. And what has to be a first for an act of their caliber, they are offering free high quality MP3’s of the shows, released just hours after the last notes of the encores are played. This weekend was Phish weekend, not only for those inside the coliseum, but anyone around the world with a computer, who wished to share in the experience.

    I haven’t listened to anything else since I downloaded Friday’s show on Saturday morning. Each morning has been met with a good dose of music geek excitement, as I get the opportunity to listen to the previous night’s Phish show. For this long time fan, it means a lot.

    Check out LivePhish.com, where you can download these shows for free (for a limited time).

    PhishFluffhead (mp3) – their first song on Friday, 3/6.

    Phish2001 (mp3) – from last night’s show (3/8). I love Phish’s take on Also Sprach Zarathustra. They don’t get any funkier…

  • Jam

    Spacebirdmatingcall

    “And He heard the Disco Biscuits…this-this-Jam-tronica… and He was pleased.”

    I hear some great stuff on Sirius Satellite’s Jam On. They’ve been turning me on more and more to the coolness that is Philadelphia’s Disco Biscuits. I’ve known them only as one of those mainstays on the periphery of the jamband scene – but I’ve really grown to appreciate their melding of electronic music into the “jam” scene. Hence Jamtronica.

    Soothing to the ear. Groove-a-licious to the soul.

    The Disco Biscuits
    Spacebirdmatingcall (mp3)

    Buy

    Sites: Official Site | MySpace