Gregg Allman’s new record, Low Country Blues, his first solo-project in nearly 14 years comes out January 18th on Rounder Records. It features 12 tracks — 11 blues classics and one new song written by Gregg and Warren Haynes. The players include Dr. John on piano, guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, bassist Dennis Crouch and drummer Jay Bellerose.
The album was produced by T Bone Burnett and recorded at Village Recorder studios in Los Angeles.
All the album photographs are by Danny Clinch, one of the top photographers in the music industry. They were all taken in the Low Country, around Gregg’s current hometown of Savannah, GA.
A new record from The Decemberists, The King Is Dead, will be available on January 18th, 2011.
To whet our appetite for this release, the band is offering “Down by the Water,” a track from the new album that features the illustrious Peter Buck on 12 string guitar and Gillian Welch on vocal harmonies.
The record was made during the summer months at Pendarvis Farm in Southeast Portland.
Buck appears on three tracks and his influence is felt throughout. In fact, the end result, according to Colin Meloy, is a record heavily inspired by Buck’s legendary outfit R.E.M., with a sound that is more “straightforward, driving folk/rock.”
It’s been way too long since I’ve seen one of my favorite bands, Gov’t Mule. Thankfully, the band came to Portland’s Crystal Ballroom last week and I was able to get back on the Mule train.
It was the first time I’ve seen this particular lineup with bassist Jorgen Carlsson. He seems like a great fit for this hyper-talented outfit. All four players–including Warren Haynes on guitar and vocals, Matt Abts on drums and Danny Louis on keys–are masters of their instruments, and damn did they ever show it on this night. By the time Mule starting kicking “Gameface > Mtn Jam” in the first set I was fully on board and loving the power and musical sensibilities of this band.
Sometimes a man needs to be kicked by the Mule, and last Thursday night I was that man.
Gov’t Mule at Crystal Ballroom
Portland, OR – 10/28/10
Set 1
Jam In A >
Soulshine with Gospel Intro
Driving Rain
Slackjaw Jezebel > Gameface > Mountain Jam > Gameface
I’ll Be The One > Blue Sky > I’ll Be The One
Broke Down On The Brazos
Inside Outside Woman Blues
Set 2
Bad Little Doggie >
Steppin’ Lightly
Red House
Blind Man In The Dark >
Drums >
Blind Man In The Dark >
Gordon James >
Working Class Hero >
Thorazine Shuffle
Friends from California, Hawaii, Colorado and Washington descended on Eugene last week to see two Furthur shows at Cuthbert Amphitheatre. Our local friends also joined the party.
Furthur is the band Bob Weir and Phil Lesh of Grateful Dead play in today. By the way, the Dead’s drummers Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart are not in this band. The drum kit is manned by Joe Russo of Benevento Russo Duo. In my opinion, Russo’s work and the contributions from keyboardist Jeff Chimenti are two good reasons to like this band.
Guitar player and vocalist John Kadlecik from Dark Star Orchestra has a lead role in Furthur. My friend Greg Meredith from San Francisco says he plays “shit hot” guitar. He may indeed, but I found it odd to have a cover band guy in this slot. Personally, I don’t want an imitation or even a recreation, I want a creative interpretation of Jerry’s body of work. Then there’s always the question of vocals. Vocals is a big part of how soulful songs get properly conveyed. Kadlecik seemed to struggle on vocals, but Phil’s singing voice sounded better than ever.
Although it was hard to do at times, I tried not to think too much about what Furthur is, or is not. They played lots of great songs that I’m always eager to hear. Shakedown, Scarlet, St. Stephen, China Cat, Dark Star, Doin’ That Rag, Golden Road To Unlimited Devotion, and more. Plus, Cuthbert is a beautiful setting for a concert and people were freely flying their freak flags. It’s hard to complain when it’s all good ‘-)
Both Eugene shows are for sale on LiveDownloads.com. I preferred the Thursday night show, but Friday had its moments too. Both shows proved to be an incredible way to remember and celebrate the life and work of author and Merry Prankster Ken Kesey, who would have had been 75 last Friday.
MP3 Offering:Doin’ That Rag by Furthur, performed live in Eugene on 9/16/10
Darrell Scott pulled in to Puddletown last night for a show at the new Alberta Rose Theatre on NE Alberta Street. I was impressed with the new music venue near our home, but I was blown away by the power of Scott’s performance.
One man with his voice and guitar can be a tough gig, unless the performer is totally in command. Scott is. His narrative form of songwriting, booming voice and skill on his instrument pull the audience deep into Scott’s river of music.
Scott played many songs from his new album, A Crooked Road, plus he threw in a few classics as well. In fact, he closed strong with “Long Time Gone” and “River Take Me.” Gary Ogan, who opened the show, sat in on keys during the closing numbers, which was a nice touch and a reminder of how great Scott sounds when there’s a band supporting him.
North Plains—It’s Saturday. Day three of String Cheese Incident’s four-day festival in the woods. There are forest nymphs, people on stilts, Kesey’s bus, hula-hoopers, and DayGlo freaks of all kinds gathered to hear Colorado’s premier jamband in the cozy country setting that is Horning’s Hideout.
We arrive at 5:00 pm and take a shuttle from the top of the hill to the show. Jazz guitarist, Bill Frissell, is already on stage, working his deep dark magic on the crowd which is still recovering from Friday night’s showdown.
Today’s show opens with the invocations of poet and friend of Cheese, Lester “Boom Boom” Babbitt. “Continue living, wilderness. Continue living, wilderness,” he chimes at the end of his poem. The opening notes of “Black Clouds” gets the crowd moving moments later.
After a few songs, Bill Frissell joins SCI on stage for two numbers. His work on “Freedom Jazz Dance” is particularly striking.
Between sets fans clear the dusty floor and move up the hill to find a spot to watch the Saturday night spectacle unfold. The band comes back and goes into “Rivertrance” while characters dressed as Japanese warriors take the floor and do an interpretive dance. Flame-wielding jesters enter the mix and a giant peacock is wheeled in front of the stage. Then a spaceship appears from the forest and hovers over the area, apparently suspended by a cable, but who cares? The performance is one part Burning Man, another part Cirque du Soleil. A collection of balloons–also fixed to the earth by a cable–is introduced in tandem with the spaceship. Dangling from these balloons on long white “scarves” is a high-flying acrobat, doing artful moves with her body 150 feet above the ground (with no net beneath, should she fall).
She doesn’t fall, nor does the music. The band closes the second set with “I Know You Rider” and comes back with a double encore, ending the show with “Texas,” a song which brings me back. Turns out, tonight is my 29th Incident and first since Telluride Bluegrass in 2003, but I’ve never seen anything this good from the band and its community of fans and co-workers before.
Set 1: Black Clouds > Rhum ‘N Zouc, One Step Closer, County Road Blues*, Freedom Jazz Dance*, Way That It Goes, Cedar Laurels, Ring of Fire > Black Clouds….
Set 2: Rivertrance, Joyful Sound > It Is What It Is > Orion’s Belt > Piece of Mine, Search > I Know You Rider
It’s mid-July—the perfect time for three days and nights of live music.
On Friday night we saw Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings, Great American Taxi, and Yonder Mountain String Band at NW String Summit in North Plains, Oregon.
Horning’s Hideout is the ideal setting for a festival and we would have camped out like good festers, but we had a date with The Avett Brothers on Saturday night at Edgefield in Troutdale. And whoa, what a date it turned out to be. Darby and I were completely captivated by what The Avett Brothers brought to the stage.
The Avett Brothers are masters of their instruments and their material. Their songs are superbly crafted and the band plays them with so much emotion it really demands your full attention. Let’s look at their new video for “Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise,” a track from I And Love And You (produced by Rick Rubin).
The song is poetry:
There’s a darkness upon you that’s flooded in light
In the fine print they tell you what’s wrong and what’s right
And it flies by day and it flies by night
And I’m frightened by those who don’t see it
According to NPR, the video shows the rise, fall and inevitable decay of rampant urban development. Which is fitting. The song “was written about the temporary nature of our buildings and our mentality,” says Scott Avett.
On Sunday, we headed west on Highway 26 again. As we made our way into the festival grounds, Crooked Still was setting up on stage. They sing purty songs. Then we saw Danny Barnes play with Darol Anger and pretty much every member of Yonder, before the host band took the stage for the final performance of the weekend.
As much as I love Yonder, the set of the weekend at Horning’s belonged to Great American Taxi. Great American Taxi’s new album Reckless Habits is ON and it was great to see the band play many of its songs from the album.
From where I’m dancing, Vince Herman is one of the great band leaders in America today. He writes compelling material and is a natural performer. Leftover Salmon has been an inspiration to me for years and I love to see Vince play, wherever and however he configures it.
KEXP in Seattle is one of a handful of the best radio stations in the world. WNCW in Spindale, NC is another. I’m also a big fan of KGNU in Boulder and WWOZ in New Orleans.
Stanton Moore, Robert Walter and Will Bernard recently dropped by the KEXP studio to perform “Pot Licker” live.
That’s one of the great things about community radio–the station’s support the hell out of the artists and the artists pay them back with kick ass jams, live in studio.
Musically speaking, I’ve been tripping down Nostalgia Lane over the past few days. I picked up The Marshall Tucker Band’s self-titled album and Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, both released in 1973 (when I was eight years old). I’ve also been mining YouTube for all the goodness that exists there, and there’s plenty to mine. For instance…
Leftover Cheese Spread has always been a personal journey through the music that moves me. Unlike some other sites I produce, this one was never meant to “take off” or be anything other than a good place to share notes about the bands we love.
This is what happened: the PR machine that helps promote bands, labels and shows realized what an impact blogs and social media in general is having on the music business. So now, publicists contact me regularly to help get the word out about new bands. The great majority of these appeals go unheeded however, because I typically prefer that a friend turn me on to new music, not a publicist.
Screw it, maybe I can shift a gear. Maybe, I can dig through a shitload of old emails from publicists right now and start sharing with you the wealth of material that’s available. Here, I’m doing it.
That takes me back about one month through my email. As you can see, it’s unending. Lots of talented people have lots to say and they know how to say it. It’s sort of mind-boggling to consider just how much music there is to discover and enjoy.
Of all the band I listed above, I especially like indie rock duo, Lloyd’s Garage, from northern California.
Comparisons to The Black Keys are self-evident here, but hey, I like The Black Keys (which is why I just purchased their new album Brothers).
