News
Edited by Staff
10/3/08
Aletta and Stanton Moore To Be Feted at Staletta Fest Benefit
Following Hurricane Katrina, Stanton Moore, Johnny Vidacovich and Deborah Vidacovich founded Tipitina's Sunday Music Workshops so that area children could learn from professional musicians. On Saturday at Tipitina's, a celebration of this past summer's marriage of Stanton and Aletta Moore will serve as a fundraiser to build on the program. Staletta Fest will feature music from Preservation Hall Jazz Band, George Porter, Jr., Morning 40 Federation and Big Sam's Funky Nation (with Moore himself likely to perform as well). The proceeds from Staletta Fest will help establish a scholarship program to assist outstanding students cover expenses to jazz camps and auditions around the country. As Moore states, "There was a thing called the Young People's Jazz Forum every Sunday at Tip's when I was in high school. This is where I met and started learning from Johnny. The workshops were important because I got to play with better musicians and I could get tips from Johnny on a weekly basis. This was also my first exposure to Tipitina's and I remember standing on that stage and looking into the balcony thinking 'one day I'm going to headline this place.'" Tickets are on sale now and folks who cannot attend are encouraged to make an online donation.
Shine A Light On Surprise Me Mr. Davis
A number of artists we cover at the site will be featured in a Friday video series. Starting this evening and continuing over the four weeks to follow, videos from these artists will appear on Shinealightproductions.com. First up is Surprise Me Mr. Davis (The Slip with Nathan Moore). Then on October 10, The Slip's Brad Barr will be featured on the site. The remainder of the October schedule includes Marco Benevento (October 17), Earl Greyhound (October 24) and Nathan Moore, along with a new Surprise Me Mr. Davis music video (October 31).
Free Keller and EOTO
Asheville, North Carolina will host a free downtown concert on Sunday October 25. Greenlife Grocery, Asheville Brewing Company, and Mountain Root Management are producing "Just Because You're Asheville," which will feature local beer and vending. Keller Williams, EOTO and local performer Josh Phillips Folk Festival will share the bill for this event which will take place from 4 to 10 pm. "Just Because You're Asheville" also will offer concertgoers the opportunity to donate to the Dogwood Alliance, which focuses on environmental preservation in Western North Carolina.
This evening EOTO will perform in Madison, Wisconsin while Williams is off until October 16.
Bear Creek, Perpetual Groove and Dubconscious Offer Stimulus Package
The Bear Creek Music and Arts Festival has just announced a unique promotion to help music lovers rise above the current economic conditions. Effective immediately, anybody who purchases a weekend pass for the Bear Creek Music and Arts Festival (taking place at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park on November 14-16) also will receive a free ticket to one of two Halloween shows featuring Bear Creek performers. The purchaser will be allowed to choose between Perpetual Groove’s Halloween bash at the Free Bird Café in Jacksonville, Florida, and the just announced Hallowacky show - a triple bill featuring Dubconscious, Cadillac Jones and the Tallahassee All-Stars at a new outdoor venue located in Tallahassee, Florida called Stillcreek.
It also has been announced that Kofi Burbridge and Skerik (who will unveil his McTuff project for the southeast at Beer Creek) will serve as “Artists at Large” for the weekend. As previously reported, the Bear Creek bill includes MOFRO, Dr. Claw (Ian Neville, Nick Daniels, Big Sam, Adam Deitch, Eric Krasno and Nigel Hall) the Yonder Mountain String Band, Soulive and a Jon Fishman and Michael Kang-enhanced version of The Everyone Orchestra – as well as multiple sets from 9 bands, among them are Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Lettuce, Perpetual Groove, The New Mastersounds and The Motet (with SCI’s Kyle Hollingsworth). Ticket packages can be purchased here. Report by Rob Turner
Tim Collins Enlists Charlie Hunter and Simon Lott for CD Release Show
Fade, the latest release from vibes player Tim Collins, also features Charlie Hunter on his eight string and Simon Lott on drums. Next Friday, October 10, Collins will bring out both musicians for a show celebrating the new disc. The Knitting Factory Tap Bar will host the performance in which Collins also will be joined by Matthias Bublath (piano), Zach Brock (violin), Ulrike Schmitz (viola), Chris Hoffman (cello), Dan Loomis (bass) and Matt Blostein (alto sax). On October 7, Ropeadope will release Fade, which our reviewer described as "the coolest film score ever recorded for a movie that has yet to even be thought up."
Wu Year's Eve
The Big Wu, who have limited themselves to select dates over the past few years, will return for more one show in 2008. The band will resume a longstanding tradition with a Wu Year's Eve performance in the group's native Minneapolis. The Wu will headline a bill at Trocaderos that will also feature sets from God Johnson, Hyentyte and Absolute Gruv. One can assume that God Johnson guitarist Jason Fladager will reunite with his longtime Big Wu bandmates for a portion of their set.
Kreutzmann Burbridge & Murawski Confirmed for Grateful Dead-Flavored MagnoliaFest
Later this month the 12th annual installment of MagnoliaFest will return to the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL. Bill Kreutzmann will bring his current trio to MagFest, as he returns to the stage with Oteil Burbridge and Scott Murawski. The festival will present a few other artists with Grateful Dead connections, with performances by Donna Jean & The Tricksters (featuring GD alum Donna Jean Godchaux MacKay) as well as Peter Rowan (who joined Jerry Garcia in the initial incarnation of Old And In The Way), Melvin Seals & JGB Band and longtime Grateful Dead Hour host David Gans. The roster of performers also includes: Sam Bush Band, The Avett Brothers, Donna the Buffalo, The Duhks, The Lee Boys, Jim Lauderdale, Joe Craven Duo, Blueground Undergrass, Col. Bruce Hampton & The Quark Alliance and Moonalice. MagnoliaFest will take place from October 23-26.
10/2/08
Weir’s Camp Clarifies Recent Rumors
Yesterday, the celebrity-centric magazine TMZ reported that Bob Weir cancelled a recent fundraiser appearance after breaking his ribs riding on his tour bus. After a few Grateful Dead jabs, the article says, “The Dead finished their latest tour, but had to cancel a recent fundraiser because battling broken ribs and a cold was just too much to handle.” Weir’s spokesman has clarified for Relix/Jambands.com that, though the guitarist did recently hurt his ribs, he actually cancelled his recent appearance because of a cold. He also mentions that Weir played 12 shows after his rib injury.
Weir is still scheduled to play an Obama benefit with The Dead on October 13. RatDog will then kick off a run of shows at Westbury, NY’s North Fork Theatre on October 30.
The Allman Brothers Band to Receive the Legend of Live Award
The Allman Brothers Band will receive the prestigious Legend of Live Award at the 2008 Billboard Touring Awards, an event scheduled to be held November 20 at New York’s Roosevelt Hotel. According to Billboard, “the Legend of Live Award recognizes a touring professional who has had a significant and lasting impact on the concert industry.” Past recipients have included musicians, managers and concert promoters.
“The Allman Brothers Band has rocked the house for four decades, ‘hittin’ the note’ for veteran fans and converting new generations year after year,” Billboard’s Ray Waddell said in a statement. “They’re an American institution and concert icons, and Billboard is thrilled to honor them as this year’s Legend of Live.”
Though some members of the Allman Brothers Band may perform at the event, guitarist Warren Haynes is scheduled to appear at Anaheim, CA’s House of Blues with Gov’t Mule that night. The Derek Trucks Band is also on the road that week, though the band has no show scheduled on November 20.
The Allman Brothers Band is currently touring with Phil Lesh & Friends. Though the two groups have yet to collaborate, saxophonist Ron Holloway sat in with the Allmans at Columbia, MD’s Merriweather Post Pavilion this past Tuesday. Both Lesh and the Allman Brothers Band will appear at Raleigh, NC’s Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek tomorrow.
Ween: At the Cat's Cradle, 1992
Ween will dip into the archives for its next release. At the Cat's Cradle, 1992 captures Ween in Chapel Hill, NC on December 9, 1992, when the group was solely comprised of Dean and Gene (along with some samples, tapes and a drum machine). In addition to the full show from that night, the set also boasts a DVD featuring live footage culled from a 1991 Halloween performance, a 1992 Trenton, NJ radio session and a 1992 stop in Columbus, OH.
Dean Ween says the following in the set’s liner notes:
From our first “real’” concert in 1987 until the release of Chocolate and Cheese in 1994 we played concerts as a duo--Aaron on vocals and acoustic guitar and me on electric guitar with the bass and drums played from a cassette deck,” Dean Ween writes in the set’s linger notes. Later on we purchased a DAT machine for the backing tracks and this speeded up our show a little. A typical Ween set was no more than an hour long, and we'd play about 24 songs in that amount of time. There was no jamming at all whatsoever. Things are a lot different now. Every night we had to face the crowd pretty much naked, there was nowhere to hide, no room for an off night. We did a lot of talking to the crowd and one another between songs, we pretty much had to. We faced a lot of hostile audiences when we were the opening act on a show. There was a lot to hate about us but we won over a lot of people in the process because of our sheer nerve.
A lot of our closest friends feel that Ween live pretty much ended when we switched to a traditional band format with a bass player and drummer; I dunno about that but by the release of Pure Guava our show was no longer interesting to us. We were doing a lot more touring and playing the same songs with no room for improvising had gotten boring for us. Once we started releasing records and touring more as a duo we got a lot better at it, we stopped caring about what the audience thought of us and just focused on having fun onstage. This was when we maximized our brownness. I don't remember too much about this concert other than the fact that we played the Cat's Cradle a lot of times and in a few different locations. Public Enemy had played the club a few nights before and blown up the P.A. and our sound man Kirk Miller was pissed. I thought it was great because Public Enemy are one of my favorite bands of all time and I was just happy to be playing on the same stage. Our touring party consisted of Me, Aaron, and Kirk Miller, our soundman and driver. Once we signed to Elektra we added a tour manager, Paul Monahan, who would stay with us for many years. Anyway, this is pretty typical of what we sounded like on a good night those first few tours.
As of press time, Ween has no plans to tour. Drummer Claude Coleman Jr. also recently took a leave of absence from the group.
Robert Randolph, ?uestlove and Stanton Moore Confirmed to Appear at HeadCount’s Get Out and Vote Party
Robert Randolph, ?uestlove and Stanton Moore are among the acts scheduled to appear at
HeadCount’s Get Out and Vote Party. The event will take New York’s Highline Ballroom on November 3, the night before the 2008 election. Other musicians confirmed to appear include the Disco Biscuits’ Marc Brownstein and Aron Magner, The Spin Doctors’ Chris Barron, Ween’s Dave Dreiwitz, American Babies’ Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger and the Benevento-Russo Duo. In addition to being a fulltime musician, Brownstein also serves as HeadCount’s co-chair. The concert is a culmination of Magic Hat Brewing Co.'s Participation program.
Tickets and more information can be found at www.magichat.net/participation, along with an entry form to win a trip for four to New York City with VIP tickets to the concert. Absentee ballot applications can also be accessed from that site for out of town fans hoping to attend the performance.
Metzger has been named the event’s musical director, while ?uestlove will DJ between sets. The entire event will be streamed on www.iclips.net.
moe.>Sonic Garden
As previously reported, moe.’s Al Schnier and Vinnie Amico will open a run of Al and The Transamericans shows at Utica’s Electric Company on Halloween. Before then, however, Amico will revisit the music of the Grateful Dead with his longtime band Sonic Garden. The drummer originally co-founded Sonic Garden as a tribute to the Grateful Dead with some friends in 1988 and has revisited the Buffalo, NY-bred project on occasion over the years.
Sonic Garden’s next run of shows will take place at various clubs throughout New York, including Utica’s Electric Company (10/10), Albany’s Valentine's (10/11) and Williamsville, NY’s Club Infinity (10/17). The latter gig is actually a special reunion shows featuring all the original members of Sonic Garden. moe. will remain off the road for the rest of 2008.
Hart's Global Drum Project Hits the Road
Last night, Mickey Hart kicked off his October Global Drum Project tour at Seattle’s Nordstrom Recital Hall. In addition to Hart, this incarnation of the Global Drum Project features tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, conguero Giovanni Hidalgo and talking drum wiz Sikiru Adepoju. The ensemble will hit fourteen cities throughout the Northwest, California, Colorado and the Midwest, including marquee performances in Los Angeles (10/9), Minneapolis (10/17), Chicago (10/18) and Houston (10/19). The Global Drum Project will also appear at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival this coming weekend.
Hart recently reissued a number of records from his back catalogue, including his work with the Diga Rhythm Band, Planet Drum and Mystery Box. The records have been made available both on CD and through iTunes. The Global Drum Project also released a self-titled album last year.
My Morning Jacket to Open for Neil Young, Perform Throughout Australia, New Zealand and Japan
My Morning Jacket will head to Australia, New Zealand and Japan in early 2009. The quintet will kick off a run of shows at Auckland’s Big Day Out on January 16 and later make stops at Big Day Out events throughout Australia. In addition, My Morning Jacket will open for Neil Young in Brisbane (1/21), Sydney (1/24) and Melbourne (1/28). MMJ will also headline theaters in the latter two cities on January 22 and 27, respectively. From there the group will travel to Tokyo for a run of shows on February 4, 5 and 6.
In other news, My Morning Jacket cancelled its appearance this week at Bozeman, MT’s The Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. Fans who purchased tickets through the Bobcat Ticket Office (either in person or over the phone), can return their tickets to the Bobcat Ticket Office for a refund. Tickets purchased through TicketsWest (either online or their call center) will be given an automatic refund. Tickets purchased at an outlet must be returned to the same outlet for a refund.
A Zen Tricksters Obama Benefit
The Zen Tricksters are the latest group to throw their support behind Barack Obama. The Long Island-bred group will return home for a benefit performance at Westbury, NY’s Mirelle's tomorrow, October 3. Doors for the show, which is sponsored by Yes We Can Long Island, will open at 8 PM, which the show scheduled to start at 8:30 PM. Though tickets are a $100 contribution, 100% of the ticket price will go to the Obama campaign. For more information, and to make reservations, call 516 809-6765/6766 or visit the group's homepage.
10/1/08
"Blackbyrd" McKnight On Hand for Debut of Delta Nove's "Collab Lab"
Tonight, Delta Nove will begin a weekly residency at the Blue Cafe in the group's hometown of Long Beach, CA. Each of these shows will feature two sets of music, including one fully-improvised set with a guest musician. Tonight, the "Collab Lab" series will debut with guitarist DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight who has put in stints with The Headhunters, Parliament-Funkadelic and even a brief run with Red Hot Chili Peppers. Future "Collab Lab" participants include members of Ozomatli, Jason Hann, Greg Ginn, Marc Ford, Brian Jordan and Norwood Fisher.
God Johnson's Early Halloween Costume
Minneapolis-based God Johnson will celebrate Halloween nearly a week early, by donning a musical costume. The group, which is led by former Big Wu guitarist (and Jambands.com columnist) Jason Fladager will offer a nod to Led Zeppelin on October 25. The quintet will perform Led Zeppelin IV at the show that will take place at Trocaderos in the band's home city. GJ has some experience in the game, having covered Sticky Fingers, Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Stop Making Sense in past years.
The Egg Crosses The Atlantic
London-based collective, The Egg, is about to embark on its first U.S. tour. The quartet, which has delivered notable gigs at such European festivals as Glastonbury, The Big Chill and Montreux Jazz offers live performances that delve into acid jazz, funk, ambient and club realms. The Egg tour will open on October 3 at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom and then track to the South and on through the Northeast. The Egg will then conclude its American travels with an intimate CMJ show at the AM Only party on October 24 with details to be announced soon.
Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn To Kick off Woodstock Film Fest Tonight
The 9th Annual Woodstock Film Festival will open this evening, with a celebratory performance at the Bearsville Theater by Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck. Then on Thursday October 2, Fleck is expected to be on hand for the screening of the feature-length documentary Throw Down Your Heart, which tracks his recent travels to Africa to examine the origins of the banjo. Throw Down Your Heart will screen at the Bearsville on Thursday at noon and then move to Upstate Films in Rhinebeck, NY for a Friday 9 p.m. screening. This marks Fleck's second time at the festival, as he also was on hand in 2004 for a performance with Edgar Meyer in support of the short film Obstinato: Making Music for Two, which won the best short documentary award at the fest (and which like Throw Down Your Heart was directed by Fleck's brother, Sascha Paladino).
Steve Adams To Join Tea Leaf Green During Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey European Tour
Mid-October will see the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey traveling to Europe for two weeks of dates. Starting with a show in Berlin, Germany on October 16, the group will then perform in the Netherlands, Sweden and the U.K., closing things out in London on Halloween. JFJO will precede these dates with a brief Northeast tour that begins next week. Meanwhile, Tea Leaf Green, which features JFJO's Reed Mathis on bass will appear on the West Coast and Colorado during this stretch. So, with Mathis otherwise engaged, ALO's Steve Adams will provide the low end for Tea Leaf during these shows, as he has done during prior conflicts over the past year.
Next up for JFJO is a gig at the Coalessence Festival in Eureka Springs, AR on Saturday, while Tea Leaf Green (and Adams) will next perform in San Francisco at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival on Sunday.
Phish Returns: Hampton Comes Alive In March
As dramatically announced via video, Phish will reunite for a series of shows this March. The quartet's first full performances since 2004 will take place at Hampton, VA's Hampton Coliseum on March 6, 7 and 8, 2009. Earlier this month the band also played a surprise three-song set at the wedding of longtime road manager Brad Sands. The group is expected to announce a handful of additional dates in the near future.
Hampton Coliseum's intimate size and general admission seating has made the venue a fan and band favorite since the group first headlined the room in 1995. Since that time Phish has filled the Coliseum on eleven additional occasions, most recently on its farewell tour in 2004.
This is not the first time the group has selected the room for a special event. After returning from hiatus in 2002, three of Phish's first four shows took place at the spaceship shaped arena, and the group booked a last minute Hampton, VA show after announcing its breakup in 2004. Phish's November 20 and 21, 1998 performances in the room were released as the box set Hampton Comes Alive.
Rumors of a Phish reunion have reached new heights in recent months after the four musicians accepted a lifetime achievement award at New York's Theatre at Madison Square Garden last May. Since that time the players have appeared onstage in a number of different configurations, most recently when Mike Gordon sat in with Page McConnell at South Burlington, VT's Higher Ground this past Saturday. Trey Anastasio has also tested out a number of new possible Phish songs onstage, most notably his co-compositions with longtime lyricist Tom Marshall "Alaska" and "Backwards Down the Number Line."
Anastasio announced Phish's breakup on May 25, 2004, and the group played its final show on August 15 of that year. At the time of his original announcement, Anastasio said, "Last Friday night, I got together with Mike, Page and Fish to talk openly about the strong feelings I've been having that Phish has run its course and that we should end it now while it's still on a high note. Once we started talking, it quickly became apparent that the other guys' feelings, while not all the same as mine, were similar in many ways -- most importantly, that we all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag on beyond the point of vibrancy and health. We don't want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act. By the end of the meeting, we realized that after almost twenty-one years together we were faced with the opportunity to graciously step away in unison, as a group, united in our friendship and our feelings of gratitude."
A limited number of tickets for Phish's upcoming shows will be available through the group's secure online ticketing system. In addition, the group has issued the following statement regarding ticket scalping:
Phish Tickets has a zero tolerance for scalping and insists that all patrons of our service abide by our policy stated herein. Tickets made available through this site are intended only for fans who are actually planning on attending the shows requested. It is strictly prohibited to resell any tickets obtained through Phish Tickets for more than the purchase price. If you are found to be reselling, trading or brokering tickets that you purchased through our site for profit, Phish Tickets may at its discretion cancel your ticket order and all other pending orders in your name. This cancellation will result in a refund of the total price for the tickets minus a $7.00 per ticket processing fee and any shipping fees that have been incurred with respect to the order. We reserve the right to investigate all orders suspected to be in violation of this policy.
We urge you not to purchase tickets through brokers or "scalpers." These tickets may be counterfeit in which case you will not only be overcharged but will also likely be denied entry into the show.
Meanwhile, Anastasio will also kick off a solo tour at New York's Roseland Ballroom on October 16.
9/30/08
Louisiana Motherlode
Members of the Greyboy Allstars, Tiny Universe, Black Eyed Peas and the Dap-Kings will perform two dates in Louisiana later this month. Motherlode, the group assembled by Cochemea "Cheme" Gastelum and Boom Boom Room Presents, has gigged in Colorado and California but has yet to perform in the Pelican State. Louisiana is a fitting locale for the band to appear since the group first came together in October 2005 at the Boom Boom Room Presents Katrina Benefit Festival The band consists of Gastelum along with the Greyboy Allstars' Chris Stillwell and Robert Walter, Brian Jordan (Lauryn Hill, KDTU), Eric Bolivar (Bonerama, KDTU), Chuck Prada (Black Eyed Peas, Breakestra) and Anthony Ferrell (Greyhounds). Motherlode will appear on Thursday, October 16th at the Varsity Theatre in Baton Rouge, followed by a show on Friday, October 17th at Tipitina's Uptown in New Orleans.
Wetlands Preserved Returns To Sundance Channel This Friday Night
The documentary film Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Rock Club will make its prime time return to the Sundance Channel later this week. The film will run at 10 p.m. on Friday October 3, with two additional airings to follow, on Tuesday, October 7 at 7:15 a.m. and Monday October 13 at 3:45 p.m. Wetlands Preserved, directed by site editor Dean Budnick, incorporates archival footage, soundboard recordings and the efforts of a dozen digital animators to chronicle the story of New York City nightclub Wetlands Preserve from February 1989 through September 2001. The documentary features music from Phish, Blues Traveler, moe., The Disco Biscuits, Dave Matthews Band, Sublime, Ben Harper, Spearhead, 311, Ani DiFranco, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Spin Doctors, Fishbone, Agnostic Front and many additional artists.
Celebrating LiveVibes at the Donegal Saloon
Former Jambands.com New Groove of the Month BuzzUniverse, has just released a new live disc. The band has titled this offering LiveVibes at the Donegal Saloon and quite fittingly will celebrate the recording with a performance at the Donegal Saloon. On Thursday, October 2, BuzzUniverse will appear at the Kearny, NJ venue for its first acoustic show in over three years (between two sets from Licorice). Then, this Sunday, October 5, will see the group in New York City's Washington Square Park for a two set afternoon performance with Free Grass Union appearing between sets.
A Decade of Yonder Live
Yonder Mountain String Band performed its first live gig on September 25, 1998 at the Fox Theater in Boulder, CO. The group will mark the occasion of its tenth anniversary with a special download package on YonderMountainLive.com that presents a live show from each year of the band's history. The group's archivist Pastor Tim along with longtime fan (and regular Jambands.com DVD reviewer) Mark Burnell selected these shows as "the most representative, monumental and non-released material they could find from each of the ten years of Yonder. " Each performance can be purchased individually for $9.95 MP3 and $12.95 FLAC but the complete package (along with a bonus 11th show from Red Rocks Amphitheatre on 8/2/08) is available for 84.95 MP3 and 110.95 FLAC.
This evening, YMSB will appear in Mobile, AL at Soul Kitchen.
Guster Returns for Obama Benefit
Guster will play its first show since January at a Barack Obama benefit on October 7. The group has spent most of the year off the road working on a new studio album and focusing on their families (the three founding members of the group celebrated the births of their first children this year). The benefit will take place at Brooklyn, NY's Music Hall of Williamsburg, featuring appearances by Andrew Bird, Eugene Mirman, The Fiery Furnaces, Kumail Nanjiani, Alina Simone, Heather Lawless, Lizz Winstead, Martin Bisi, John Roberts and Adira Amram. A number of special guests are also expected to perform throughout the night. The show will likely be Guster's only appearance before 2009.
9/29/08
Gordon and McConnell Tune into PBS
In 1999, Mike Gordon and Page McConnell released a track with members of the funky Meters under the assumed name the Gyptians for the Get You a Healin' benefit CD. Almost ten years later, Gordon and MConnell once again looked towards New Orleans during Porter Batiste Stoltz’s performance at South Burlington, VT’s Higher Ground. McConnell has been on the road with the trio in support of the group’s new live CD Moodoo and, on Saturday, Gordon also took the stage with the quartet for three songs, including McConnell’s “Back in the Basement.” If Art Neville had been onstage the performance would have been the first full performance by the Gyptians’ core lineup.
Robert Plant Squashes Led Zeppelin Reunion Rumors
Robert Plant has quelled rumors that he will tour with Led Zeppelin next year. The singer, who is currently on the last leg of his Raising Sand tour with Allison Krauss, posted the following message on his website:
After those dates, Robert has no intention whatsoever of touring with anyone for at least the next two years. Contrary to a spate of recent reports, Robert Plant will not be touring or recording with Led Zeppelin. Anyone buying tickets online to any such event will be buying bogus tickets.
“It‘s both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to rear its head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move forward. I wish Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham nothing but success with any future projects,” he added.
Earlier this month several U.K. publications reported that Plant’s former bandmates would tour even without the singer’s approval. The trio has issued no official word on any reunion plans.
Ryan Adams to Play Arenas with Oasis
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals will spend most of December on the road with Oasis. The singer/songwriter toured Canada with Oasis earlier this year, before beginning a solo theater tour this past Thursday. Though Adams did not play with Oasis onstage, he did fill in for singer Liam Gallagher at one of the group’s recent soundchecks. Adams’ arena tour with Oasis will begin at Oakland, CA’s Oracle Arena on December 3 and later make stops in Los Angeles (12/4), Las Vegas (12/6), Denver (12/8), Minneapolis (12/10), Chicago (12/12), Detroit, MI (12/13), New York (12/17), Camden, NJ (12/19) and Washington, DC (12/20). The two groups will also makeup a previously scheduled London, ON appearance on December 15 that was cancelled after a fan attacked Noel Gallagher. “OASIS ARE GOING FURTHER INTO UNCHARTERED TERRITORY ‘AND’ REMAINING TRUE TO WHO THEY ARE,” Adams wrote in his blog. “They are my fucking living rocknroll dream band and i’d have a general admission ticket EVERY chance i had to see them at home.”
Brothers Past to Reunite on New Year's
Brothers Past's classic lineup will reunite for a New Year’s Eve performance at West Chester, PA’s The Note. Guitarist Tom Hamilton, keyboardist Tom McKee and bassist Clay Parnell performed with drummer Rick Lowenberg for the first time since 2006 earlier this month at a private party in Pennsylvania. Lowenberg left Brothers Past to pursue a career in medicine and, as of late, has been playing guitar in the soul band Natural Selection. Brothers Past’s last official performance took place at New York’s Highline Ballroom in December, 2007.
The Avett Brothers and David Grisman to Headline the Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival
The Avett Brothers and David Grisman are among the acts scheduled to appear at the first annual Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival. The single-day event will take place from noon until 11 PM at the Chicago Theater, benefiting the research efforts of the Chicago-based Saving Tiny Hearts Foundation and their efforts to cure birth defects. Other acts scheduled to appear include Ha Ha Tonka, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials, Majors Junction, Dollar Store, Blue Mother Tupelo, Billy Childers, How Far to Austin, Blackdog, Mike Mangione, Cobalt & The Hired Guns, Lindsey O'Brien & Friends, Blue Room Hero and Jessica Lee. Please visit www.cbgbfestival.com for more information.
“Time Turns Elastic” for Trey Anastasio
On Saturday, Trey Anastasio debuted “Time Turns Elastic,” his latest orchestral piece, at Nashville, TN’s historic Ryman Auditorium. The night opened with Orchestra Nashville taking the stage for a version of composer Mark Scearce’s “XL.” Dressed in a purple sports jacket, Anastasio then emerged to play electric guitar with the orchestra on the Phish classic “Divided Sky.” As he mentions in a recent site interview, composer Don Hart originally helped Anastasio work on an orchestra arrangement of the tune for an October, 2006 performance at New York’s Webster Hall. “There was a stretch towards the end where he did more lead stuff and took a little break from the strings and came back to it,” Hart says of his “Divided Sky” arrangement. “The guitar at that point was more the rhythmic drive. Then we had to replace that rhythmic drive when he was playing lead stuff with the strings having that energy so it was a fun arrangement to get into.”
Next up, Anastasio switched to acoustic guitar to augment Orchestra Nashville on Hart’s newest composition, “Concertino.” Soon after, the Orchestra Nashville closed the first part of the evening with two additional classical pieces: “Orient and Occident” and “Le Tombeau de Couperin.”
After a short intermission, Anastasio and Orchestra Nashville returned for the debut performance of “Time Turns Elastic.” The roughly thirty-minute piece was composed by Anastasio and Hart over the last year and features several different sections, divided into two different movements: Movement one consists of “Magnets and Revolutions” and “Ruby Shaded Sea,” while movement two features “Submarine,” “In Long Lines,” “Violet, Violet,” “Summer Sound Shower,” “Splinters of Hail,” “Funnels” and “Carousel.” Unlike many of his orchestral collaborations, Anastasio played electric guitar throughout.
To the surprise of many, “Time Turns Elastic” also features a vocal section driven by Anastasio latest set of lyrics. As the work’s title suggests, the piece deals with the central themes of time and change, including the choice lines, “watch while the ripples decay/In this rolling time/And cascading, the winds set/The wheels in motion/And it's turning in the mist/Around me/Rolling and turning in the mist around me.”
“We talked about this piece as sort of being a Disney ride. From a compositional standpoint it will be a lot of different things,” Hart says. “The analogy being a Disney ride where you don’t know what’s going to come around the corner next, it just takes you through all these unexpected places and stuff. And I feel like that’s basically going to come off to large degree, it’s going to be a lot of fun. There's one section where we got into a tango thing and all sorts of little nuggets of things and they’re all based around the stuff he sent me. There’s also a short section that’s a fugue on one of his ideas, to help propel the piece at one point.”
At the end of the night, Anastasio and Orchestra Nashville returned for a vocal-driven version of “Let Me Lie” that featured the former Phish frontman on both acoustic and electric guitar. The song originally appears on Anastasio’s 2006 album Bar 17, which features several collaborations with Hart.
Anastasio is expected to revisit “Time Turns Elastic” this spring. He will also kick off a solo tour with Classic TAB at New York’s Roseland Ballroom on October 16. Clips of his recent Nashville rehearsals can be found here.
Phil Lesh & Friends Return to Sweetwater Station
Phil Lesh & Friends returned to Larkspur, CA’s Sweetwater Station last night for one final public rehearsal before heading on the road. Like his previous shows this week, Lesh’s band consisted of the core of Jackie Greene, Larry Campbell, Steve Molitz and John Molo, as well as Barry Sless and Teresa Williams. Unlike his previous public rehearsals, however, Lesh and his band only offered a single, extended set focused on Grateful Dead chestnuts like “Terrapin Station,” “Bertha” and “Jack Straw.” The ensemble continued to roll out some new material, notably the longtime Jerry Garcia Band staple “How Sweet It Is.” For the fourth time in five shows, Lesh also covered his Ryan Adams, this time rolling out “Magnolia Mountain” from 2005’s Grateful Dead influenced Cold Roses. Phil Lesh & Friends will open a run of shows at Columbia, MD’s Merriweather Post Pavilion on September 30.
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