Way Down with Them Yonder
Yonder Mountain String Band
Oct. 12,1999 Wilbert's at the Diamondback

By Hanny B.

CLEVELAND, Oh - The new Wilbert's is a decent room. It has the stage elevated properly and good sound, high ceilings. We arrived early for some food and some delicious in house beer. The Diamondback makes six different beers. I had a stout, nice oaty taste, not too hoppy. I knew we were in for some fun when they came up for the sound check. They took the stage at about 9:30 pm. Upright bass, Guitar, Mandolin and Banjo; all acoustic instruments have a special place in my heart, I am especially fond of the Mando, in part for the tone and in part for the music they play. I mean, of course, Bluegrass...Real Bluegrass Not some jazzed up funked outgrass, but the real deal. The band started with about 20 minutes worth of their own material. Their harmonies were good, and all the players took turns with the writing and singing. Their music was original and some of the words modern, but could easily be mistaken for a Jimmy and Jessie tune. Or, maybe a guest at the Grand Ole Opry. Thrown in the next few numbers was a tune off the new Mother McCree's uptown jug champions CD followed by a jug number they wrote. We really like the older style to paraphrase the Bassist. This was very much a crowd pleaser. The band then made the error of asking for people in the audience to request numbers "just shout them out". After the next two originals, out came the requests, slowly at first. One being a fine rendition of "Shady Grove". Very much up-tempo with nice voicing and solos for all. A few more originals followed, along with a few more ideas , "Fox on the Run", "On and On", "Panama Red".

I cannot even put into words how refreshing it is to see a new band that is really putting their all into it. Their songwriting was so original and expressive. I wish I could remember the names of the songs. After a rather traditional back and forth request session, "Ginseng Sullivan" one man requested, "that is a great song" and then a laugh. After a couple of Phish requests , "Poor Heart" and "My Sweet One", they did play a very solid "Nellie Cane" one of the few sung by the Banjo player. More requests,each with a greater variety, came at once and some more talking between the band and audience ensued. The Mando players asks if it is ok if they played unamplified, right in front of the small crowd. No one objects a few tables are moved, people in the back scoot in and away we go.

Having a band play this way is an incredible experience. This was amazing. They were so close I got hit with a pick! A smokin' "Crazy Train", by the Osborne Brothers, Ozzy that is, started out this intimate mini set. Then a sweet reggae jam with some "Legalize It" lyrics along with original lyrics. Next was a beautiful number by the Bass player "40 Miles >From Denver" about a girl and some distance between. I know that this band is opening for the Cheese down in Cincy tonight, I cannot recommend them enough folks. I fully endorse this bluegrass band, as if that is worth anything :) I guess after seeing only jam/rock/grass the four string players from nederland really hit the spot.

Funkin' Cowtown - Galactic at the Newport
Oct. 26, 1999 By Alan Dorchak

COLUMBUS, Oh - This was my first time to Columbus, home of Ohio State University. Certainly no match for the Bloomington Indiana University campus for sheer sex appeal, but still a nice slice of Midwestern people filled the streets surrounding the venue.

The hall itself is actually quite large, the balcony was closed off for this show, but the lower area was filled nicely. Consisting of a huge level floor with raised side areas with tables about 15 feet wide on each side, the sound was somewhat echo-ee, but up front it was fine.

North Mississippi Allstars opened, I thoroughly enjoyed their set. Swampy funk with a gritty edge occasionally lapsing into Allman-esque jams but mostly pretty original sounding. Stanton sat in for a tune and, as usual, seemed to be enjoying himself behind the kit. I recommend that you catch these guys where you can.

The GALACTIC set started strong in quartet formation for Humidor and indicated that they came to play by kickin' in gear right off the bat. Ben "baba-ganosh" Ellman joins to add his soulful funky sax at the start of Doublewide and the groove keeps getting deeper, and deeper, funkier and funkier. The crowd was in full swing a mass of groovin smiling faces.

Houseman steps out in his sharp gold lamae suit and delivers an intoxicating reading of Thrill. The crowd responded wonderfully to Houseman, and that is a very good sign. He brings so much to stage with him. The Change was strong, Houseman's voice in excellent shape. Then one of the new tunes Vilified, which I mistaking thought was titled What's Inside. They did this tune in Asheville, which we listened to on the ride up from Louisville (THANKS CHAFFE!) , and I really like the lyric and the jam. Time to switch back to instrumental GALACTIC mode.

I have to mention the new electronic GALACTIC sound. It appears to me that the *ALL* the boys are using more effects on their sound. Of course Rich always was a mad scientist behind the keys, playing the moog and theramin (not recently), then Ben has been using certain effects on his saxophone, but I think Skerik has really turned these guys on to some of potential of envelope filters, loops, and other analog effects. Stanton has been using them and getting better all the time. But to these ears it seemed like Jeff was doing some new effects and even Rob "Big Mac" Mecurio appeared to use some new twists tonight.

Great instrumental run featuring some incredibly gritty jams by all the guys. Definitely an edgier GALACTIC this time out. I LIKE IT!

Houseman returns for a trio of tunes including the new One Action which also has good lyrics and good jam. The Love on the Run was impressive and the Century City seemed to feature some slight lyrical changes/ad libs.

Houseman and Ben leave for a the incredible Uno, Dose, Tres, Quatro culminating in a full blown Stanton solo, the whole band leaves the stage as the looping effects continue. The crowd goes wild and take a few moments before coming back for a 12-15 minute Bootlegger encore.

SETLIST My Little Humidor Doublewide > Doo Rag > Funkybird Thrill Change My Ways Reform Vilified (new Houseman tune) Blackeyed Pea Witchdoctor Sweetback Hit the Wall Metermaid Actin (new Houseman tune) Love on the Run Century City Uno, Dose, Tres, Quatro

Encore: Bootlegger

A Kimock-freak's take on Phil & Friends/Bob Dylan - sans Steve

Phil & Friends/Bob Dylan
Oct. 30, 1999 Milwaukee Arena Sunday; Oct. 31, 1999 UIC Pavilion

By John Barksdale

Blame it on Halloween, blame it on circumstances, but as this weekend of Phil & Friends/Bob Dylan shows got started, there sure seemed to be a lot of ghosts hanging around. As with any P&F show, there was the ghost of "music past." With the experimental, psychedelically experienced Phil Lesh leading a band of like-minded musicians in a review of classic Grateful Dead and related songs, one can't help but reminisce about the glory days when Jerry Garcia ruled this territory. But that was an expected ghost, even a welcome one, and with the infinitely creative Steve Kimock as Phil's "main man" on lead guitar, the music was fresh and alive in ways that far transcended the simple "Jerry-channeling" that might otherwise be feared. This weekend, however, was haunted by another ghost the ghost of Steve Kimock himself, who had unexpectedly quit the tour a day earlier. Now that was a more frightening proposition. A huge fan of Steve Kimock's, I had flown 2,000 miles to catch these shows. Now I wondered if they would have anywhere near the impact without him. I couldn't help but imagine the musical delights we'd be missing. Actually, I KNEW what we'd be missing, and that was the problem. I was haunted by the ghost of "music that could have been."

The odd thing, though, is that when I was able to lay my specific expectations aside, this turned out to be an exceptional musical weekend. Saturday night was rhythm night. And what a rhythm section it turned out to be. Billy Payne on keys and Paul Barrere on guitar worked perfectly with the core of Phil Lesh on bass and John Molo on percussion. Throughout the night the quartet created some extraordinarily energetic, often compelling music. However, with no lead guitarist, the jams occasionally seemed to lack purpose. (Paul gave it his all, but his real strength, I feel, is his rhythm playing, and I sensed at times he wished he could just stick with that himself.) And there I was, having dreamed for years about hearing Steve get down on some of my favorite GD songs (especially Playing in the Band!!), trying to focus on what was there, and not what wasn't.

The highlight for me was Dixie Chicken, which arrived, of all places, out of a spacey jam following Friend of the Devil. Billy and Paul understandably seemed to be more comfortable here, and the band, playing the song a little slower than the original Little Feat version, imbued the lyrics with a graceful momentum only hinted at on previous recordings, letting each verse build until the final chorus, a 10,000 voice strong: "Down in Dixieland!" By the end of the evening, after a rousing I Know You Rider and a beautiful Days Between, Phil seemed to have won the audience over to his side. The ultimate professional and his team, playing short-handed, now exhausted, relieved and ultimately, justifiably very happy with themselves, taking their bows to a roaring audience. Sunday night at the UIC-Pavilion in Chicago was a different story altogether. As the band came out, we noticed a fifth guy on the stage. Yeeha! They found someone. Then, before the lights even went down, those first notes of St. Stephen. Notes I have been waiting to hear live for 20 years of Deadheadedness. And, whoever the guitarist was, we could actually hear him, and he sounded great! The night before I commented to a fellow traveler that it was interesting to see, in this stripped down format, just how much of the Grateful Dead sound (the swing and the propulsion) Phil was responsible for, and also the limits of that contribution. Phil can certainly move the ball down the field (if you’ll excuse the football analogy this is Big 10 country after all!), but he still needs a finisher, someone to carry the ball across the line. That point was driven home on Sunday as Derek Trucks (Phil's newest "friend") nailed his solos in St. Stephen and took the ensuing jam sequences to fiery heights that had not been reached the night before. Despite the short notice, he didn't hesitate to stir things up and his playing brought a welcome and worthy focus to the evening's musical activities. Mountains of the Moon has been reworked and now has two or three powerful jam sections in it. Derek's slide seemed totally counter-intuitive in a song like this, but perhaps that's why it worked so well. A roaring bright campfire in the dark cool woods of the Mountains of the Moon. This fire was fanned a few times before Molo's drumming dropped us into Fat Man in the Bathtub. Fat Man was a great treat and featured an extended solo by the virtuosic, ever-inventive Billy Payne (as did Dixie Chicken the night before) and of course the great vocals of Paul Barrere. "All I want in this life of mine is some good clean fun!" The first jam sequence ended here, after almost exactly an hour, and it was clear the audience was loving it -- a contented, joyous bunch of music lovers getting their Halloween night's worth of sweet, sweet ear candy.

After this auspicious beginning, Phil & Friends kept the pressure up with an explosive Viola Lee Blues. After being slightly disappointed that the jam out of Stephen never fully materialized into The Eleven, I realized that Viola Lee was the tune I really wanted to hear anyway. And this one was a monster, with Derek Trucks leading the band up several intense peaks before collectively falling into a light groove that at first I thought was Broken Arrow, but which turned out to be Wolfman's Brother. This song got the warmest greeting from the crowd all weekend it seemed to me. A sign of the times, perhaps, but the welcome was justified. While I am not familiar with the original Phish version, this was a friendly puppy of a song, bounding out for some light-hearted play with the audience. Then the gleeful tail-end of the song wagged us into one more runaway jam. Higher and higher we were taken, climbing on a tidal wave of sheer ecstatic noise, before crashing finally back onto the grounding, rock solid groove of Viola Lee Blues. The wild abandon of Casey Jones seemed a fitting end to the set.

I almost said show, but of course there was more to come. For me, the Bob Dylan sets were icing on the cake both nights. I was there for Phil & Friends, who I had only been fortunate enough to catch once before, and I have seen Bob about a dozen times over the last 15 years. There's no doubt that Dylan is sounding better than ever, both in voice and in his guitar playing, but truth be told, his show hasn't changed all that much since the late 80s. Bob and two other guitarists, bass and drums. Some acoustic, some electric. Pretty similar set lists night after night, and fairly similar arrangements song to song. Which isn't to say the Dylan show does not have its own distinct pleasures. Bob gives a high energy performance, and is clearly pleased with his music these days, smiling and bouncing around the stage, taking a couple of choice harmonica solos, even picking lead a few times on his guitar. And the band can rock. The Highway 61 on Sunday night was so loud, and so intense, I couldn't help but feel that this is what he had in mind when he first plugged in 30 years ago! But with Dylan, the sustaining point of interest is the lyrics. Gems like Every Grain of Sand and It's Alright Ma on Saturday, and Mr. Tambourine Man and Simple Twist of Fate on Sunday served to send the mind on excursions at least as deep as those offered by Phil and his jam-focused friends.

Personally, as far as live concerts go, I'm more interested in Phil's brand of musical exploration on a consistent basis, but Dylan offered a perfect complement on these nights, a refreshing sun shower of words after the musical tempest. And what about the Steve Kimock jones? In the e-mail from my friend in Chicago informing me of Steve's departure, knowing full-well its likely effect on my desire to travel 2,000 miles for the show, he tugged at the heart strings with a communal, "We will survive." Indeed we did. And in fine fashion at that. The guys from Little Feat turned out to be an inspired choice, coalescing with Mr. Lesh into a dynamic rhythm machine in a matter of days. (It's a shame that Dylan's taping policy will likely make these shows hard to come by, if not impossible, because I would love to hear them again. Of all the P&F line-ups, I like this rhythm section the best -- especially as opposed to some of the competing lead guitar formats of the past.)

And yes, it would have been exhilarating to hear what Steve could have done speeding along on top of that machine (and all those great GD and Little Feat tunes!). But alas, it seems those days are over. We can mourn them, but we can't bring them back. We can only look forward. And take comfort in the fact that Phil is keeping this music alive in such interesting ways. Whether or not P&F continues after this tour, and whoever, if anyone, they find to fill the permanent lead guitar slot, on this weekend at least, we found we could survive without Steve, and even Jerry for that matter. Those ghosts were exorcised, however temporarily, on this Halloween night in Chicago.