This year's line-up for Hardly Strictly is the best yet. Many of our picks (we are in full family mode for this thing) are pretty darned obvious to those paying attention but for those needing a little guidance or are just curious, here goes:
SAT - It's pretty much a grab bag until 1:25 when Del McCoury plays the Banjo Stage, followed by Doc Watson, who is then followed by Earl Scruggs at 4:15... a trio of legends in a row that we can't miss!! But it gets tricky... Robert Earl Keen (w/ Danny Barnes on banjo) plays the Rooster Stage at 4:50, and Calexico plays a Los Super Seven set with Joe Ely, Ruben Ramos, et al beginninga at 5:15 on the Star Stage. Youch. And then it's Steve Earle back at the main stage. To see all of this, we have to miss Kelly Joe Phelps, Tim and Greg from Mother Hips, Hot Rize, Gillian Welch, Buddy Miller, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Brutal. But if all goes well we won't accidently hear Joan Baez.
SUN - We'll kick off Sunday morning at 11 for The Waybacks w/ Darol Anger at the main. Roam a bit, but back to the main stage for Tim O'Brien's 1:15 set featuring Mr. Danny Barnes in his band. He's followed by Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, who the past 2 years has totally astounded us. Another legend -- Ralph Stanley -- follows at 4:05 and then Emmylou Harris at 5:45. The Rooster Stage has some serious attractions... Dave Alvin, Joe Ely, and Steve Earle do a songwriters circle at 2:45 and Roseanne Cash is at 4:20. We'll catch her for a while, but then head over to see Dolly Parton at the Star Stage... cannot miss. Then to end it, it's gotta be Peter Rowan and Tony Rice over at the Arrow Stage at 5:45. Then we'd have to miss Emmylou, which we hate to do. Brutal choices!
There are 5 stages this year, so plans can change if the sound systems get crowded, but the main stage is looking mighty this year. Seeya in the park.
Well here's something you don't see everyday... a Danny Barnes torrent on etree! A soundboard, no less. It's the Danny Barnes Collective (Barnes ripping it up on elecric guitar, banjo, and samples, Brittany Haas on fiddle, the nefarious Mike Stone on drums, and Don McGreevy on bass) live from this summer's Pickathon up in Oregon.
01 Intro [0:50]
02 Sympathy For The Devil [8:58]
03 Things I Done Wrong [7:55]
04 Big Girl Blues [8:18]
05 Death Trip [7:39]
06 Lost Highway [4:14]
07 Life In The Country [5:25]
08 Face To Face [10:51]
Here's our review... set opens up with a space/devil jam to which Barnes lays down multiple samples and emerges as the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil". Oh yes, he does this song justice, complete w/ a bass solo on his banjo and the recognizable jam refrain at the end.
Barnes says "Thanks for happenin' to hear it", and immediately Stone kicks in the beat and the collective gets behind him for a funky, fulla-'tude version of "Things I Done Wrong," a great song from The Old Codgers days that apparently keeps getting longer. "Big Girl Blues" is from his new album... in this expanded version, Brittany (the wondergirl) shows us some sweet fiddle and Barnes gets in some cool licks on his electric guitar (something we never get to hear enough of).
"Death Trip" is the lone Bad Livers song of the day... just "another example of the big man trying to keep the little man down"... this version ROCKS!! Some might even say it gets a bit sick and twisted, like any worthwhile death trip oughtta, and concludes with a "Man of Constant Sorrow" teaser.
"Lost Highway" -- the Hank Williams classic -- follows in country/swing mode. "Life In The Country" is the superpicker of the set. Barnes then straps on his 'lectric for "Face to Face", which was our favorite from his Dirt On The Angel album and we have never heard it live. Only the mind of Barnes could go from a bluegrass hoedown of Life In The Country to the psychadelic, hard-edged intro of Face to Face, the tender balance of the song itself, and finally a sonic meltdown to end it all.
This is a great set for the un-initiated and Barnes freaks alike. Download the torrent while you can!! And don't forget to visit Danny's web site... he gives away mp3's there. See ya!
The Mother Hips -- STILL one of the greatest secrets in rock and roll -- just released a recent San Francisco show that contains a complete recital of Neil Young's classic album "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" plus a couple of bonus covers (Mr. Soul, Barstool Blues).
While most of the U.S. is sweltering this August, the SF Bay Area is swathed in fog. Thus, we get the blues.
Mississippi Fred McDowell is the new oldie favorite... we've been listening to his 1959 recordings of wicked country blues. Check out his version of "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning".
Leadbelly is in the house this summer, and "Bottle Up and Go" is the go-to song.
For the folks in the toastier states this summer, we recommend John Lee Hooker's "Burning Hell" album. In its entirety.
And finally, you don't need to know anything about him... what he looks like, how old (or young) he is... where he's been or who he's played with or his geneology... it will all be clear the second you hear Eric Bibb's delta blues. Go hear his podcast! And also look out for the song "Saucer 'n Cup".
The legendary Vassar Clements just died at the age of 77. Music lovers everywhere have crossed his path... after all, he did appear on over 2000 albums... from Old and In The Way and The Byrds to Johnny Cash and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band... from John Hartford to Paul McCartney.
Some folks call him the Miles Davis of bluegrass.
Well, that band up there keeps getting better all the time.
The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival rolls for its 5th year in San Francisco this October 1 and 2, 2005. I think this year's lineup is the best so far, and that is saying a lot, to put it extra mildly.
Imagine if you can... Del McCoury Band, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Dolly Parton, Ralph Flippin' Stanley, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Hot Rize, Tim O'Brien w/ Danny Barnes in his band, Robert Earl Keen, Peter Rowan, Gillian Welch, Doc Flippin' Watson, Dave Alvin, Joan Baez, and the list goes on and on...
All of this for flippin' free over two days at Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow. Book your hotels or whatever,,, and remember the Bay Bridge will be suffering ramp demolition this particular weekend.
* Sorry about all the extra "flippin'", but this is the coolest event in the world.
David Lindley played at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley recently, and we caught the first night. Mr. Dave's playing was astounding as ever, and it was a huge enough sound for us,,, but damn was he funny. Especially the new song "Hoffaburger", and the story about the cannon builder for Hunter S. Thompson's blowout sendoff. Also of note were stellar renderings of "Tijuana" and "National Holiday".
The picture above is not from this Berkeley show. It was in Sausalito a few Labor Days ago. Lindley and Wally Ingram performed the DEFINITIVE EPIC version of "Sport Utility Suck" complete with blood clots, Marin moms, road rage, and one very angry badger. Ever see what a badger does?
The Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson, Arizona is truly one of the most magnificent places in the world for music lovers. As local legend Al Perry would say, it's always a pleasure.
The folks in Europe are keen to the sonoran sounds, since that's where Tucson's finest tour during the summer. We've been paying attention to the extraordinary albums coming out of WaveLab studios the past 10 years or so... examples? Two enduring desert classics we'll mention are Giant Sand's "Chore of Enchantment" and Calexico's "The Black Light." Or try Richard Buckner's "Devotion and Doubt", which is really about the Ozarks but is classic WaveLab.
The Old Pueblo is an inventive atmosphere. Calexico is at it again right now at WaveLab Studios, laying it down on giant reels of tape. We saw Howe Gelb, the esteemed instigator of high desert goth, who records constantly and plays locally. Desert surf (dry country?) is alive and well in the personage of the immeasurable Al Perry. Hip hop is flourishing here too. With the low overhead, Tucson certainly is a place where bands and artists can prosper once their work is worthy of export.
So on a recent Saturday night we were staying in our favorite room at the Hotel Congress and the headliner -- Low -- cancelled w/ hours to spare. There was a scramble for talent. They conjured up a fine assortment, beginning with an older country gentleman with a guitar who had never played a nightclub before and delighted everybody w/ some Hank.
I must describe this "regular" crowd -- core of the congress -- call it w i d e s c r e e n incarnate! There are literally people with horns. 2 horns, right there on the head. And allow me to mention the fine ladies in tantalizing desert goth garb. It goes on from there, but everybody was as friendly as can be. It was the perfect setup for a From Dusk Til Dawn moment.
The oddest character in the bunch was this short, bearded hippy dude walking around w/ a bottle of Bud, seemingly alert to all goings on, but he couldn't move his head. Not from side to side, forward or back, or up or down. When he took a swill of beer, he sorta swung his arm up from the elbo injecting the beer into the upper end of suddenly slanting inflexible form. In order to peer around, he had to turn his entire body.
In time, a new band is sets up and he's up there setting up guitar and mics, only distracted by regular full-body swigs of Bud. And I'm thinking all along he's setting up for some other crazy character yet to make it down from his mountain hide-away or whatever.
The set starts and he's in the middle and he's playing guitar and he starts to sing and if it wasn't one of the most damned amazing voices I've ever heard. Make me throw out a name, I'll say Van the Man because of true white blues delivery. He sang some of the most soulful music I've heard in ages (aside from Al Green!!)
I knew it was a great moment, at least for me. The Hotel Congress crowd was basking in it, and you get the feeling this happens often. With room to move. In an establishment like this, music really means the most to people.
We brought back home Al Perry's latest Always A Pleasure. There are some gems here! The new version of "Dreaming" with the trumpets is an amazing song, and the closer "We Got Cactus" gets a lot of play in THIS house (in Coastal Cali). "99 Pairs of Shoes" and the instrumentals please us a lot too. Let's call it thoughtfully restrained country surf punk, w/ bursts of killicaster.
Seeking some spur-of-the-moment music therapy, went to the Berkeley Community Theatre to see Phil Lesh and Friends and some assorted warm-up acts. Mostly, I'm a Wavy Gravy fan and I like to support Camp Winarainbow and SEVA.
Phil's new quintet features Al Schnier (from moe.) and Barry Sless on guitar, somebody named Mookie on keys and the usual Molo on drums. The Jerry Girls also contributed some background vocals and even led on Aretha Franklin's "Think". Phil has the band more bass-driven then ever,,, to the point where everybody is playing behind him. The opening Help On The Way > Slipknot! was as fierce as any I've heard played, but the Franklin's Tower came down a notch. And so it goes with the last of the remaining jambands.
Ben Harper gave a surprise solo set. Hot Buttered Rum String Band made a good showing. Corinne West is really the one to watch... Sless is in her East Bay band, along w/ a standup bass and accordian. Her songs were the best of the night, and she's a very strong singer who doesn't over-sing. None of that vocal gymnastic B.S.
A theme through the night was the unnecessary second guitar. It started w/ Emory Joseph (god-awful) and continued when somebody accompanied Ben Harper. And during the Phil set, so many times we couldn't tell which was Barry and which was Al. During our nightcap at Becket's, we finally heard a nice sonic spread of 2 guitars from a local bar band.
The assigned-seat theatre genuinely went nuts for the entire Phil set. My buddy who went with me had never been to anything remotely "Dead" and at one point I had to say: it really is like a Dead Show. Spinners and all. Here's the setlist...
Help on the Way> (blazing...)
Slipknot!> (still blazing...)
Franklin's Tower (tedium)
China Cat Sunflower (trippin')
Uncle John's Band (ho-hum)
Alligator (nailed it!)
Mexico (moe song)
Broken Arrow
Think (the Jerry Girls)
The Wheel (monster pedal steel)
Viola Lee Blues
E: Turn On Your Lovelight (w/ 17 people onstage, a total mess)
Piano legend and St. Louisan Johnny Johnson just passed away. Johnny Johnson was the guy who gave Chuck Berry a job and was the subject of Chuck's classic "Johnny B. Goode". Johnny will always be the quintessential rock-and-roll piano player. This was not lost on subsequent generations... he was on the staff of Bob Weir's Ratdog for a while and occasionally sat in with The Dead. He lived to a ripe old age, but he will be sorely missed by musicheads everywhere.
