Archive for the 'Music' Category

07-05-2008

Did Pearl Jam kill taping?

Last night, I went to see Blues Traveler. A week ago, I was at Widespread Panic. What I noticed, aside from the fact that the audience never really seems to age, is the diminishing size of the taper sections at both shows. Five years ago, the taping section at Panic was 5-6 rows deep. Last week, there was one row of tapers.

I have a theory that Pearl Jam unintentionally destroyed taping as it used to be. I love Pearl Jam, and they always said they were fine with audience taping. Then they started their bootleg series, where they record EVERY show on a tour and release it, in full glory. These releases sound fantastic. They are soundboards with some audience thrown in. Each date costs about $15.

Shortly after Pearl Jam embarked on this epic project, bands in the jam community started doing it too. When the surviving members of the Grateful Dead reunited in 2003, they offered the entire tour up for sale. String Cheese Incident and Widespread Panic soon did the same. Now, if I want a Panic show, for $15 I can get a perfect copy. I’ve noticed that since around 2005, trading is down and the number of tapers is reduced.

In a way, it makes sense. Why lug all that gear around, deal with drunk people who may fall into it or spill beer on it, rain threatening to short it all out etc., when for $15 you can just buy a better copy than you can make?

Nevertheless, I miss the taping community. It was always so welcoming, and there is something great about hearing a true audience recording. While the quality doesn’t match the official releases, there is something electric that is captured on those recording, a palpable audience community releasing joy at hearing their favorite songs played live and in the moment.

To all my fellow tapers, we’ll see you at some future gig. May we never disappear!

Posted by Candace in Music | No Comments »

08-02-2006

RockyGrass

The last weekend in July Planet Bluegrass held their annual RockyGrass festival. I have attended this festival every year except one since 1998. Sometimes I go for the whole weekend, although recently I have attended one or two days. This year, my musical enjoyment was limited to Sunday.

RockyGrass is one of my favorite events of the year. The festival is held in Lyons, a sleepy little town about 20 miles north of Boulder tucked up against the foothills. If you’ve gone up to Estes Park, chances are you’ve driven through it. Lyons is quite a pretty little town with an artsy vibe that is enhanced by Planet Bluegrass, which hosts not only RockyGrass, but the Folks Festival and Festival of the Mabon on the Planet Grounds just outside the main strip of town.

The Planet Grounds are quite beautiful. There is a nice stage at one end. On one side of the grounds, the North St. Vrain river runs, providing a perfect place to wade or swim and cool off when needed. There are a variety of clothing and crafts vendors, and every year the same food vendors come back to provide good eats. I usually like the veggie dumplings from the Asian cafe, and the ice cream provided by the Lyons soda place.

My husband and I drove up to Lyons early, getting there about 10:20, just after the crowd was let in the festival grounds. He dropped me off with the taping gear, and I went in to say set up the gear and say hi to some old friends like Rob, Jerry, John, Mark, Brian and others. Many of these tapers are at the Planet every year.

After getting the gear set up, I went to the backstage area to sit and relax a little. The first set of the day was a gospel set from Blue Highway, followed by an interesting Celtic-tinged set from Boulder’s Abigail Washburn. Washburn was accompanied by a fiddle and a cello, the latter adding a deep rich texture to her melodies.

The first “star” of the day was Darrell Scott, one of the best songwriters in Nashville. Scott’s songs are quite famous, even if he isn’t. The Dixie Chicks covered his “Long Time Gone” and turned it into a hit, while one of the best “happy” songs ever, “Great Day to Be Alive,” was a hit for Travis Tritt. Scott played a lot of newer material, including some covers from an upcoming covers collection of some of Scott’s favorite songwriters, like Dylan. One of the most interesting of these was a very uptempo version of Joni Mitchell’s “Urge for Going.” While it was solid, there was something a little off about it. “Urge” I think works best in the slow, mournful style Joni wrote it in, as the song is a paen to summer, sung by someone sitting by her window in the fall looking at the newly bare trees. Scott, accompanied by several world-class musicians, including e-Town host and Hot Rize member Nick Forster, pushed the tempo a little towards the happy side of the spectrum. Scott’s set ended with “Great Day to be Alive,” a fitting song to hear played on a beautiful, if too hot, cloudless day at the Planet.

After a crazy set from the Wilders, the first of the three closers came on. Listening to Tim O’Brien sing is always a treat. In fact, as I listened to him play mandolin on “Land’s End,” a song of his popularized by Boulder’s String Cheese Incident, I realized that to me, O’Brien is the best of his generation in bluegrass and folk music. He has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve heard, and he is adept on so many instruments, whether it is guitar, fiddle, mandolin or bouzouki. What truly sets O’Brien apart from someone like Sam Bush, who is also a fearsomely adept player, is his songwriting. O’Brien writes timeless melodies that effortlessly weave together a tapestry of his influences, from old Irish fiddle songs to the Appalachian sounds of his childhood West Virginia home to the blues and rock of current American pop music. Whether singing a dirge about a ship at sea like “Fiddler’s Green” or the funk-tinged gospel of “Moses,” O’Brien’s voice soars over complex instrumental arrangements that manage to sound both young and old at the same time. O’Brien is also unafraid to speak out on his political beliefs, singing a song called “Republican Blues” whose hilarity came through even if you are a Republican (though I’m not.) The song brought many in the crowd to their feet. O’Brien ended his set with a super-charged version of “Tombstone Blues,” a version of which can be found on his CD of Dylan songs “Red on Blonde.”

Following O’Brien, who represents the 70s and 80s generation, we were privileged to hear a true legend, the 82-year old Earl Scruggs. Scruggs, along with Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt, was one of the earliest to popularize bluegrass. His invention of the three-fingered roll revolutionized banjo and made it a mandatory part of most bluegrass music in the 50s and 60s. In addition, unlike his contemporaries Flatt and Monroe, Scruggs was unafraid to tackle contemporary folk and rock in his playing; he was one of the first to bring rock-style tunes from the likes of Dylan to the bluegrass audience. Scruggs is also justly famous for two compositions, “The Ballad of Jed Clampett,” which was used as the theme to the TV show Beverly Hillbillies, and “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” the latter of which was the theme in the 60s movie “Bonnie and Clyde.” Scruggs has slowed a little, and you could tell his old fingers weren’t quite as nimble as they used to be, but when his band started the famous “Earl’s Breakdown” and Scruggs started doing his tuning key trick, none of it mattered. Scruggs was content to let his band take center stage for much of his set, providing seamless backup. Sam Bush joined in for much of the set. As the last notes of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” faded and Scruggs left the stage, the audience stood and enthusiastically cheered, paying homage to someone who virtually invented the music we were listening to that day.

As it has often in recent years, RockyGrass ended with a set from the Sam Bush Bluegrass Band. Sam only plays this all-bluegrass set at RockyGrass. Bush’s near 2-hour set included several tunes from his latest CD, “Laps in Seven,” including a great “Riding that Bluegrass Train.” Bush also played many old favorites, like “Howling at the Moon.” When Bush first picked up the fiddle and started a long solo that wended into John Hartford’s “With a Vamp in the Middle,” you could almost sense Hartford’s spirit smiling down in approval.

Bush loves to do a “cluster pluck” on his encores, and this year was no different, as he brought out Tim O’Brien, Bryan Sutton (flatpicker extraordinaire), Jeff Austin, Rob Ickes, Casey Driessen, and others for a 2-song encore that included a funk-tinged song whose name I can’t remember and “Nine Pound Hammer” to end the show. On the latter, Bush acted as orchestra master, directing everyone on when to step up and solo.

RockyGrass 2006 was a wonderful experience, and as always going to the Planet is a treat. I’ll hopefully see some of you up there in two weeks for Folks!

Posted by Candace in Music | No Comments »

07-24-2006

Widespread Panic at Winter Park

It’s an indicator of how lacking a concert is when you turn to someone late in the second set and say, “It’s probably a bad thing when the highlight of the show has been the guest artist.”

The days of me catching multiple runs by the same band seem to be coming to a close. With the exception of the Cowboy Junkies, I can’t think of any band I really want to travel to see anymore. While going to multiple shows is fun, the magic for many of them doesn’t seem to be there anymore.

Exhibit A for this is Widespread Panic. Since the great Michael Houser passed away, Widespread has been missing its “Panic” as it were. The band is more inconsistent. Try as he might, George McConnell is too inconsistent a guitarist to really hold down the lead slot for the band.

Widespread brought its late summer tour to Winter Park ski area for two nights this past weekend. Usually, their late summer shows in Colorado came in August; having them so soon after Red Rocks meant my funds were a little more limited, so I could only catch one night of what used to be my favorite band. I think I may have picked the wrong night, going Sunday instead of Saturday.

The setting was beautiful. It seemed a little strange to look up at the familiar hillside and see it devoid of snow. Soon the white will be coming back though, and my season pass will be put to good use. I love skiing at Winter Park. It’s my favorite Front Range area, and second favorite in Colorado to Crested Butte. The best part of Winter Park is Mary Jane of course.

Back to WP at WP. The band took the stage a little after 4 and opened with a strong “Conrad,” which boded well. However, the rest of the set was ho-hum. The song selection was OK, although “Counting Train Cars” can’t be retired from the lineup soon enough for me, and I don’t particularly care for “Tortured Artist.” The energy just seemed lacking.

Part of this may come from the dual lead guitarists. This summer, longtime Panic producer John Keane joined the band and has shared lead guitar duties with McConnell. All sorts of rumors have been percolating this summer. The latest one says McConnell has carpal tunnel syndrome and will be leaving the band later this year, to be replaced with longtime Panic guitar tech Sam Holt.

If this turns out to be true, it will certainly be a jolt for the band; I’ve felt Sam should be the replacement for Mikey ever since I saw him play in the second set of the second night of the Fiddler’s Green shows in 2002, right after Mikey died.

Until it is official, it will remain in the speculatory world. However, whether or not the rumors are true, having Keane onstage proves a distraction for McConnell. McConnell is already competing with the ghost of Houser; having a second lead guitarist competing for a small amount of musical space can’t be good for his confidence or his playing.

“Heroes” and “Bayou Lena” sent me towards the concessions to get some food and energy so I wouldn’t nod off. Even “Jack” failed to sparkle. It seemed as if the band was tired. Perhaps the altitude was affecting them, although if that was the case it should have done so more on Saturday, which by all accounts in the taper section was a stronger set. Set 1 ended with an upbeat “Walkin.”

Given how lackluster set 1 was, set 2 could only go up. The threatening skies never broke during setbreak, and the sun peaked out again during the opening “Papa Legba.” “Papa Johnny Road” was solid, and George finally got a chance to shine with a very nice solo on “Party at Your Mama’s House.” The last two songs into drums, “Contentment Blues” and “Imitation Leather Shoes,” were both pretty good.

Drums lasted far too long for my tastes. While I prefer the drum solos of Panic to anything the Dead ever did, I still think 15 minutes of drums is TOO MUCH DRUMS! Normally, a “Me and the Devil” out of drums would have me hopping, but again it seemed subdued, as did the following “None of Us are Free.”

Panic finally got a well-needed jolt of lightning when Jerry Joseph came out and rocked into “Road to Damascus.” Before second set had started, we had been talking about the possibility of Jerry coming out for second set and what he might play, and I turned to Harrison and said, “I’m hoping for a Road to Damascus.” Jerry didn’t disappoint, and Panic finally lit up like they are capable of, as they did on the closing “Chainsaw City.”

First encore was “Don’t be Denied.” While Panic has made a very concerted effort to put George front and center as the guitarist (case in point: releasing three live CDs with George and none with Mikey during the hiatus in 2004), it was clear during “Denied” that Mikey’s spirit hovers over the band and they haven’t quite come to terms with the direction they want to take post-Mikey. When JB sang, “Pretty soon I met a friend, who played guitar, We’d sit on the steps at school, and dream of being stars, We started a band, played all night,” a roar went up from the crowd. Mikey stickers and pictures were in strong evidence throughout the crowd. While George is a capable guitarist, he is not a good fit for Panic, and it might time for them to go in a new direction again.

The show closed with a relatively low energy version of “Traveling Light.”

While it was good to get out to such a beautiful location and see lots of good friends who I’ve met over the years at Panic shows, the music just wasn’t there. Here’s hoping that a rest in August will bring them out firing on all cylinders in the fall, and perhaps the guitarist situation will resolve itself.

Posted by Candace in Music | No Comments »