The 10th annual Mountain Jam festival wrapped up at Hunter Mountain, New York this past weekend. Throughout the four days there were numerous spontaneous sit-ins and even more memorable festivals sets which embodied the spirit of this smaller but stellar festival in upstate New York. Here are some of the highlights…
1. The Avett Brothers and Bob Weir
In what was one of the biggest surprise sit-ins, Scott Avett welcomed Bob Weir onto the stage mid-set for some classic tunes. They covered the 1964 hit “The Race Is On “by George Jones (also covered by the Grateful Dead on their 1981 Live album Reckoning). Weir also joined in for “Go to Sleep” from 2007’s Emotionalism. From their classic “I and Love and You” to the hard rocking “Pretty girl from Chile” (some with rocking electric guitars), The Avett Brothers’ act was born for the festival setting due to their high-energy, warm-hearted fusion of folk, bluegrass and rock, that had fans involved.
2. Rat Dog
With the revival of Rat Dog, Bob Weir and company took the stage Friday night complete with surprises and four hours of music and energy. The band opened up with “The Music Never Stopped” and closed with “Johnny B. Good.” The highlight was the sit in with Jonathan Wilson for “West L. A. Fadeaway” and the Roy Hamilton cover of “Don’t Let Go”. Warrren Haynes sat in on an epic version of ‘Dark Star,’ wich began with a twisty jam that continued to grow and unfold into space.
3. Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds
They killed it at their afternoon set as Arleigh Kincheloe (Sister Sparrow) proved why she has one of the biggest voices in rock and soul. She and the band blistered through an energetic, rocking set and closed with a cover of Led Zeppelins “Rock N Roll”. In an interview Phil Rodriquez the bands trumpet player said, “We were definitely feeding off the crowds amazing energy, which made it a really fun set”. The band played a lot of newer unreleased material including “Sugar”, “Don’t be Jealous”, “We Need a Love” and “Borderline.”
4. Chris Robinson & The Brotherhood
Featuring a traditional mix of covers and originals, the band kicked off by letting loose on the traditional cover of “Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go.” Robinson worked the stage in true late 60’s swanky lead singer fashion working his hippy dance moves as his band proved as adept at carrying his vocals as his other big outfit. Covers of Bob Dylan’s “Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood) , “I Ain’t Hiding (Black Crowes) and the popular” Rosalee” were all stingers as well.
5. The Tedeschi Trucks Band
The 11 piece band led by husband/wife team Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks are Grammy Winners and soon-to be festival headliners, who feast on emotional guitar jams and soulful vocals that weave through emotional layers. Tedesci is a unique blues/rock singer and Trucks compliments here perfectly with his brilliant slide guitar work. Tedeschi and Trucks returned to the stage to sit in with Gov’t Mule on Rufus and Chaka Khan’s 1974 smash ‘Tell Me Something Good.’
6. Gov’t Mule Covering Radiohead
Gov’t mule closed headlined the Saturday night set. They have played every Mountain Jam since its inception (this is a Warren Haynes festival). During the second set, Mule busted out a great rocking rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” with two blistering solos (both completely different) from Haynes. The encore featured three Doors covers, ‘People Are Strange,’ ‘Five to One,’ and ‘Break on Through,’ that helped ad more color and diversity to the set.
7. Jeff Tweedy Saturday Afternoon Set
Without knowing what to expect from Tweedy’s solo set, the Wilco front man gave a preview of what is to come of his upcoming solo album release Sukierae, due out in September. The songs, (12 in total) displayed slow tempo folk acoustic songs aside from the riveting ”Diamond Light” and the upbeat “Summer Noon”. Tweedy was backed by his friends and family band which included his son Spencer. After debuting the new material, Tweedy dusted off some Wilco and Uncle Tupelo favorites with versions of “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart,” “New Madrid,” “California Stars” and “Jesus, etc.”
8. Jay Blakesberg
It’s always nice to showcase other forms of art at a music festival and in this case it is celebrity photographer Jay Blakesberg. Jay spoke of stories of photographing everyone from the Grateful Dead to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young, Dave Matthews and others. It’s always interesting (if not as much as looking at the art itself) to hear how the photo happened.
9. Pretty Lights Late Night Show
Extra “Pretty Lights Only” tickets were sold for this show, which made it extremely crowed and crazy. It’s always interesting seeing the now mainstream Pretty Lights, especially after Gov’t Mule set the vibe completely and changed the show to an EDM Scene, with psychedelic colors and a spectacular laser show that ran till 1:15 am.
10. Warren Haynes
We all knew Haynes would sit in with various artists but we didn’t exactly know with whom and when. Gov’t Mule wasn’t set to take the stage until Saturday but Haynes was on the stage every day, starting with playing with Umphrey’s McGee Thursday on “Thin Air;” Friday appearing with Moon Taxi for their song “Cabaret,” while displaying some slick guitar tradeoffs with Taxi guitarist Spencer Thomson. Later that night Warren jumped in with and Bob Weir & Rat Dog to perform “Playing in the Band>Dark Star and the encore “Johnny B. Good.” Saturday Warren played with LA’s Jonathan Wilsons afternoon set before hitting the stage with Gov’t Mule. Sunday brought a sit in with Mountain Jam staple Michael Franti onstage before playing one of his final shows a member of The Allman Brothers Band.
One Response
I don’t know guys, those shows were all hot fire, for sure; but leaving out Moon Taxi’s set — both that which including Warren, and that which didn’t — and not mentioning Jackie Greene’s late night gig seems kind of blasphemous! Good article!
😀 😛