Posts by DaveO

One of the most common discussions amongst rabid Phish fans when they looked back at a successful 2009 touring season was: When is Phish going to refresh their cover repertoire? Last year, new covers were hard to come by while the old standbys: Rock & Roll, Loving Cup, Boogie On Reggae Woman, A Day In […]

This edition includes a sexy video montage of Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. Now that I have your attention, please also enjoy a fantastic meeting of the minds featuring the Marco Benevento Trio & Steve Kimock, the mellower but still driving side of Perpetual Groove, and Page McConnell’s most recent songwriting contribution to the always expanding Phish repertoire.

[Thanks to krsb for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals – 2:22, White Rabbit
Date & Venue: 2010-06-19 Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, OH
Taper & Show Download: jt/ny

This band has been covering White Rabbit for a while now, I keep seeing it on setlists but I hadn’t yet given it a listen until now. It’s everything you think it will be including some tastefully used vocal effects. Preceeding the Jefferson Airplane classic is one of Grace’s tunes from her first studio album Nothing But The Water. Grace Potter & The Nocturnals play tonight at Minglewood Hall in Memphis, TN.

A video montage from their recent gig in

READ ON for tracks from Marco & Steve Kimock, PGroove and Phish…

The year was 1999 and it had been a good five years since the last major release of a Tom Waits album before the critically acclaimed Mule Variations hit the store shelves. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of allmusic says this of the album,

Waits is still writing terrific songs and matching them with wildly evocative productions; furthermore, it’s his lightest record in years — it’s actually fun to listen to, even with a murder ballad here and a psycho blues there. In that sense, it’s a unique item in his post-Swordfish catalog, and that may make up for it not being the masterpiece it seemed like it could have been.

The Contestants:

This rendition from Ekoostik Hookah was recorded at Magic Bag in Ferndale, MI on 12-14-2001.

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

It’s been six months since I was able to browse through Phish tapes for Last Week’s Sauce. Even with the LivePhish SBD’s sounding better than ever thanks to a new engineer working on the recording, we still enjoy a good AUD tape. Brings me back to a time when SBD’s were rare, even non-existent, for entire tours at a time. Fans were thankful to grab a quality recording and it sure seems like this led to us being a lot less critical of everything related to the shows. But Phish is just one of five bands featured this week, we’ve got some tapes from Bonnaroo and some other goodies for you as well.

[Thanks to JBanyai97 for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: Michael Franti & Spearhead – Yell Fire, Hey Hey Hey
Date & Venue: 2010-06-12 Minglewood Hall – Memphis, TN
Taper & Show Download: Tim DiScenza

This is a tape from Tennessee but surprisingly not from Bonnaroo. I guess Superfly allowed Franti to play a gig in Memphis in addition to Bonnaroo, who knew? I don’t have an official How You Feeling/I Wanna See You Jumping count, but I can tell you there are at least three just IN BETWEEN the two songs. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a lot of love for Franti, I watched his webcast from Mountain Jam two weekends ago and was reminded just what command he has over a festival audience. Michael Franti & Spearhead play two shows on June 20th at Yoga Tree Casino in San Francisco.

A video from Bonnaroo, Franti apparently really likes Alabama:

READ ON for tracks from Phish, Tortoise, and Umphrey’s McGee…

I had two options for this week’s piece. I could do what I normally do – create as diverse a list of artists as possible or I could just say fuck it and make this one all about Warren Haynes. I have gone with the latter. What we have here is audio from four different sets at this past weekend’s Mountain Jam all of which feature Haynes on every track. Next week we will return to our regularly scheduled programming, this week – it’s all about Warren.

[Thanks to edtyre for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band – Coming Home
Date & Venue: 2010-06-05 Mountain Jam – Hunter, NY
Taper & Show Download: edtyre

This band has two sets of brothers: Derek & Duane Trucks and Oteil and Kofi Burbridge. Add Nigel Hall and Susan Tedeschi and it’s a pretty ridiculous lineup. Warren joined the band for the Delaney & Bonnie classic Coming Home. The Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi band next play July 2nd at the Cape Cod Melody Tent.

And there is video:

READ ON for tracks from Gov’t Mule, Les Claypool, and Levon Helm…

Crimson and Clover is the title track from a 1968 album by Tommy James & the Shondells. Most interesting in this week’s covers is how the artists tackle the outro section, which on the original recording features vocals run through a guitar amplifier with a heavy dose of tremolo. Also of note, the album version of Crimson & Clover clocks in at almost five and a half minutes. Somewhat surprisingly, only one of the covers surpasses that length.

The Contestants:

Broken Bells, which features James Mercer of The Shins on Guitar & Vocals and Dangermouse on Drums, is on tour supporting their self-titled album and are working in a couple of well-selected covers. In addition to Crimson and Clover, which they do a great job with, they are also playing the 1962 hit by The Miracles You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me.

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

In the world of live music, you may as well call Memorial Day Weekend the official opening of Festival Season. With our glance back at the previous week via audio and video we will be featuring tracks from Delfest in Maryland, Colorado’s Bisco Inferno, Furthur Festival in California, and Summercamp which hails from Chillicothe, IL.

[Thanks to willndmb for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: David Grisman Bluegrass Experience – Dog Bite Your Hide, Down in the Willow Garden, I’ll Love Nobody But You
Date & Venue: 2010-05-30 Delfest – Cumberland, MD
Taper & Show Download: Timothy Brown

Not to be confused with the David Grisman Quintet, this lineup featured: David Grisman (mandolin & vocals), Keith Little (banjo, guitar & vocals), Jim Nunally (guitar & vocals), Chad Manning (fiddle), and Samson Grisman (bass). In addition to that, the ensemble welcomed three different McCoury’s and Darol Anger during their lively set. The three tunes selected for the audio all feature Del McCoury, for whom the festival is named. The David Grisman Quintet next plays June 18th at Napa Opera House in Napa, CA.

Video from the set with guests Darol Anger plus Del & Ronnie McCoury:

READ ON for tracks from the Disco Biscuits, Furthur, and Gov’t Mule…

Last week, our guest Cover Wars author Andy Kahn mentioned that many people incorrectly think that Jeff Buckley penned Hallelujah when in fact it is the work of Leonard Cohen. Similarly this week, I’m sure there are a large number of people who think The Band wrote Don’t Do It when in fact it was originally recorded by Marvin Gaye in 1964. Alright, I’ll admit it – I was one of those people until somewhat recently. This song was written by the legendary songwriting team of Holland–Dozier–Holland, more on them later.

The Contestants:

The Band released this under the name of simply Don’t Do It, not exactly sure why they dropped the “Baby Don’t You”, maybe one of our readers knows. This was first released on the live album Rock of Ages which was recorded during the last four days of 1971. Don’t Do it was also on the live release The Last Waltz recorded in 1976. A studio version was released by way of a bonus track for the 2000 Deluxe Edition of Cahoots, an album by The Band from 1971. Source: Rock Of Ages

Happy Thanksgiving. The encore from The Last Waltz:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

It’s mostly a Rock & Roll recap here at Last Week’s Sauce. Notably, three of the bands (Blues Traveler, Pearl Jam, and Ween) all had their major studio debuts within one year of each other in 1990-1991. We round things out from the likes of jamband supergroup 30db covering Wilco and Keller Williams collaborating with his friends The Keels.

[Thanks to DATBRAD for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: 30db – Handshake Drugs
Date & Venue: 2010-05-22 Berbati’s Pan – Portland, OR
Taper & Show Download: Mark Burgin

In the first edition of Last Week’s Sauce of the month we led off with a couple of tracks from 30db, which would normally mean I would ignore any new tapes that popped up. But a cover of Wilco’s Handshake Drugs is the type of thing we make exceptions for. Brendan Bayliss takes lead vocals on this one just a few months after Umphrey’s McGee debuted their cover of Wilco’s I Am Trying To Break Your Heart on Valentine’s Day. For the time being the full-band 30db gigs have past, but there is still one more chance to see Brendan Bayliss & Jeff Austin play the tunes from One Man Show: Thursday night at Summer Camp at 8pm at the Campfire stage.

30db rips through The Beatles Don’t Let Me Down at The Fox in Boulder:

READ ON for tracks from Blues Traveler, Keller Williams & The Keels, Pearl Jam, and Ween…

More than half of this week’s selections come from the first Hangout Beach, Music, and Arts Festival in Gulf Shores, AL. The reviews coming in from those in attendance have been overwhelmingly positive and many more had the luxury of watching many of the headliners live, or almost live, via a free iClips webcast. Beyond the jambands featured from Hangout Fest, we round out our selections with two very different piano-playing-frontmen.

[Thanks to DATBRAD for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: Ben Folds – Annie Waits, My Philosophy, Such Great Heights
Date & Venue: 2010-05-16 The Warfield – San Francisco, CA
Taper & Show Download: star curtain

Picking three tunes from the Ben Folds concert was easy, well the categories were easy anyway. One solo tune, one Ben Folds Five tune, and one cover of The Postal Service. This is very crisp sounding tape, fans of his should definitely add this show to their collection. Ben Folds next performs July 17th with the Utah Symphony as part of the Deer Valley Music Festival.

From the same show, Ben riffs on Heaven On Their Minds from the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar

READ ON for tracks from the likes of The Black Crowes, Gov’t Mule, Marco Benevento, and Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB…

While Femme Fatale, which appears on 1967’s The Velvet Underground & Nico, is written about Edie Sedgwick – feel free to think about your favorite Femme Fatale as you listen to this week’s covers. Maybe it’s even someone in your life, has anyone written you down as #37 in her book?

The Contestants:

Beck: Last Summer, Beck announced his Record Club project where he would bring in guest musicians and record entire album covers in one day. The first album they did was The Velvet Underground & Nico. He has since also recorded: Songs of Leonard Cohen, Skip Spence’s Oar, and they are currently still posting new tracks from INXS’s Kick every Thursday. Source: Record Club

Video of the recording of Record Club:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

As I always say, I’m at the mercy of what tapes are available when I put this piece together, and I had a great selection to choose from this time around especially when tapes popped up of rarely recorded acts like Iron & Wine & Local Natives. But don’t you worry, Hidden Track isn’t forgetting where we came from – we’ve got the likes of Tim Palmieri, Todd Stoops & Jennifer Hartswick to contribute a jammed out cover of Billy Cobham’s Red Baron.

[Thanks to GDfan for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: 30db – The Good Times Are Killing Me, Liar
Date & Venue: 2010-05-07 Barrymore Theater – Madison, WI
Taper & Show Download: soling

Well it only took about four years, but Brendan Bayliss & Jeff Austin have finally released their studio album. The selected audio features a Modest Mouse cover and one of Brendan’s contributions to the album. I cut out some banter in between the tracks, there was some nonsense in there about maple syrup, download the show if you want to hear it. 30db next plays May 19th at the Fox Theatre in Boulder.

And here they are playing Used To Love Her by Guns ‘N Roses, did these guys go through messy divorces or something?

READ ON for tracks from the likes of Dr. Dog and Wyllys w/Kung Fu…

Though Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 release Willy And The Poor Boys is best known for hits Down On The Corner & Fortunate Son, the album closes with Effigy – its longest track clocking in at almost 6:30. With it being a relatively obscure CCR tune, we’ve only got four covers this week.

The Contestants:

Band of Horses: Leading off this week we’ve got Band of Horses who will release their third studio album Infinite Arms a week from today. Lead vocalist Ben Bridwell has a great voice for this cover, be sure to also check out their cover of Ron Wood’s Act Together.

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Back on April 24th, Umphrey’s McGee brought the worlds of music and sports closer together at the inaugural UMBowl at Lincoln Hall in Chicago. The Chicago-based sextet treated the crowd at the intimate venue to four separate “quarters” each with a different theme. I was in attendance and want to share 10 memorable moments from UMBowl for this week’s B List…

10. Dub Wife Soup

Q3 was all request. Well, all request, but the options were limited to a drop-down list of selections chosen by the band. But the options were quite good and the picks that got the most votes were for the most part the most deserving. Wife Soup has been in the repertoire since 2003 and has gone through a number of changes over the past couple of years. Most of the time the band has been ditching the tune’s originally jazzy intro and instead starting with the opening guitar licks. The song is often left unfinished in recent plays leading to free-form improvisation at the tail end where the second chorus would normally go. Another variation is at times they sing the a capella “album ending.”

At UMBowl not only did they perform a brand new “dub” version, but it was also nicely jammed out AND included the album ending. The casual UM fan maybe wouldn’t realize that the album ending was played, but those that would notice something like that were surely in attendance or at least paid to watch along on iClips.

[All photos by Tammy Wetzel except where noted]

READ ON for nine more memorable UMBowl moments…

We must be approaching festival season because the next gigs for three of the five bands in this week’s piece are at festivals. We’ve got a healthy dose of Grateful Dead this week with segments from both Burlington’s Dead Sessions and Zen Tricksters. We’ve also got a tune from RAQ’s return as well as Jim James lending some lead vocals to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and a new My Morning Jacket tune that does not feature James on lead vocals.

[Thanks to AHappyHourHero for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you.

Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: Dead Sessions – The Music Never Stopped > Sugaree > The Music Never Stopped
Date & Venue: 2010-04-30 Higher Ground – South Burlington, VT
Taper & Show Download: Shiva Ho

HT Contributor Wade Wilby let me know that this was a good segment to include this week as friends of HT Adam King and Christina Durfee both contribute some top notch vocals. Nice Bobby impressions Kinger. Looks like this ensemble doesn’t have any future gigs on the books as of now.

READ ON for tracks from My Morning Jacket and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at Merriweather Post Pavilion, RAQ and the Zen Tricksters…

For this week’s edition you will be serenaded by two of the best tenors in the live music scene: Jim James of My Morning Jacket and Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses. Sorry Jon Gutwillig, while your vocal stylings are also included, you just didn’t make the cut.

[Thanks to darktrain for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you. Click here to download the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast

Artist & Title: Band Of Horses – Thirteen Days, Older
Date & Venue: 2010-04-24 Walnut Creek – Raleigh, NC
Taper & Show Download: Charles Fox

Leading off this week we’ve got the Band of Horses performing a great cover of a J.J. Cale song followed by a track from their upcoming album Infinite Arms. These two tunes were played in sequence, but I edited out some crowd noise/band introductions in between them. Band of Horses play tonight at the House of Blues in Orlando.

BoH plays Compliments live at Trädgårn, Göteborg 2010/04/17

READ ON for tracks from the Disco Biscuits & Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe…

This was originally supposed to publish last Tuesday, where it would have been nice and topical, but time got away from me as I took a little vacation to the West Coast, but I’m back. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, numbers which multiply together to equal 420 in case you never went to college, is the opening track on Bob Dylan’s 1966 release Blonde On Blonde.

The Contestants:

The Black Crowes: In addition to performing the song live, The Black Crowes also contributed a studio take to this 1995 disc for NORML that also includes Gov’t Mule performing Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam, and Widespread Panic’s studio take of And It Stoned Me, amongst other tracks. Source: Hempilation: Freedom is NORML

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

With the strict criteria of needing audio that was captured live during the previous week, some editions of this feature are easier to put together than others based solely on who was touring and who allows taping. This week was pretty awesome, as when I sat down to put this together I quickly found tapes from Thom Yorke’s Atoms For Peace, Mark Knopfler, and Ween. Rounding out with HT favorites The Mother Hips and a nod to our Cover Wars March Madness champion and voila – this one was easy.

[Thanks to stober for this week’s photo]

And we continue to take all the selected tracks, normalize them, create some simple fades and put it into one easy to download MP3 for you. Click here to download Last Week’s Sauce Podcast #6

A & T: Atoms For Peace – Black Swan, The Daily Mail, Paperbag Writer
Date & Venue: 2010-04-08 Wang Theater, Boston, MA
Taper & Show Download: Dave Flaschner & Rob Adler

In case you didn’t know who Atoms For Peace is: Thom Yorke, Nigel Godrich, Michael “Flea” Balzary, Joey Waronker and Mauro Refosco. I was at this show and it was ridiculous start-to-finish as every member of this band is beyond solid. I’ve included three tracks, one from the main set (which is the band performing The Eraser in its entirety) and two songs from the encore. The Daily Mail starts with Yorke solo on piano with the band joining in halfway through. Then, they play Radiohead B-Side Paperbag Writer. Atoms For Peace has four more shows on the books. Tonight and tomorrow in Oakland, Saturday at the Santa Barbara Bowl and Sunday at Coachella.

Some video from the Boston show:

READ ON for tracks from Mark Knopfler, The Mother Hips and Ween…

Cover Wars March Madness is officially over and we will offer one more congratulations to our winners Perpetual Groove. Now, the 2010-2011 Cover Wars Regular Season begins. For the first contest of the season, we look at four covers of the first track off the 1976 Wings album At The Speed Of Sound – Let ‘Em In. The song is written and sung by Sir Paul McCartney.

The Contestants:

Billy Paul: This ultra smooth cover complete with strings, horns, and an alternate list of people in the lyrics was recorded in 1976.
Source: Let ‘Em In

A live version of unknown origin:

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

You know what really grinds my gears? People that obnoxiously state that there is “no good music these days”. I say to these people, you’re doing it wrong and you’re lazy. Say what you want about the music on the radio, but we’re three months into 2010 and I was hard pressed to select only […]