Hidden Track Staff

Bowlive 2011 has come to an end after 10 performances by Soulive and a slew of guests at Brooklyn Bowl over the past two weeks. Earlier, Three Grown Men detailed why Soulive is NYC’s Band and the New York Times seemed to agree. We wanted to share two sets of media from the past few nights. First up is a selection of videos shot by our friend Sunil at Thursday night’s show, which was a tribute to Sly Stone.

Soulive Pays Tribute to Sly Playlist – Que Sera Sera (w. Alecia Chakour, Ivan Neville, Nigel Hall, Van Hunt and More), Yonrico Scott Solo, Sing a Simple Song (w. Alecia Chakour, Karl Denson, Van Hunt, Ivan Neville, Adam Smirnoff and More), In Time (w. ?uestlove, Van Hunt and More), Neal Evans Solo and Stand (w. Van Hunt, Ivan Neville, Alecia Chakour and More)

On Friday, photographer Rob Chapman caught Soulive in action and shared a number of fantastic shots of the band and special guest Karl Denson…

[All photos by Rob Chapman]

READ ON for more of Rob’s shots from Bowlive #9…

Colorado-based jammers String Cheese Incident played their first show of 2011 last night at the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, CO as part of the group’s Winter Carnival. SCI bassist Keith Moseley mentioned that the band would dust off a number of tunes they hadn’t performed since going on hiatus in 2007 in an interview with HT earlier this month and String Cheese lived up to Moseley’s word by including the previously shelved Suntan, Cottonmouth, Big Shoes and Ramble On in the setlist.

[All photos by Brian Spady]

The first set finished with the SCI debut of the Colorado Bluebird Sky, a song written by Bill Nershi and his wife Jillian about an east coaster seeing Colorado for the first time. For the start of the second set, SCI offered a version of BAM! that featured a cover of Cee Lo Green’s Fuck You in the middle. Also of note, String Cheese’s encore featured the Chuck Berry tune Tore Up Over You done in a similar style to the Jerry Garcia Band.

Set 1: Smile, Birdland > Wheel Hoss > Birdland, Sometimes a River, Black and White, Suntan, Don’t Say > Water, Colorado Bluebird Sky

Set 2: BAM! > Fuck You > BAM!, Betray the Dark, Rivertrance, Cottonmouth, Piece of Mine, Sweet Melinda, Big Shoes > Ramble On

Encore: Barstool, Tore Up Over You

[via Friends of Cheese]

J.D. Crowe and the New South open tonight’s show in Broomfield.

[Thanks to Jambands.com for some info included in this report]

READ ON for more of Brian’s amazing photos from Night One of String Cheese Incident’s Winter Carnival 2011 at the 1st Bank Center…

Words: Timothy Dwenger

In November of 2006, The String Cheese Incident announced they “had no plans beyond the summer of 2007,” and this left many fans searching for answers because it left things a bit up in the air. Just before the “final” incidents at Red Rocks in August of 2007, Kyle Hollingsworth told the Westword in Denver “what’s frustrating for me is that we never have ever said we’re breaking up. I think the quote is something like, ‘after August ’07, we have no plans.’ But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be plans later. So what’s frustrating for me is that everyone interpreted it as the band is breaking up. And I’m not sure exactly what’s going to happen. We have no plans. But I just want to make it clear from my point of view that the future’s wide open for us.” This provided little solace for fans who were without their beloved barefoot boys for nearly two years, until, almost out of the blue, The String Cheese Incident announced they would be performing at Rothbury in 2009 and the rumors started flying again: Would they tour again? When will they play next? Was this a one-off performance?

By all accounts the Rothbury performance fueled the band members desire to play music together again, and in early 2010 many of the rumors were put to rest when it was announced that the band would play a “handful of Incidents” over the course of the year starting with a three-night stand at the band’s unofficial home, Red Rocks Amphitheatre. They visited another place that is close to their hearts when they set up camp at Horning’s Hideout and finally they closed out the year with two Hulaween shows inside The Mothership in Hampton, VA.

As they demonstrated with their 2010 schedule, the band made it quite clear that, though they do want to play together as String Cheese Incident, they have no intention of mounting the kind of full scale tours that they built a career on. Instead they are again reinventing another paradigm of the music industry by pledging to schedule a few destination events each year that will allow them to play the music they love, while giving their fans the opportunity to commune with the music and the friends that have always made the community that surrounds the band so special.

READ ON for more on the String Cheese Incident…

It’s been over a week since AC Entertainment and Superfly Productions unveiled the lineup for Bonnaroo X and after having seven days to examine the bill, we’ve come up with some thoughts to share on this year’s event. In typical Hidden Track fashion, we’ll lay out our take from A-Z…

A is for Ashley Capps – One of the founders of Bonnaroo and namesake of AC Entertainment gave two telling interviews that help explain where the event’s promoters were coming from when preparing the lineup. Head to Jambands.com and NPR.com to read and hear Ashley’s take.

B is for Buffalo Springfield – Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay reunited for the first time since 1968 at last fall’s Bridge School Benefit. While rumors of a Buffalo Springfield tour have been running rampant for the past few months, Bonnaroo scored the group’s first gig since one of the best reunion concerts in recent memory.

C is for Country Music – The genre, which is quite huge in that area of the country, will once again be on display with alt.country, traditional country, bluegrass and contemporary country acts on the bill such as Mumford & Sons, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Old Crow Medicine Show and Loretta Lynn.

READ ON for our entries for D through Z…

Words: Andrew Bruss

Nathan Moore is one of the most talented songwriters you’ve never heard of. If you have heard of him, then odds are you agree. The day Hosni Mubarak stepped down as President of Egypt, Moore was kind enough to conduct a phone interview from California to talk about his latest album, Dear Puppeteer. His experience on Jam Cruise, opinions on the situation in Egypt and his aspiration to be the first ever slight of hand folk singer were all topics Moore weighed in on.

Hidden Track: I used to write for Aaron Kayce over at Jambase and before this interview I asked him if there was anything specific I should ask you. He said more than any one question I should be comfortable asking you anything.

Nathan Moore: [Laughs] That’s probably true

HT: So if it’s cool with you, I’ve got an exercise in the form of a three-part question.

First, I’d like to know what your experience was like on Jam Cruise. Second, what do you think of what’s going on in Egypt? And third, can you draw any kind of correlation between Jam Cruise and what’s going on in Egypt?

NM: [Laughs] That’s great. Well Jam Cruise was definitely a wonderful experience. I really… the wisdom I shed there was bringing my buddy Bryan Elijah Smith with me and what we did I couldn’t have done without him. We played so much music and had so much fun. I’ll never forget it.

HT: Any standout memories?

NM: Well, we really worked very hard. We still reminisce about the spot… it was right outside the jam room on the deck by the water where everyone had to go to smoke. We set up there from midnight till dawn. It became an all-consuming mission. Once we got our spot we were always trying to get enough rest and participate in as many things as possible. But our eyes were always on the prize of getting back to that spot. We made a lot of memories and friends and I’ll never forget it. If they don’t have us back next year they have to get someone else to hunker down in that spot.

READ ON for more of our conversation with Nathan Moore…