Hidden Track

The jamband world’s Brangelina — or Bennifer, or whoever the devil it is you kids obsess over these days — are keeping it all in the family… Cutest Couple Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi announced a joint tour today: Derek & Susan are proud to announce their Soul Stew Revival tour, a special summer outing marking the first […]

I wanna dance with somebody. No, I’d really rather feel the heat with somebody. David Byrne is making headlines down at SXSW. Well, to put it a bit more accurately, some editors are making pun-fueled headlines about him. The music industry is abuzz after Colonel PowerPoint presented some obviously maverick viewpoints down at the Austin festival […]

Heads up, Second City: The Chicago Tribune is reporting Eric Clapton will bring his Crossroads Guitar Festival to the City of Awesome Hot Dogs this summer. But as fantastic as that news is for Chicagoans, I’d like to point everyone’s attention to the last line of the Trib piece: “Among the performers to be announced […]

After years of frustrating stagnation, LivePhish is really churnin’ ’em out now. The popular rock band Phish’s organization has made 12/1/95 from the Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania available for official download, on both audio and video. This marks the second ’95 show released in the past month, and archivist Kevin Shapiro hints in his […]

Levon Helm’s re-appearance on the public stage stood as the one gig on Earth that could keep me away from the Bustle In Your Hedgerow show at Mexicali Blues on Saturday night. I still think I made the right call, the easy call, but all accounts rolling in from Teaneck point to a blown-off roof and “tightest Bustle show ever.” Oh well, I got Garth’d at the Beacon instead.

Let’s take a look at some photos from Saturday’s Bustle show…

3/17/07 Bustle In Your Hedgerow setlist at Mexicali Blues*
Set I: On the Tiles, The Wanton Song, What Is & What Should Never Be, Custard Pie, All Of My Love > Communication Breakdown > All Of My Love, Four Sticks, Ramble On, You Shook Me, Moby Dick, Kashmir

Set II: The Song Remains the Same, White Summer, Over the Hills & Far Away, In the Evening, Thank You, For Your Life, Heartbreaker, The Ocean, When the Levee Breaks > Bring It On Home > Good Times Bad Times > Bring It On Home

Enc: Immigrant Song

• Read on for another set of shots from Seiden’s point-of-view
• Click here for a separate Flickr stream of amazing Bustle photos

(*Thanks to Mexicali’s lighting dude Piranha for piecing this together)

Last week we expressed sadness at Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s last-second cancellation at Langerado and SXSW. It seems the government won’t let Mr. Sanchez into the country because he shares the same name as an already barred foreigner.

An estimated one million to three million illegal immigrants cross our southern border every year, and yet this guy gets fucked trying to do it right? C’mon!

A renowned Mexican guitarist, member of the ATO Recording artists Rodrigo Y Gabriela, has been hold up here for over two weeks since the United States Embassy declined to renew his P-1 Entertainer Visa. This unexpected situation has led to the cancellation of half a dozen U.S. shows on Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s current tour, and put in jeopardy many other major concerts and promotional appearances.

Now we’re even sadder: On the heels of the duo’s Langerado and SXSW pullouts, this week’s NYC Webster Hall and Philadelphia Electric Factory gigs have also been postponed for about a month. And if the rest of the calendar stays intact, this sets up an April 15th show in Portland, Oregon the night before the Webster Hall appearance. I hope these two aren’t totally exhausted come showtime…

• Click here to watch the duo’s incredible performance on Letterman
• Read on for a full updated schedule of Rod Y Gab’s tour dates

On a typically raucous St. Patrick’s Day evening in New York City, the Levon Helm Band showed us why nostalgia isn’t always a pejorative term.

Saturday night’s festivities — the second of a two-night return to the public eye — was nostalgia at its absolute finest, the very best intention for the word. Levon and sometimes as many as 15 friends formed a tight ensemble that played fantastic versions of Band songs I’ve been in love with forfuckingever. And on certain glances, you could easily forget you weren’t watching 1970s Levon: the same unique monkeydrumming style, the same bone-rattling southern drawl.

Whatever everyone paid for tickets, we all received far more than we ever bargained. In addition to his supremely talented backing big-band, Levon trotted out an all-star lineup of sit-in performers like Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Little Sammy Davis, Warren Haynes, and eventually, an unplanned cameo during a second encore from his former Bandmate Garth Hudson. Garth?! Are you fucking kidding me? I paid $100 for that ticket, and I feel like I got off insanely light.

Read on for some photos and YouTube videos of this incredible evening of music…

Since every blogger and their mother is at SXSW covering 3,000 bands you’ve never heard of, we figured we’d give you a SXSW-free edition of Hors: How a band can reach that fellate-able level Don’t Wakarusa Langerado! Gilberto Gil gets back to North America after an eight-year hiatus (Ace will be there tomorrow night at Carnegie […]

We’re celebrating our six-month anniversary this week, even though I have no clue what the official launch date was. Whatever, I love cake. And party hats. This mighta been the best week of the past six months. No “mighta” about it actually, this one tops ’em all. On the bookends, I caught 22 awesome bands […]

Everyone I know that’s attended the High Sierra Music Festival over the past few years swears to everything holy that it’s the greatest thing since bread sliced by width. I’ve never been out there, but I’m tempted to find out.

High Sierra announced its no-frills, no-Coachella-influenced lineup today, and the initial announcement includes Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon, Les Claypool, Galactic, Del McCoury Band, Soulive, Mavis Staples, Tea Leaf Green, ALO, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, JJ Grey & MOFRO, Hot Buttered Rum, The New Mastersounds, Bobby Previte’s Coalition of the Willing, Toubab Krewe, Outformation and Ryan Montbleau Band. Pretty solid. Tickets are on sale.

Read on below for the entire High Sierra lineup…

J.J. Cale joined Eric Clapton and his band for a number of songs at Clapton’s concert in San Diego last night. Cale, who wrote such Clapton hits as Cocaine and After Midnight, joined the band for those songs and Anyway the Wind Blows, Don’t Cry Sister Cry, It’s Easy, and Who Am I Telling You. Derek, JJ, and Eric? It doesn’t get more badass than those three trading licks.

Cale has always been a hero to Clapton, and the two recently collaborated to release The Road To Escondido. For those of us that missed this epic sit-in last night don’t fret: The show was recorded for an upcoming DVD release.

Clapton’s tour rolls on, but Derek Trucks will be sitting out a few gigs in order to play with the Allman Brothers Band at the upcoming Beacon Theater run.

Thanks to Nedly from the Eric Clapton forum for the photos. Read on for the remaining dates on Clapton’s March and April tour…

When I saw Jimmy Herring rip shit up during his Widespread Panic debut at Radio City Music Hall back in September, I remember thinking “If this is how they sound now, I can only imagine how they will sound with a full tour under their belts.”

This past weekend we saw the fruits of their labor. I caught Panic’s headlining set to close out this year’s Langerado festival, and it’s clear that the band has now fully integrated Herring’s sound with incredible success.

After an amazing-yet-tiring weekend, I was looking forward to getting my inner hippie on and dancing the night away with some Widespread Panic. The band opened with Hope In A Hopeless World and I got a little sad when they referenced New York City, knowing that my amazing trip to Florida was fading fast. At the end of Hope, Herring got his first chance to shred, and looking around you could see jaws dropping everywhere. Read on for more of Scotty’s review…

I came at Bill Laswell through a back door, and somehow that seems appropriate when jousting with a man whose mission it is to cause cultures to collide and reap the rewards. I can’t remember if it was Karsh Kale’s sit-ins STS9 in the early “what do we call this decade” or Zakir Hussain, who […]

As if there weren’t enough unbelievable reunions happening this summer, we found a very interesting item from the Rush and Molloy gossip column in Wednesday’s New York Daily News. I think it just moved: We’re going to set up our tent tonight to get tix for Al Gore’s 100-act, 24-hour worldwide concert on July 7 […]

1. We’ve been updating our Grousing The Aisles: Langeradownloads post frequently since its intial publication yesterday, and we’re up to recordings for 16 bands. If you’re looking for Langerado downloads, that’s your place to be. We’ll continue to add to that list as more come in… 2. My favorite touring band is at it again […]

Everyone’s down on Trey Anastasio. Well, maybe not everyone, but you can’t throw a cup without finding someone with a decidely negative opinion of the man without whom this little rag would not exist. Did he bring this on himself? Perhaps. Two Shine openers in the span of two days down at Langerado? Poor form.

But the Bad Lieutenant is still our favorite improvisational guitarist, and in this week’s installment of The B List, our dear friend David Onigman fills in valiantly for Scotty to remind us of the good times of yore…and the good times that can be.

“I heard Trey was going to sit in” is an oft-popular phrase in small to mid-level nightclubs around the country, especially if the scheduled performers have some sort of existing relationship with the man, even be it a small one.

For the purposes of this list, I have chosen not to include any guest appearances where Trey was already scheduled to appear in the room that night — so you won’t see Trey with his opening act (Tea Leaf Green, Particle) or Trey sitting in with a headliner when Phish was the opening act (Santana). Instead, I am choosing to focus on the moment that occurs when the rumors come to fruition, when Trey walks out on stage and fulfills the dreams of the musicians and fans.

Read on for Dave’s complete list of the ten best sit-ins involving Ernie A…

Your ol’ Ace Cowboy played earwitness to a deadly police shootout in the West Village last night, a gunfight that for a little while was rumored to have taken place inside and outside the Lion’s Den on Sullivan Street. That’s since been retracted; I guess the Predator Dub Assassins on stage just confused reporters. But as I […]

“Yeah, New York, it was an adult portion. It was an adult dose. So it took a couple of trips to get into it. You just go in the first time and you get your ass kicked and you take off. As soon as it heals up, you come back and you try it again. […]

The Lee Boys played an impromptu set at Langerado on Sunday due to the sudden pullout of Rodrigo y Gabriela (the withdrawal method apparently works). The Mexican duo’s website blames new U.S. immigration policies and procedures, saying “guitarist Rodrigo Sanchez’s visa renewal has unexpectedly been delayed.” The visa snafu has also forced the cancellation of […]

The downloads from this weekend’s kickoff to festival season are starting to emerge, and we figured we’d throw them out as soon as they come to our attention. So here’s the first batch of torrents and sendspaces for you to devour, and we’ll update this post as often as we can. My Morning Jacket 3/10/07 […]