2004

Phish called it a career last night (Aug. 15) at the end of the second day of its weekend-long finale in Coventry, Vt. Before a crowd of more than 70,000 fans, the Vermont-based jam band wrapped things up with a rare performance of “The Curtain With,” which guitarist Trey Anastasio told the crowd he’d written in 1985 while living in a cabin in a neighboring town.

Yesterday’s three-set affair was understandably an emotional one. During the second set, both keyboardist Page McConnell and Anastasio broke down in tears while addressing the audience.

Set three was a surprisingly mellow affair, opening with “Fast Enough for You” and winding down with “Slave to the Traffic Light,” before a massive fireworks display was set off just outside the concert grounds at the Newport State Airport.

The quartet was on fire during the first set, offering definitive versions of “Mike’s Song,” “Weekapaug Groove,” “Chalkdust Torture” and “Possum,” among others. Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon brought their mothers, as well as longtime manager John Paluska, onstage to dance during the jam in “Wolfman’s Brother,”

Early arrivals to the festival awoke Saturday to the news that state police had begun turning away cars approaching the concert grounds. More than 20 miles of traffic backed up on I-91 and conditions at the mud-filled camping area deteriorated due to heavy rains.

In a move that echoed 1969’s Woodstock festival, thousands of fans abandoned their cars on the side of the highway and walked or hitchhiked to the concert site, an effort profusely praised by the band once it took the stage that evening.

After a tentative Saturday first set that featured such older staples as “Run Like an Antelope,” “Axilla,” “Sample in a Jar” and a closing cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire,” the band hit peak form during such second set stunners as “AC/DC Bag,” “David Bowie” and “Character Zero.”

The band seemed to mirror the fatigue of the crowd during its third set, fashioning strange, psychedelic jams out of “Stash” and “Free.” But a second wind gave life to a cover of the Who’s “Drowned” and an encore rendition of the smile-inducing “Harry Hood.”

The concerts were simulcast on XM Satellite Radio and in Regal Cinema movie theatres throughout the United States.

Source billboard.com.

Gov’t Mule, Primus’ Les Claypool, Blues Traveler and the Drive-By Truckers are among the acts getting down and dirty on “Under the Influence — A Jam Band Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd.” Due Oct. 5 via Sanctuary, the 11-track collection also boasts contributions from Big Head Todd and the Monsters, the North Mississippi Allstars, Galactic and moe. with John Hiatt.

Gov’t Mule takes on “Simple Man,” a song the band “has performed several times prior to this recording,” says frontman Warren Haynes. “It’s amazing what you can do with three chords, if they’re the right three chords.”

Big Head Todd tackles “Sweet Home Alabama,” one of the most enduring rock tracks of the 1970s. “It was very challenging to give the song a new interpretation,” admits vocalist/guitarist Todd Mohr. “The track was a blast to work on and I think we were successful in honoring the song, while presenting it in a completely contemporary setting.”

Other Skynyrd cuts that have been redone for the tribute include the immortal “Free Bird” (Blues Traveler), “Call Me the Breeze” (Claypool), “Every Mother’s Son” (Drive-By Truckers), “Ballad of Curtis Loew” (moe. and Hiatt), “Gimme Three Steps” (Disco Biscuits), “Whiskey Rock a Roller” (North Mississippi Allstars), “Four Walls of Raiford” (Yonder Mountain String Band), “Saturday Night Special” (Galactic) and “Workin’ for MCA” (Particle).

Source Billboard.com.

The Las Vegas Jamband Society returns to Indian Springs, NV on October 8, 9, and 10 to present the latest installment of the Area 51 Soundtest…4 the Music.

This year’s lineup features the Soundtest debuts of Sound Tribe Sector Nine (playing 2 nights), Col. Bruce Hampton and the Codetalkers, Tea Leaf Green, and Signal Path. Rounding out the main-stage lineup, and making their triumphant returns to Indian Springs, are MamaSutra and Olospo.

The popularity of the Area 51 Soundtest has grown over the first three years of its existence. Previous attendees have been treated to music from Dark Star Orchestra, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, David Nelson Band, Ominous Seapods, Mood Food, Motion For Alliance, David Gans, and each festival has featured legendary late-night sets from legendary late-night powerhouse Particle. Last year

Due to popular demand, a second Wilco show has been added to Radio City Music Hall in New York City on October 6th. In addition the band has announced a handful of new dates including shows in: Burlington, VT, Northampton, MA and Saratoga Springs, NY. For more details visit the band’s website..

The new Pure Jerry live album series launches this month and will give Grateful Dead fans a chance to hear some of the best of the 500-plus concerts that frontman Jerry Garcia performed away from the Dead. First up in the series is Theater 1839, San Francisco, July 29 and 30, 1977, a three-CD set capturing a Jerry Garcia Band that included late Dead keyboardist Keith Godchaux and his wife, singer Donna Godchaux, longtime Garcia bassist John Kahn and drummer Ron Tutt.

Pure Jerry is the second release by the late guitarist’s estate to fully establish Garcia as an artist, and brand, separate from the Grateful Dead. Earlier this year, Rhino Records’ six-CD box set, All Good Things, repackaged all of Garcia’s solo records while clearing out the archives for unreleased treasures.

The first Pure Jerry release (available through jerrygarcia.com) includes three CDs of soundboard material from one of Garcia’s best bands. “We spoke with some people that knew his shows historically,” says Christopher Sabec, who works with the Garcia’s estate and was executive producer on the project. “We knew we wanted a Bay area show and we knew we wanted this era. So, luckily, we didn’t have to pour through hundreds of shows.”

Sabec has been integral in trying to better establish Garcia’s legacy away from the Dead. A year ago he oversaw the removal of Garcia’s tapes from the Grateful Dead vault and began pouring through material that became the box set. Sabec says that All Good Things exhausted the hidden studio treasures — “Most of the gems are on the box set,” he says. “We wanted it to be everything, fully A to Z” — which prompted the investigation into Garcia’s live work, despite the fact that some of the tapes are decades old, and the ones that yielded the first Pure Jerry set were covered in what he describes as “a mysterious goo.”

For future releases, an email address has been set up (purejerry@jerrygarcia.com), where fans can send comments about favorite shows, eras and bands. “We’ve already gotten a big response,” Sabec says. “And as we start sifting through these, I think people will see that we’re paying attention.”

Plans currently call for three to four Pure Jerry albums to be released each year. As the guitarist toured with various collaborators as his Dead schedule allowed, there are numerous sounds and eras that the series can encompass. Pure Jerry also offers the opportunity to hear his cross-genre cover versions extended often to ten minutes. Among those covered on Theater 1839 are Jimmy Cliff (“The Harder They Come”), Bob Dylan (“Tangled Up in Blue”), the Band (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”), Bob Marley (“Stir It Up”), Irving Berlin (“Russian Lullaby”) and Smokey Robinson (“I Second That Emotion”). “There was such a variety and vitality in the ensembles he played with,” Sabec says. “There’s a four-piece rock band, a bluegrass band, solo, sometimes with backup singers doing a gospel thing. The goal we had in mind with Pure Jerry was to celebrate Jerry Garcia as an individual talent, as a guitarist and as a musician.”

Track list for Theater 1839:

Disc One:

Mystery Train
Russian Lullaby
That’s What Love Will Make You Do
Stir It Up
Simple Twist of Fate
The Way You Do the Things You Do
Catfish John

Disc Two:

Friend of the Devil
Don’t Let Go
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
They Love Each Other
I Second That Emotion
Let Me Roll It

Disc Three:

The Harder They Come
Gomorrah
Tore Up Over You
Tangled Up in Blue
My Sisters and Brothers

Source rollingstone.com.

Bruce Hornsby has slated a trio of late-October New York performances in vastly different settings. Under the banner of “Three Nights on the Town,” the veteran artist will host an Oct. 26 jam session at famed jazz club the Blue Note, an Oct. 28 solo piano performance at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and a full band show the next night at Town Hall.

With a capacity of 200, the first show, dubbed “Jammin’ at the Blue Note,” promises to be the most intimate. While “special guests” are expected, it is unknown exactly who will fulfill that promise. The possibilities are exciting, seeing as Hornsby is a one-time touring member of the Grateful Dead and an artist who has shared stages with Bruce Springsteen, Chick Corea and Ricky Skaggs, among many others.

Add to that Hornsby’s latest album, “Halcyon Days,” which boasts guest appearances by Eric Clapton, Sting and Elton John. Bumped one week to Tuesday (Aug. 17), the set will be Hornsby’s first for Columbia after a career spent with RCA.

Source billboard.com.