2007

New Jersey’s Railroad Earth returned to The Fillmore Brand Stapled To Irving Plaza on Saturday night, and the band kept most of the crowd dancing throughout two sets of folky bluegrass tinged with rock n’ roll. The band played an epic gig at Irving back in March, but Saturday’s affair was more toned down, both in the size of the crowd and the level of energy the band displayed.

All photos by Adam Kaufman

The first set started out extremely slow, with Railroad Earth playing some of their more mellow songs before loading the second set with rockers. Neal Casal of Ryan Adams’ Cardinals joined the band at the end of the first set for a run through Dandelion Wine. Casal returned to the stage in the middle of the second set to add vocals and electric guitar for a cover of Neil Young’s Powderfinger.

RRE doesn’t play that many covers, so the crowd was appreciative of seeing the band break out a new one for the occasion. Finally, Casal rejoined the band for a fantastic rendition of Walls of Time, which followed the crowd-pleasing Ragtime Annie Lee during the encore. Read on for more great photos from the show…

The Hidden Track staff last night headed to the Anthology Film Archives to attend the New York premiere of Les Claypool’s directorial debut, a mockumentary send-up of the jamband scene

It looks like someone at Rhino finally woke up and remembered they have to recoup some money from its landmark deal with the Grateful Dead.

So Rhino has announced a unique new series of archival releases called Road Trips. Road Trips Vol. 1 features musical highlights from the Dead’s legendary Fall 1979 tour. Unlike the single-show Dick’s Picks series, which is officially dunzo by the way, Road Trips contains a mix of material from a number of related shows. Each Road Trips release will come with a handy booklet containing never-before-seen photos and an essay on where those shows fit into the history of the band.

Road Trips seems to be the tip of the iceberg, with Rhino promising “a tidal wave of releases.” We’re not surprised — shit, Rhino didn’t pay the Dead millions of dollars to release one show from the vault each year. Fall ’79 contains some of the most potent setlists and intense playing of that time period with the addition of Brent Mydland. The November 9th show from Buffalo epitomizes the brand of potent rock ‘n roll the boys were playing during this transitional period, so I’m glad a bunch of material from that show made the cut.

We all hoped Rhino would leverage its large Dead collection in creative ways, so kudos to them for starting this series so strongly. Read on for the full press release including a FAQ about Rhino’s intentions with the Dead’s vault, as well a number of links to some interesting Dead related stories from around the world wide web…

So the Writers Guild of America walked off the job for the first time in nearly two decades, leaving a gaping hole in this nation’s nightly programming. Gone for now

Warren Haynes’ 19th Annual X-Mas Jam hits Ashevegas, NC in about six weeks, and the hardest workin’ dressed-down man in the music business finally dropped the lineup on us. Bring your AARP discount cards: Outside of Grace Potter, it ain’t a young lineup, boasting Jackson Browne, Peter Frampton, Col. Bruce Hampton, Gen. Bruce Hornsby and more…read on for the initial list of performers.

First came the Cream shows, then came the tour with a guy named Derek. Now Clapton’s capitalizing on the Blind Faith catalog, and we fucking love it. On the heels

This week’s Stormy Mondays is all about the winner of the other NYC marathon, Mr. Phil Lesh, who’s in the midst of a monster 10-night run at the Nokia.

Leaving the Q aside, as the band deserves a mix of its very own, these tracks attempt to cover Lesh in a number of different lights. The Help > Slip > Franklin’s comes from the 2004 Dead tour — it’s the show opener from Great Woods, and the bass work is stunning right from the intro, the playing of a true master. Buckets of Rain, from the blizzard show in ’06 with Trey, doesn’t feature much in the way of bass chops, but it does show off just how great a bandleader Phil is.

Next, Bo Diddley joins the Grateful Dead for a super-bad, stand-alone “Jam” in 1972 — this incredible and unique 10 minutes is an absolute must-hear. The mix closes with a nice Just Like Tom Thumb Blues from MSG in ’93, unless of course there’s a hidden track this week…oh so clever. Enjoy!

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You know Saturday Night Live’s fallen on tough times when the only compliment you can give is: “Hey, the humor may be completely missing, but at least they still continue to book great bands.” The show continues to induce blank stares, with this weekend’s episode representing a new low for the current cast. But a brutal evening of comedy provided a splendid night of music, and Feist’s renditions of 1234 and I Feel It All were truly gorgeous, very Joni Mitchellesque.

Spreaking of shows that book great acts Zappa Plays Zappa rocked Late Night with Conan O’Brien last week. But enough of the videos, it’s linkage time:

• Indie bands dive into Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim
• Page McConnell shows off his setup for keyboard.tv
• The NY Times spends a night out with Beirut’s Zach Condon [via LHB]
• Just exactly what finger did Jimmy Page injure?
• Sly and The Family Stone add two more dates at BB King’s in NYC
• Live Nation once again faces a class-action lawsuit
• The comments on TMZ’s Neil Young post are freakin’ hilarious
• Aretha Franklin continues to gain r-e-s-p-e-c-t at age 65 (too easy?)
• A Canadian government study finds that file sharing sells more music
• The Rawking Refuses to Stop doesn’t understand all the love for Broken Social Scene (Ace said the same exact thing at ACL)

And read on after the jump for a comprehensive list of all the setlists from the weekend, including but not limited to Ryan Adams sitting in with Phil Lesh and Mike Gordon playing with RatDog, Van Halen in New Jersey, Jason Isbell and They Might Be Giants. Some torrents from the weekend are also available for download…