It’s sort of easy to take Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for granted, as the venerable classic rock act (though believe it or not they were considered new wave early
Last month we shared a killer Grateful Dead compilation put together by HT reader Joe Kolbenschlag called Steel Cut Oats which pieced together highlights from the band’s 1972 run at the historic Fox Theatre in St. Louis. Today, we’ve got the next installment which features the best moments from three nights of shows at The Ark in Boston on April 21-23, 1969.
Steel Cut Oats #6 : Raiding The Ark
Grateful Dead, April 21, 22, & 23, 1969, The Ark, Boston, Massachusetts
I: Morning Dew, Schoolgirl, Doin’ That Rag, Top Of The World, Cryptical > Drums > Other One > Cryptical > Death Don’t Have No Mercy
II: Dupree’s > Mountains Of The Moon > Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight, Alligator > Drums > Jam > The Eleven > Caution > Feedback > Bid You Goodnight
E: Viola Lee Blues > Feedback
Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight. More often than not, this hallowed suite of music is associated with the versions found on the Grateful Dead’s first live album, Live/Dead. The 16-track recordings that comprise the core of the Live/Dead material were recorded in San Francisco during four shows at the corners of Market and South Van Ness on the last two nights of February and first two nights of March 1969. A well-rounded batch of shows from the same year are also classics – check out 2.22, 6.7, 11.8, and 12.12 – but, without question, to my ears, the month of April showcases the most consistent block of shows of the year.
For several reasons, I present Steel Cut Oats #6 – a compilation of April 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, 1969, from The Ark in Boston, Massachusetts. April 22nd features one of the most thrilling Mountains Of The Moon > Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Lovelight suites of all time – this sequence is worthy of the Rhino Road Trips treatment, not to mention an addition of just about any other selection from those three nights would be suitable as a multi-disc set. There’s plenty to be culled from these shows, including an extremely passionate reading, and what I consider to be the definitive version of Death Don’t Have No Mercy – a track that certainly could not be overlooked in the context of a Live/Dead discussion.
READ ON for more of Joe’s essay on the Grateful Dead @ The Ark…
While the festival season has grown in recent years, most see Memorial Day as the official opening weekend. Traditionally, many of the festivals on this weekend were smaller, local options but this year we add another large festival to the mix giving fans more options for music over the long weekend. Just don’t forget the weather can still be a little cool & unpredictable so make sure you don’t forget that extra sweatshirt & rain gear!
[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]
FurthurFest
For those of you out on the West Coast (or willing to travel) Furthur has you covered with their inaugural festival at the Calaveras Fairground in Angels Camp, CA. Furthur, which brings together Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, will play 6 full sets over the weekend each covering an entire Grateful Dead album making this the perfect choice for Deadhead’s young and old. Saturday will see American Beauty, Workingman’s Dead and Anthem of the Sun, while Sunday will cover Blues for Allah, Aoxomoxoa and Terrapin Station. Hot Tuna, Jackie Greene and Larry Campbell as well as other GD friends and family will be joining in over the weekend to round out the line up. Tickets start at $125 with a VIP option available. READ ON for more…
For their latest release indie-pop act Nada Surf decided to go the covers route pulling together 12 of their favorite songs from a diverse selection of artists, ranging from the
The late great Janis Joplin will be profiled on the Biography Channel this Thursday at 9PM. This in-depth feature tracks Joplin’s beginnings in Texas, her rise to the top of
Deer Tick staged an impressive opening for the headliner Dr. Dog who seamlessly kept up the momentum by firing up the crowd in a way this band is becoming legendary for doing!
And here you were thinking the glory days of Arena Rock were long gone. The mullets have become a bit grayer and the lighters have turned into cell phone screens swaying high in the air, but the music has survived intact; for the most part. In fact, after listening to Styx slam-bang out a set of songs from their very successful past, it has actually gotten stronger.
Normally cover albums draw a lot of skepticism as they tend to be just excuses to pump an album out, which is usually comprised of shoddy renditions of popular artists's song. And the same could be said about Keller Williams and the Keels' new release, aptly titled Thief, if it were not for the oddly redeeming but sparkling choices presented in this collection.
A curious song on Marco Benevento’s latest album, Between The Needles & Nightfall, entitled Music is Still Secret lends itself to an interesting musical perspective. It’s vague, but it’s also quite thoughtful. In fact, many musicians put forth the exact opposite corollary; that virtually all music has been played before (by men with wigs). The song says a lot – without saying anything – about Marco’s philosophies toward music and how he goes about it.
And he is philosophical, not in any overbearing or annoying way, but in the way he knows what works in order to keep it fresh for both him and the listener. So, what does that mean, music is still secret? It’s really a question that everyone should answer for themselves, but in the meantime, we’ll let you in on some advice for unearthing a response.
Playing Music
“If I played in the same band all the time, I think I would get so bored.”
Since propelling to improvisational glory with comrade Joe Russo as the Benevento-Russo Duo and subsequently Mike Gordon and Trey Anastasio as GRAB, Marco pulled a relative about-face. Whereas most artists would probably be tempted to ride out that wave of publicity, Marco chose to keep his artistic boundaries wide open and apportion time between a slew of bands including Bustle in Your Hedgerow, Garage a Trois, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, and of course, the Marco Benevento Trio.
READ ON for more of our feature on Marco Benevento…
You couldn’t blame Disco Biscuits fans for thinking the worst when the news came out that Jon “Barber” Gutwillig broke his wrist back in March, but two months later the
