The promoters of the Summer Camp Music Festival have brought out a “big gun” to perform at this year’s festival – jam titans Widespread Panic. This will mark Panic’s first
[Originally Published: November 5th, 2010]
We welcome back an amazing writer, Sam Davis of Dog Gone Blog and Relix, who compiled a B List detailing his favorite songs about trains…
Railways and trains are so deeply rooted in the fabric of American music culture to the point where “train” songs actually predate recorded music. Whether it was the songs sung by the railway workers in the late 1800’s or the railcar songs sung by the freighthoppers during the Great Depression, trains came to symbolize the journey and the American working class.
It’s no exaggeration to say that the blues was literally born from the railroad tracks. It was at a train station in Mississippi where the “Father of the Blues” W.C. Handy discovered the sounds that led him to compose some of the the very first blues songs such as the famous Memphis Blues. Blues music and its musicians developed a strong connection to the trains, heard in timeless blues classics such as Rock Island Line, Freight Train and Midnight Special.
Countless blues and rock musicians have been inspired by the train, and there is an endless list of songs with themes surrounding this topic. For today’s B List, I’ve attempted to crack into that list to pull out ten of the best “train” songs. I hope you enjoy.
10. The Yardbirds – Train Kept A Rollin’
This was perhaps The Yardbirds biggest hit, and was one of the first songs to carry the blues train theme over to the rock world. It was originally written by Tiny Bradshaw, Howard Kay, and Lois Mann and was first performed by Tiny Bradshaw’s Big Band in 1951. This version features Jeff Beck, who uses his guitar to recreate the sound of a train’s whistle.
READ ON for the top nine songs about trains…
Ween continued its swing through the Pacific Northwest last night in Portland and once again the band proved they’ve gotten their groove back after Monday’s “incident.” At the Portland show,
Last year we shared a few compilations of classic Grateful Dead shows put together by longtime HT reader Joe Kolbenschlag. We were overjoyed to find Joe’s latest Steel Cut Oats compilation in our inbox this week and wanted to share this 37-track set from a pair of 1973 shows in Denver…
Steel Cut Oats : Volume VII : A Mile High in ’73
Grateful Dead, November 20th and 21st, 1973, Denver Coliseum, Denver, Colorado
One of my all-time favorite live performance periods from the Grateful Dead is Fall 1973 – specifically, the shows beginning October 19th and running through December 19th. Those two months offer an overabundance of the X-Factor that quite possibly was never matched again for that long of a time frame. The noted bookends above have been officially released as part of the Dick’s Picks series (10.19.73, Oklahoma City, OK – Volume #19, 12.19.73, Tampa, FL – Volume #1), and several other shows have also been liberated to the masses in their two-track form by GDM/Rhino – all are worth seeking out.
Steel Cut Oats #7 focuses on the most glaring omission from a release perspective – the two stunning shows of November 20th and 21st from the Denver Coliseum. I would argue that these two gigs carry more collective fireworks than any of the other multi-night runs of the Fall – St. Louis, Winterland, Boston, and Tampa all cart excellent passages along the way, but these Denver shows really smoke from front to back. Oats #7 illustrates a band riding an incredibly high peak of performance – after five excellent home state shows in early-to-mid November (Winterland x3, San Diego, Los Angeles), the band begins to move eastbound for the duration of the year. The first stop is the Denver Coliseum…
The opening portion of this compilation concentrates on first set material that had become classic live staples of the Dead’s Americana vision – Ramble On Rose, Jack Straw, and Tennessee Jed to name a few. The set is also sprinkled with a particularly feisty Big River and a wonderful, but ‘not quite Tampa’ version of Here Comes Sunshine – still very powerful, yet slinky at the same time.
READ ON for more of Joe’s thoughts on SCT #7 and a tracklist…
There was plenty of live music last week that didn’t take place in Mexico at Mayan Holidaze, but since the taper Z-Man supplied more than enough material to dedicate this entire piece to this festival, I thought why not? We’ve got audio and video from 30db, the rarely taped act The Album Leaf, a 30+ minute segment from the Disco Biscuits, a tune from STS9’s “axe the cables” acoustic set, and an Umphrey’s McGee staple translated into Spanish.
If you don’t want to stay on the site for an hour streaming the individual tracks, you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast, click here to download.
30db – Liar, The Good Times Are Killing Me
Date & Venue: 2011-01-21 – Now Sapphire Resort – Mayan Riviera, Mexico
Taper & Show Download: Z-Man
Our first segment of music is Liar from 30db’s 2010 album One Man Show followed by the set-closing cover of The Good Times Are Killing Me by Modest Mouse. While Brendan Bayliss and Jeff Austin already have plenty of tour dates on the books with their primary bands, 30db doesn’t have any future scheduled dates. They are both scheduled to play at Summer Camp 2011, perhaps that will be the host of the next 30db gig.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/mayan30dbsauce.mp3]Wilco’s Handshake Drugs earlier on in the set:
READ ON for tracks from The Album Leaf, tDB, STS9, and Umphrey’s…
Earlier this week, organizers of the famed Newport Jazz and Folk festivals announced that they would be returning to their roots to once again become non-profit events. The granddaddy of
Today we present what will probably be the shortest video we ever feature in our daily 10AM ET/7 AM PT slot, but we thought it was cool and rare enough
Six months ago, guitarist Nils Cline broke the news that Wilco would be starting its own label and today the band finally announced the formation of dBpm Records. The new
One can’t help but wonder if this is John McCrea circa 2010, looking back on his band’s heyday and comparing the earlier glory to the difficult task ahead of starting over, attempting to acquire a new audience while at the same time inspiring a new group of fans who may have missed Cake’s previous chart-topping run of hits. Like the syndicated sitcoms, Cake may not be must-see TV, but they are good enough to get you through the evening.
Under the Avey Tare moniker, Dave Portner released his debut album, Down There, under this dark shadow, creating electronic soundscapes filled with oscillators and sequencers, odd synthesizers bubbling underneath pitch-shifted vocals and sound effects. He envisioned the album as a swamp (which explains the album's crocodile-themed artwork) and as a journey through hell. Glide spoke with Portner about his debut album, the dark themes permeating through the music, and his love of both filmmaking and the music of Steely Dan.
