Archive: 2011

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 appearance at the long-running event. Other bands added to the Summer Camp lineup over the past two days include HT faves Van Ghost, Greensky Bluegrass […]

[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, Ween debuted a cover of Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana. Check it out… Ween – Heart Shaped Box

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…

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD STEEL OATS #7

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.

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 all music festivals, which began in 1954 and 1959 respectively, have created the Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc., who in addition to producing the festivals, will […]

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 to share. Check out this less-than-a-minute clip from 1988 of Robbie Robertson rocking out King Harvest with G.E. Smith, the late T-Bone Wolk and the […]

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 imprint will “release all future Wilco recordings and more” according to a statement. DBpm will be distributed by ANTI- Records, a company that will also […]

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.

The summer festival field may become even more crowded this June with a proposed three-day event at Bader Field in Atlantic City. AC mayor Lorenzo Langford spoke about the festival earlier this month at a luncheon and according to an Atlantic City Weekly report, mentioned that a big-time promoter is putting said festival together. To […]

Yesterday, we shared the disturbing tale of Ween’s tour opener in Vancouver, which quickly turned into a trainwreck of epic proportions due to Gene Ween’s visibly unhinged condition. The band’s tour rolled on to Seattle last night and HT’s Andy Kahn reports that Gener was upright the entire night, sounded great for the most part […]

I feel like one of the last remaining Americans whose phone isn’t “smart,” but there haven’t been many apps that make me jealous of those who have embraced iPhones…until today. A new app called Jammit allows musicians to isolate tracks from an extensive library of artists’ original master recordings, so you can either hear exactly […]

Here’s what Three Grown Men are thinking about the possibility of the H.O.R.D.E. tour making a comeback next year…

Conor Kelley

The recent speculation about the H.O.R.D.E. Festival making a resurgence in 2012 has jamband fans buzzing, from the dreadlocked to the collar-popped. Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the tour’s first all-star lineup, which ripped listeners away from the Grateful Dead’s concert-opoly and fragmented the scene into dozens of successful nationally touring acts. The “jamband” world officially had a seat at the head table. Being present for the birth of any musical movement is an exciting spectacle I’m sure, though I’ve never had the perfect right time, right place, right hair, right clothes combination to witness it. It’s a rock and roll rarity when the crowd organizes itself and rallies around a group of like-minded and talented bands, but these are the moments that change popular music forever.

[Pass Scan via H.O.R.D.E. page on Bluestraveler.net]

The interesting thing about the first few H.O.R.D.E tours is that the players involved in the original 1992 and 1993 lineups went on to become, by and large, the most commercially successful jam acts of all time. The tour had nothing but pure intentions and backed up the old-world touring band credo: talent + exposure = success.

Bringing H.O.R.D.E back after a 13 year lapse is an interesting move, but will H.O.R.D.E. 2.0 be anything like the original? My hope for the festival is that John Popper returns as organizer, takes the reins and creates something truly special again. He should find a short list of dead-serious bands who just need that extra push from a 600-capacity club into an amphitheater in order to gain a following. That would be the only way to pay homage to what H.O.R.D.E. started in 1992.

READ ON for more from 3GM on the possible return of H.O.R.D.E….

After spending three years at the kitschy Kutsher’s Country Club in the Catskills region of New York, organizers behind the highly successful All Tomorrow’s Parties have announced a change for this year, deciding to move their hipster friendly festival to the site of another once thriving summer destination – Asbury Park, NJ. The event is […]

For a number of years now, I honestly feel the single, best kept secret in our scene has been the music of a single man: Brock Butler. Best known for his guitar playing and frontman persona of the Athens-based quartet Perpetual Groove, Butler has also thrived in an unconventional way in the solo spotlight.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

Admittedly a friend since about ’03, Butler and I instantly formed a brotherhood of sorts, even joking at times that eventually we would start our own band simply titled, “BBBBBBBBBBBB…” (like the sound you make when you run your finger across your vibrating lips). Clever, I know, especially considering I can barely play a spoon. But, with Brock leading the way, I’d doubt anyone else would even notice. I’ve not only been lucky enough to call him a friend, but also stood by and been amazed by his lyrics, music and overall presence on more than a number of occasions. We’ve slept on each others couches and I have interviewed him in a number of formal settings, focusing mostly on PGroove. But today, as I said, I am going to let you in on the other half of his existence, which is simply a boy and his guitar.

Growing up in Virigina and studying in Savannah, Georgia, Butler and company finally settled down in their current home of Athens, a well-known breeding ground for artists as diverse as R.E.M. and Widespread Panic. And while Butler’s greatest notoriety is gained from his mammoth sounds with PGroove, he is simply a man who is seemingly in no rush and always tries to get lost in the “slow groove.” His solo shows won’t usually garner any huge touring notice, for he is much better known for sunrise sets on Jam Cruise, an impromptu late night hotel room session, or simply in any place where the mood strikes him. Drawing from a catalog of classic covers, heartfelt originals, delicate loops and gentle humor, I’m confident to say that Butler is a well guarded secret that once you hear, won’t be easy to get out of your head.

READ ON for more from Brian on Brock Butler…

In conjunction with yesterday’s release of Gutter Rainbows, his fifth full-length solo effort, Talib Kweli also put out an official video for the single, Cold Rain. Gutter Rainbows is chock full of familiar Brooklyn musicians, as Nigel Hall, Eric Krasno, Adam Deitch and many more lend their talents to the record. The video seems to […]

Duane Allman may be remembered as a member of Derek and the Dominos thanks to Sky Dog’s contributions to Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, but he only played two live shows with the band. One of those gigs – December 1st, 1970 at Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa – was recorded for posterity and […]

Robert Plant performing at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville, NC on January 18th, 2011.

Jason Moran & Bandwagon/Ten (Blue Note): Pianist Jason Moran and his Bandwagon trio are busy from the very outset of this CD and that’s a reflection of the ambitious career upon which this release is based. The threesome have culled its selections from various larger projects, including multi-media presentations, commissioned works and educational initiatives and […]