Archive: 2011

UK fivesome Foals have announced their tour plans for this coming spring in support of their latest release, Total Life Forever. The US leg of the tour kicks off in Seattle on April 11th and then continues on around the country until dropping down into Mexico. See all the dates below. Supporting on the majority of the dates […]

Hadestown is unlike any other musical you might have seen in the past ten years. It’s not based on the songbook of some famous artist. It’s not an adaptation of yet another well-known Disney movie. Hadestown is in a class of its own, and as such it’s often difficult to describe. Sure, it’s about Orpheus’ descent into the underground to rescue Eurydice from Hades’ grasp, but what makes the show so successful is its employment of ambiguity throughout the whole ordeal.

On Flags, Brooke Fraser demonstrates that she is not just another in a long line of pop singer-songwriters who get by on their looks and marginal talent. Her observations alone about the human condition cause this collection of songs to rise above the efforts of many of her contemporaries, and her rich vocals combine with the plethora of piano pop rock sounds and sometimes otherworldly accompaniments to make the whole experience even more impressive.

On a day when we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it seemed only appropriate to post on another person that was heavily involved in the 1960s Civil Rights movement – folk singer Phil Ochs. In his 1960s heyday Ochs was as synonymous with the Greenwich Village folk circuit as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, […]

Jam Cruise 9 was all about making good use of every single minute aboard the MSC Poesia for me, a task made easier by rooming with fellow scribe Dennis Cook of JamBase and Dirty Impound fame. Dennis and I met on Jam Cruise 8 and instantly became friends, which thrilled me to no end as […]

Tomorrow sees the release of Low Country Blues, the first new studio album from Allman Brothers Band front man Gregg Allman in 14 years. The 12-track blues covers record, produced by T. Bone Burnett, features Allman backed by Dr. John, Doyle Bramhall II on guitar and Burnett’s studio rhythm section of bassist Dennis Crouch and […]

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Wanda Jackson, aka the First Lady of Rockabilly, will release her Jack White-produced album The Party Ain’t Over on January 25. In advance of that 11-track release, the duo will visit The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS this Thursday night. Monday, January 17 Film : Dazed and […]

In 2011, it seems that Acoustic Syndicate is really and truly back, at least in a regional sense, with bassist Jay Sanders fully on board, several tour dates in the southeast, and their first new batch of songs since 2004.

A laid back precision may be Bright Examples hallmark.  That place where music surges gracefully like a passing river in a crystal moonlit night.  This music is simultaneously hushed and vibrant, pulsing and meticulous, lucid and a little scruffy. 

Drummer Matt Butler has made his Everyone Orchestra a staple of festivals and live shows for the past 10 years. For the first time in the ensemble’s history, The Everyone Orchestra will enter a Brooklyn studio this week to record an album. Butler put together a ridiculous lineup for the group’s foray into the studio […]

The influential NYC-Freaks e-mail list – which has helped launch the careers of Robert Randolph, The Duo and the American Babies, among others – will celebrate 11 years of connecting friends, sharing information and tastemaking at Freaks Ball XI on February 4th. This year’s Freaks Ball will be held at Brooklyn Bowl, aka our staff’s […]

The Meat Puppets have announced their return with the release of their new album Lollipop out April 12, 2011 on Megaforce Records. Following up on their critically lauded 09 release, Sewn Together, Lollipop was recorded at Spoon’s HiFi Studio’s in Austin. Produced by band leader Curt Kirwood, the album features the indelible Kirkwood brothers back at […]

Recorded 30 years ago while Marley was touring in support of his album Uprising, Live Forever is Bob Marley‘s last recorded concert. This never before released audio collection offers an incredible snapshot of one of music’s most influential performers. The album is being released on February 1, 2011 on UMe/Tuff Gong International.  The record is available […]

Photographer Dave Vann takes us on board the MSC Poesia for Jam Cruise 9

Situated on the sixth floor of the Time Warner Center on Manhattan’s Upper Wide Side, lies arguably the city’s best kept secret of a music venue – Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Allen Room – a venue which typically caters to a more affluent audience, than its downtown rock club peers. Set up like an amphitheater, it boasts easily the most amazing views you’re ever going to get at a concert hall in an urban environment with its gigantic floor to ceiling glass windows, that directly overlooks the passing traffic going around Columbus Circle and a stretch of 59th Street that you can see clear all the way to the East Side.

Last night, the Allen Room played host to the kick off concert for Lincoln Center’s thirteenth season of its American Songbook Series, with a show from folk-rockers The Low Anthem. Dressed liked they had just stepped straight out of  Greenwich Village’s pass-the-hat folk circuit circa-1964, and surrounded by a mix of both familiar and slightly obscure, and long forgotten instruments, which included a gigantic church organ they had specially brought in just for this show, graciously paid for by the folks at Lincoln Center. The band took to the stage to a mesmerizing view of glowing head and tail lights, and flickering lights from the posh apartments that surround Central Park West.

The Providence-based act, fresh off their second appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman the night before, used nearly all of their hour and a half-long set to showcase the songs from their upcoming studio album Smart Flesh, which is due out on February 22. Ben Knox Miller & company set the tone for the night by opening with the hushed To The Ghosts Who Write History Books from their critically acclaimed sophomore album Oh My God Charlie Darwin, sung in Knox Miller’s striking falsetto vocals that conjures up comparisons to an odd mix between Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Tom Waits.

READ ON for more on The Low Anthem’s show…

All Photos by Dave Vann

Outside of the music, do you know what the best part of Jam Cruise 9 was? The people. Imagine a boat filled to the brim with cruisers who have similar interests to you. Each day, I would strike up a conversation with someone I never met before in the elevator, at the cafeteria or in the halls and minutes later we would depart as friends after having talked about the New Year’s Eve Phish show or after finding out that we shared some friends.

[All Photos by Dave Vann]

There were plenty of people I met last year that I kept in touch with all year long via email or Facebook and it was such a thrill to reconnect with some of these folks on Jam Cruise 9. Not to mention, I met dozens of people this time around that I know I’ll be friends with forever. Hell, I even met three or four potential new Hidden Track contributors during my time on the Poesia.

With that said, I want to share a photo gallery featuring the true stars of Jam Cruise 9 – the people. Photographer Dave Vann has graciously allowed us to run some of his photos from the five-day adventure. Head down to the bottom of this post if you want to shuffle through a slide show of pics as I’ll be offering some commentary on indiviual photos before finishing with a complete gallery.

• Previous Jam Cruise Journals: All Aboard, Knee Deep In It, Letter to 16-Year-Old ScottyB, Nourished Soul, Day Four – Part 1, My Jam Cruise Debut, Jam Cruise 9 Videos, Day Four – Part 2

Just before we left the Jam Cruise staff met to make sure all ran smoothly…

READ ON for more of Dave’s spectacular Jam Cruisers shots…

Three years ago, we were honored to win the 2008 Weblog Award as Best Music Blog. Today, the nomination page for the 2011 Bloggies has gone live and if you appreciate what we do, we ask you to fill in our name and URL under the “Best Music Blog” section. Please note that you’ll need […]

2011 marks 25 Years as a band for southern jam titans Widespread Panic. The group already announced a run of three intimate shows in its home state of Georgia that sold out quickly and today announced a Spring Tour. The two-week run includes stops at fan and band favorite venues including the Palace in Louisville, […]

Word spread yesterday that the Grateful Dead have sold the exclusive rights to develop online and mobile GD-themed video games to Curious Sense, an Asheville-based company which has previous worked with bands such as REO Speedwagon to enter the quickly-developing mobile game industry. According to the firm’s website, the first version of the product will […]

While last year Okkervil River served as the backing band on psych-rock legend Roky Erickson’s first solo album in 14 years, we haven’t heard anything in the way of new music from the Austin-based act since 2008’s The Stand Ins. On May 10, the “Smart-Rock” act will release their first new album in three years […]