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
There was a Mule Marathon at the Beacon Theatre on December 30th and 31st during which evenings Warren Haynes and co. celebrated not just the turn of the years but the history of their band. The first night in particular illustrated why The Mule has developed such a staunch following over its sixteen year career. Perhaps buoyed by the thought of the impending semi-hiatus in 2011 (postcards for Mountain Jam festival on the seats of the venue), the quartet played loose and free but with a clarity and purpose.
December 31st is the biggest night for live music of the year. An argument might be made for Halloween, but I’m not buying it. Your non-live-music-loving-friends don’t say things like, “Halloween is the most anti-climactic day of the year” while you sit there and just snicker. We’ve been a little Phish heavy this week so let’s take a look at how 24 other bands rang in 2011.
Side Note: This was my first time using embedded images from setlist.fm and I must say it looks super slick. That site has really got it going on, I hope the quality of data improves as more people use it, because with better information – statistics like “What songs did LCD Soundsystem play in 2010” will be really useful to have for a wide variety of bands.
READ ON for lots more New Year’s Eve Setlists
Our look at the best releases of the year continues with an annual traditional around these parts that we don’t see elsewhere – a list of the best archival releases from the past 12 months. These are all albums which feature music (mostly live tracks) that was pulled from the artists’ archives and had never been officially released until 2010.
This year was another great one for archival releases as a number of bands kicked off new series (String Cheese Incident and Gov’t Mule) and many other acts kept releases for older series (Road Trips, Live Phish, Barko-Swill Zappa, Bootleg Series) flowing. I’ve included releases which feature both CDs and DVDs on our Best Concert DVDs of 2010 list, so don’t expect to see them here. Also, a release must feature music at least five years old to qualify for this list. Enough of the small talk, let’s get down to business…
10. Grateful Dead – Road Trips Vol. 3, No. 3
2010 was another banner year for Grateful Dead archival releases and my favorite of the bunch was Road Trips Vol. 3 No. 3 featuring most of the Dead’s early and late shows at the Fillmore East on May 15, 1970. Forty years after Workingman’s Dead came out, this release gives a look into where the band was at this important time in their history and contains a number of acoustic gems that have never been included on an official release before.
Where You Can Sample This Release: Dead.Net Listening Party
- Previously on HT: Best Concert DVDs of 2010, Best Archival Releases of ’09, Best Archival Releases of ’08
READ ON for Scotty’s top nine archival releases of 2010…
Catching up with the mighty Warren Haynes is always a catch-as-catch-can affair: he’s expressive and thoughtful in his answers, but with so much on his plate at all times, you run the risk of missing something if you stay on one subject too long. There’s a lot to touch on, as always: Mule is wrapping up one of its most successful touring years ever, but staying off the road for much of 2011.
It was chilly air and cloudy skies during the day, but Widespread Panic was sure to warm everybody up and make it a beautiful night. The up-tempo and loose “Wondering” soared like a sports car going 90 miles an hour on an open highway, while the heavy thunder of “Imitation Leather Shoes” hit like a Mack truck crashing 90 miles an hour into a brick wall.
Over the last few years Gregg Allman has battled a string of health problems, which have forced the legendary B3 player off the road for stretches at a time. With
In an age of Facebook, Twitter and any number of social media outlets capable of documenting the minutia of your day to day life, sometimes something as simple as the lost art of the phone call serves as the best way to connect with someone on a personal level. For their latest social activism campaign, HeadCount is doing just that by taking a back to basics approach in order to remind people to head to the polls to exercise the Constitutional right to vote in next Tuesday’s mid-term elections.
The non-partisan organization, that was founded in 2004 by Andy Bernstein and Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein, and has helped register over 175,000 people, has enlisted a impressive roster of musicians from the indie to jam world, that includes Jim James (MMJ), Willie Nelson, ?uestlove, Matt Berninger (The National), Jon Fishman (Phish) and Warren Haynes (ABB, Gov’t Mule) to not only pre-record reminder messages, but also make live personal calls to a select number of the approximately 25,000 people who have made a “Pledge to Vote” via HeadCount.
In a media conference call yesterday to talk about the inventive initiative, HeadCount board member Bob Weir (Grateful Dead/Furthur) stressed the importance of a “Vote For You” mentality, saying that young people need to take the future into consideration and participate instead of letting a bunch of “crusty old folks” made the decisions that have direct impact on their lives and those of future generations. Weir, who joked that his call list was so large he better get to work on it immediately, said that would seize the opportunity to talk to people to help figure out where the organization’s efforts will be centered in the future.
READ ON for more from HeadCount’s conference call…
We’ve got a good one this week complete with dueling sit-ins from the same show, a song that took seven years to make it to the live stage, some great covers from a folk/bluegrass legend and two of the hottest women on the live music circuit sharing the stage for a few minutes. Let’s get right into it.
A reminder, 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.
[Thanks to taperj for this week’s photo]
Gov’t Mule – Wild Horses, I’ll Be The One
Date & Venue: 2010-10-01 U of Iowa Pentacrest – Iowa City, IA
Taper & Show Download: Brad Shears
Pretty cool double-bill for a “homecoming” show when it features Gov’t Mule and Yonder Mountain String Band. YMSB opened the show and Warren Haynes welcomes mandolin player and lead vocalist Jeff Austin out for a cover of Wild Horses. Gov’t Mule [tour dates] next plays Saturday October 23rd opening for Widespread Panic at The Joint @ Hard Rock in Las Vegas, NV – sounds fun.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/govtmulesauce.mp3]Banks of The Deep End from the same show:
READ ON for tracks from Grace Potter, Jazz Mandolin Project, Tim O’Brien and Yonder Mountain String Band…
We first visited the catalog of Tom Waits a couple of months ago when we made the Cold Water edition of Cover Wars. Goin’ Out West was released on the 1992 Waits album Bone Machine. Fun bonus this week, we’ve got both very old and recent video to compare from two of our four contestants. You don’t see a whole lot of Mid ’90s live concert footage on YouTube, so that was a pleasant surprise to find. Ten points to anyone who can identify what scene in Fight Club features this song.
The Contestants:
British band Gomez leads us off this week with a strong performance from 2005. A fantastic recording of a show that also features covers of The Beatles and Buddy Holly. Audio Source: 1-24-2005
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/gomezwest.mp3]READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
