Back in 2002, the large-scale music festival landscape in the United States was virtually nonexistent. So when Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment announced plans for a multi-day, jam-friendly fest, named
Railroad Earth's fifth and self titled studio release will paint a totally new picture of this New Jersey souped up string band. On Railroad Earth you will notice it is much different from their previous affectionate themed album, Amen Corner
Railroad Earth made its first stop in Wilkes-Barre, PA with Donna the Buffalo, and loaded up with new songs to test upon the crowd. Being a ‘musical guinea pig’ is great – having new material tested on the crowd is always interesting and, when it’s good, it’s great.
Cornershop sure don’t like to be rushed when it comes to recording albums, taking nearly eight years in between releases and putting out only three records in the last 13
The year was 1999 and it had been a good five years since the last major release of a Tom Waits album before the critically acclaimed Mule Variations hit the store shelves. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of allmusic says this of the album,
Waits is still writing terrific songs and matching them with wildly evocative productions; furthermore, it’s his lightest record in years — it’s actually fun to listen to, even with a murder ballad here and a psycho blues there. In that sense, it’s a unique item in his post-Swordfish catalog, and that may make up for it not being the masterpiece it seemed like it could have been.
The Contestants:
This rendition from Ekoostik Hookah was recorded at Magic Bag in Ferndale, MI on 12-14-2001.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/hookahwater.mp3]READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Our pal The Joker from the Coventry Music blog has made his way to Arkansas to cover this weekend’s Wakarusa for HT. He’ll be sending reports each day – on both the scene and the music – and hopefully we’ll get some photos from longtime HT contributor John Schulze who is also on the scene. Here’s The Joker’s report on the first day of the festival…
To start this trip a few friends and I flew from Denver to Tulsa and rented a car to make the trip from Tulsa to Mulberry Mountain for Wakarusa. As we were waiting to board our planes I got a couple of stories from friends who had run into some bad luck on the way there – the Basics Fund Bus got pulled over in Hayes, KS after a State Trooper stopped to question the driver and noticed a stray nugget at his feet. Oops. They were “detained” for several hours while the Troopers ripped apart the bus, but they were eventually allowed to continue on to Wakarusa.
My group got to the festival grounds and finished setting up camp about 8pm. We started a little late in the evening as compared to most of the festivalgoers. The first taste of music I caught was after sundown – Robert Randolph. Robert Randolph always puts on a danceable show, but his setlists lack variety. Randolph brought up Ivan Neville for a strong version of Papa Was A Rolling Stone, but other than that it was a high energy yet standard show.
Next up was Railroad Earth in the Revival Tent. Railroad started off by ripping through jammy, psychedelic versions of Cold Water and Birds of America. The crowd in the tent was so into it and Tim Carbone’s fiddle seemed to breathe new life into an audience who was happy the sun had gone away and could dance under the lights. I was into Railroad Earth’s set and wish I could seen all of it. Since they play again today, and I had a Disco Ball on my head once again, I left early to head to see what madness Bisco would bring.
READ ON for more about Neil’s experience on Day 1 of Wakarusa…
When a band is on hiatus, you get times where the high level of intensity stays moderately average, and then you get those shows where the immeasurable musical magic occurs, and causes you to wonder when this band will reach its best moments… I hope we haven’t seen it yet, although this show could qualify very much so, with this being the fourth out of the five shows Railroad Earth has played with new bass player Andrew Altman.
This past weekend I was explaining the concept of Last Week’s Sauce to a friend of mine and they said, “Oh, so it’s like a Podcast of music that happened the previous week.” I explained yes that it was, but that I don’t compile all the tracks into one file, I just download them…do some edits and normalizing and we embed them individually on our site. Then it occurred to me that it would be just a little more work to essentially make this a Podcast as well. So for the first time this week, you can download all of this week’s selections in one easy to transport MP3. Click here to download this week’s selections. The rest of the piece will continue as it always has, with the audio embedded directly into the piece individually.
[Thanks to kcmoejoe for this week’s photo]
Artist & Title: Jackie Greene – I Don’t Live In A Dream
Date & Venue: 2010-03-07 SPACE, Evanston IL
Taper & Show Download: arzjr
Jackie Greene is on the road in a slightly more stripped down setup than you are used to seeing from him live. The shows are being billed as the Jackie Greene Acoustic trio, and he has regularly been performing a few songs solo acoustic as well. He certainly has the song catalog to effectively pull this off. Greene plays tonight at Old Rock House in St. Louis.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/jackiesauce.mp3]READ ON for tracks from Lettuce, RRE, Stockholm Syndrome and Wilco…
Words: Jonathan “Kos” Kosakow
Images: S. Balaji Mani
In a city where you can find entertainment of just about any kind, Yonder Mountain String Band stood out from the rest of options this past Saturday night in New York City’s Times Square thanks to their unique way of adding a slight twist of modern rock to traditional bluegrass that allows their sound to satisfy the tastes of fans across the board.
Even without a percussionist, the group is able to keep any crowd shuffling their feet for hours on end. Vocally, all four members are able to take center stage – with the majority of songs led by mandolin player Jeff Austin or bassist Ben Kaufman. The moments that they truly shine, though, come when they all harmonize together.
Unlike many current acts, the four members of YMSB, though they play different parts and sing different lines, come together to sound as one. Given their excitement at playing on Broadway, the quartet came out rocking, ready to play to their largest New York City audience to date at the 2,100-capacity Nokia Theater. READ ON for more from Kos and Balaji…
Last Week’s Sauce is a recurring column featuring recordings of shows that took place the previous week. Thanks to ScottT for this week’s photo.
Artist & Title: The Decemberists – The Wanting Comes In Waves / Repaid
Date & Venue: 2009-05-20 – Fox Theatre, Oakland CA
Taper & Show Download: Mike Vernal
The Decemberists are out on tour and playing their new album Hazards Of Love in its entirety. This track is, of course, off of that album. They are in the middle of a tour and they play tonight in Kansas City.
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/decemberistssauce.mp3]READ ON for more entries from the likes of Mogwai and Railroad Earth…