Giving Up the Ghost is Jackie Greene’s best album to date—the fullest expression of his folksy songwriting and country blues dexterity. But his songs have never been over-reliant on heavy metaphor or confusing wordplay. Ball and Chain, Gone Wonderin’, When You’re Walkin’ Away, Rusty Nail—these are songs to enjoy, shake your ass and drink to as much as they’re poetic.
His band is similarly unfettered: a collection of seasoned musicians with a few good guitar licks and a great bar band’s sense of pacing and slow one/fast one balance. The band kicked up a nice little fuss on the main stage just now, using charm to overcome a shaky sound mix—too much bass, too little lead guitar—and giving up requisite Dead (New Speedway Boogie, briefly, and Sugaree, fully) throughout. Donna Jean sang harmony on Sugaree—I might have been a little too hasty proclaiming Jen Durkin the most ubiquitous performer of the weekend—and we got Jackie’s Ryan Adams-ish Gone Wandering again, a less groovy, more boogie-hewing version than the one Phil & Friends played last night.
Speaking of Phil & Friends, John Molo’s been making the rounds, saying hello to friends and strangers alike near the main stage and in the tents, extolling Jackie’s virtues and pressing the flesh. It’s always nice to see artists who don’t scurry off into the backstage area or jump in their cars the second their sets are over.
If she keeps up this pace, the peppery and charming Ms. Durkin will run away with another festival MVP (following her raft of sit-ins at 10,000 Lakes last weekend). She’s been all over the place, not least with Deep Banana, and also recording segments for Lotus Soundworks, which has the tent next door to ours (it’s a music program where Jen interviews musicians and generally gets down with her bad self in an casual talk setting). Now, Durkin’s onstage slaying the yawning and bleary-eyed early-comers with the Organically Grown Gospel Choir. It’s a sun-baked day, quite hot, and there’s soul-nourishing gospel on Sunday morning. This, folks, would be “agreeable.”
Apropos of nothing, coming into the Vibes today I saw a number of folks who didn’t appear to have tickets or be working for the fest sprawled out on blankets on the University of Bridgeport campus, which surrounds one side of Seaside Park. The stage is so far away it’s impossible to see anything from this distance, but the sound is relatively crisp—you can make out most every vocal inflection, really feel the rhythm section, and leads from the organ and guitar are only slightly watery and a smidge muffled. Honestly, you can hear better out here than on some places within the festival grounds.
Packed afternoon ahead, so I’m about to trade Dunkins for water and sunscreen and get ready for Jackie Greene’s band. Scrapomatic is also going to be holding down the Solar Stage just before Derek and Susan come on with Soul Stew Revival. Soul! Everywhere you look. If you’re not a the Vibes, check out the webcast.
Just ran into the lovely and ridiculously talented Samantha Stollenwerck hanging around the press tent and resplendent as usual. Stollenwerck already played yesterday on the Solar Stage, but she’s here to soak up what’s turning out to be a beaut of a day…
And speaking of which, there’s gospel. Oh, how there’s gospel.
Phil Set 2: Scarlet Begonias > All Along the Watchtower > Jam > He’s Gone > Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad > And We Bid You Goodnight Jam, **Phil piss break**, Wharf Rat > spacey jam > The Elevator > jam > The Eleven > I Know You Rider, Not Fade Away
E: Donor rap, Box of Rain
A really ambitious second set that almost came off the rails—that Elevator just couldn’t lock itself in enough to achieve liftoff despite gunning for epic, late-second-set status. People are yakking about the second half of the set, especially that angsty Wharf Rat and a fizzy Eleven, but I’ll remember this PLF set as the best Scarlet Begonias I’ve ever heard from this lineup, and maybe Phil & Friends period. Funky as hell and nailing every tension-and-release build-up, Phil dragged the groove to within an inch of its life before the bottom-drops-out “Wind in the willows…” verse, and the crowd was electrified. Strong transitions, too—the jam out of Scarlet took a number of turns and suggested any number of directions before finally dropping into the sinister progressions that would become Watchtower.
SET 1: Here Comes Sunshine > Good Lovin’, Gone Wanderin’, Cumberland Blues, Dire Wolf, Loser, Cold Rain and Snow
It was a jam-packed first half, with a rollicking Good Lovin’ to get the crowd riled up, a scorching Loser and plenty of exploration (and teases and red herrings) in Cold Rain and Snow. But the story is Cumberland, which veered off in different directions after every verse, from fleet-fingered bluegrass style breakdown, to boogie groove, to blues shuffle. I’ve fluffed this amazing Phil & Friends lineup a lot, but it bears repeating: Cumberland is its signature tune. The rain’s picked up again, but Phil’s announced his intention to get good n’ crazy, and nobody’s leaving now…
Well, yes, Kreutzmann was aboard for a few songs, and overall Cactus gave us a really groovy set, focused on much of The Green Sparrow, which drops this week. Murawski was lauded as the force of nature he is—Gordon joked that he’d be playing in 100 bands this weekend—and there was also a strong showing from keyboardist Tom Cleary, who wears even the more languid Gordon selections well enough to claim his section of the limelight.
And how much fun is Taj Mahal? The veteran bluesman always surprises me with how much energy he still brings to the stage—stomping and bopping along up there while serving up piquant guitar fills and wiry solos. Toward the end of the set, following a rippling Checkin’ Up On My Baby, he switched to the island and African fusion he’s been working on in more recent years, including such upbeat, good natured jams as Hanapepe Dream. His trio is Swiss-Watch tight—both the bassist and drummer hold so close to such a deep pocket that adding even one more instrument might spoil the streamlined balance. We’ll be back later with more from the Vibes at Bridgeport.
The trio of Bill Kreutzmann, Scott Murawski and Oteil Burbridge is a heady
thing—a lot fuller and far-reaching a sound than you might expect, but then chide yourself for not expecting given the talent level of the people involved.
An opening Eyes of the World, for example, offered three distinct solos from Murawski—one lilting, one funky and one breezy—and each had a moment of lock-in with both Burbridge and Kreutzmann that suggested this band is especially interested in how to get the most mileage out of a single song’s architecture—there’s no hurry to get to the next one so long as there are stones unturned and choices to make. Every cut they’ve played so far—including Franklin’s Tower, Help On the Way (the latter one later) and a taut Rhymes that featured Jen Durkin on vocals—has been given time to marinate and switch gears a few times, letting Murawski dig deep, Burbridge make some tricky curves, and Kreutzmann hold it down in a number of different tempos and dynamics.
The New Riders came earlier, and deftly navigated a mix of classics (Panama Red), new songs (watch out for the galloping Ghost Train Blues debuted in April 2008 and featuring Robert Hunter lyrics) and Dead-borrowing (Deep Elem Blues). Donna Jean, resplendent as usual, joined in for a few numbers, and David Nelson, Buddy Cage and the rest of the band were milling about afterward cool to talk politics and mirth (not necessarily in that order) with anyone who was available.
The New Riders are a comfy sort of cool—that bright and airy country rock thing with Cage’s skywriting pedal steel at its core, unwavering in focus and uncompromised in style. They’re a quintessential Vibes band, even if their mix was occasionally unkind on a suddenly sun-dappled afternoon.
The Mike Gordon Band is up next, and rumors of a Kreutzmann sit-in–among other possibilities–are reaching critical mass. Gonna try to visit the Solar Stage, where David Gans is due up shortly, in the meantime.
Of all the people I’ve met and got re-acquainted with at the Vibes so far, I need to introduce Joy Bashew Rosenberg, who’s headquarterd in the tubes at thejambandbook.blogspot.com. Joy, a USC graduate, started an expose of jamband history and culture for her masters’ thesis in fine arts (creative writing), and now she’s headed for the next level—i.e. getting the history chronicled and getting it into book form. She’s at the Vibes making contacts, trying to land artist interviews, and brightening up the gray day with her infectious smile.
[BuzzUniverse @ The Vibes]
Joy’s soliciting stories from the road and jamband memories, so be sure to drop by her site.
Jonathan Lobdell, the Vibes’ unflappable press guru, just did a fist pump in exclamation of the first rays of sun in about three hours. We know the feeling.
The Gathering of the Vibes has become the Opening of the Skies, folks; as far as today’s schedule, only the Alternate Routes got their main stage set in, and from the looks of things—we’re now about two hours behind schedule—Strangefolk isn’t going to play. But everyone’s got a smile and a good head on; the kiddies are running through the muck, the hippies are boogieing and merch and food are moving steadily in puddled walking lanes.
We just got power back, too, and despite a number of reported artists stuck in flood-zone traffic—Mike Gordon among ‘em—I’ve just been advised we’ll be getting the New Riders shortly. Forward pioneers!
There’s so much to say about the beguiling ambiance of Seaside Park—and how well this long-maintained festival holds and absorbs the space, especially since its 2007 return—but a few traveling snafus have put your faithful correspondent a little more behind the eight-ball at the moment than he’d prefer. So, to the point.
The Black Crowes diehards among us haven’t had it so good this decade—I’ve found my own Crowes apologism working overtime with every false start and curveball. Sometimes it’s been difficult (I took some first-timer-for-whatever-reason Crowes fans to a messy, flatlining show in New Hampshire in July 2006 and ended up embarrassed) and sometimes faith rewarded (brought those same skeptical “fans” to a two-set blowout of a Crowes show in Worcester, MA later that year, and they were sold from the opening notes of “Virtue and Vice” on).
READ ON for more of Chad’s coverage straight from the Vibes in Bridgeport, CT…
