For those heading to the Crescent City for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this spring, “cube day” is when the excitement hits a fevered pitch and reality kicks in that the event is just a month away. Cubes detail the artists, times and stages for each day of the festival, giving attendees a chance to come up with a game plan before they hit the fairgrounds.
This year’s cubes have just been unveiled through the Times-Picayune’s NoLa.com and NoJazzFest.com. Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, the Beach Boys and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are just a few of the big acts slated to perform at the fairgrounds. Head to the festival’s website to create your own custom schedule.
Creative Entertainment Group has just announced the lineups for its First Annual Nolafunk Jazzfest Series of concerts that will take place between April 27 and May 5 in New Orleans during the evenings of Jazzfest and it’s ridiculous. Among the HT faves set to take part are Anders Osborne, Marco Benevento, 7 Walkers, Los Lobos, Wyllys and the NY Hustler Ensemble and ALO.
Of particular note is the opening night of the series, April 27, which brings together a lineup which won raves last year in their debut performance – Anders Osborne and his band, Bill Kreutzmann, Little Feat’s Paul Barrere & Fred Tackett and Billy Iuso. Last year the ensemble played a mix of Anders’ songs, Grateful Dead and Little Feat classics as well as other covers. As if that wasn’t enough, Marco Benevento will open and ALO will close the festivities at Republic that night.
Other shows of note include Los Lobos at Republic on April 28, Leftover Salmon plus 7 Walkers at Howlin’ Wolf that same night and EOTO plus HT contributor Wyllys and his New York Hustlers Ensemble at Republic on May 3. Tickets can be purchased through the Nolafunk website.
Here’s the full list of Nolafunk Jazzfest Series shows…
1) Dave Malone sitting in with Tommy Malone & The Mystik Drones @ the New Orleans Convention Center (7th Annual Threadhead party – Mardi Gras World, May 3)
Monday through Wednesday are the three “off days” between the two weekends of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. They are referred to as the “Daze Between.” For the last seven years, the Threadheads have thrown a party to help support local musicians (this is what the group does in addition to being all things Jazz Fest). I was shoveling plate after plate of free crawfish into my face mere hours after landing in the Big Easy while Tommy and his band were playing. The music was great background music.
I had seen Dave and Tommy standing around earlier. But when Tommy announced Dave was joining them, I grabbed my gear and ran to the front and I’m glad I did. They did two songs together. I don’t know the names of either, but the love you could see between the brothers and the passion they have for playing live music came through. And that’s what Fest is all about. READ ON for more of Marc’s top Jazz Fest musical moments…
Add iClips to the list of content providers who will be webcasting live from Jazz Fest in New Orleans this weekend. Sets from Arcade Fire, Jimmy Buffett, The Neville Brothers, Wilco, Jeff Beck, Better Than Ezra, Allen Toussaint, Galactic, Irma Thomas and Cowboy Mouth will be among those broadcast live from the Fair Grounds with the full schedule to be announced in coming days. You’ll notice the list of sets iClips will broadcast looks an awful lot like RollingStone.com’s preliminary list, so perhaps Rolling Stone has partnered with iClips as they did for Austin City Limits last October.
New Orleans Jazz Fest starts today in the Crescent City and we’ve got some good news for those unable to attend. RollingStone.com will broadcast audio and video live from the Fair Grounds starting at 6PM CDT on May 7 and 8. We’re still awaiting a broadcast schedule, but the article on RollingStone.com hints at Wilco, Arcade Fire and Galactic as being among the bands to be webcast. We’ll let you know as soon as a schedule is available.
With festival season about to kick into high gear in the coming months the latest addition to the ever growing circuit comes in the way of the UK-based Truck Festival, which will come stateside for the first time in its 13-year history for their inaugural Truck America Festival. Set to take from April 30 to May 2 at The Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY; fest organizers have revealed its initial lineup which will be headlined by Mercury Rev and features the likes of White Rabbits, Hopewell, Tim Easton, The Sadies, Ida and Neil Halstead with more acts to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
The three-stage fest, will feature both on-site camping and lodging at at resort, with single-day and three-day passes currently on-sale now.
If you can’t make it to the Full Moon Resort for this festie, than maybe you’ll be able to hit one of these recently announced tours…
Finally, the fine folks at Superfly will once again be presenting their annual Superfly During Jazzfest Series with shows to take place over both weekends of legendary festival in New Orleans. The venerable concert promoter have revealed their initial slate of shows to take place aboard the Riverboat Creole Queen, which will feature performances by Les Claypool, Greyboy All Stars, Galactic and the NMAS. Superfly will also present a special show by HT faves Gov’t Mule on April 30 at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, and recently restored and given a state of the art renovation. Tickets for all of these shows are currently on sale now.
If you missed the Gene Ween Band the first few times they came towards New York City, you’ll get another chance on May 21 when the ensemble performs at PS 29 Auditorium in Brooklyn as part of a benefit for the arts. Tickets are currently available through this website for $15. Gotta love the advisory on the ticket page warning parents about the lyric content.
Finally, we’ve gotta hand it to Perry Farrell for finishing a Jane’s Addiction gig on Sunday night in Atlanta after tearing his calf muscle during the first song. According to the AP doctors have told Farrell to stay off his leg, but he still plans to perform at the band’s next scheduled gig in Austin on Tuesday.
The producers of Rothbury have unveiled the lineup schedule for this year’s headliners. The String Cheese Incident, in their only appearance of 2009, will be the final performer on Friday July 3. The Dead, making their only Summer appearance, headline on Saturday July 4 and Bob Dylan followed by Willie Nelson & The Family Band close out the festivities on Sunday July 5.
An auction for a suitcase used by Ace Frehley fetches big bucks
Finally, The Dead played three shows in the Tri-State area this weekend and the reviews I’ve read run the gamut from “trainwreck” to “horrible” to “amazing” to “best Dead-related show I’ve seen since Jerry died.” Jeff and I will get a chance to check them out for ourselves over the next two nights at the Izod Center in New Jersey. Have you seen The Dead? Let us know what you thought about the show by leaving a comment below…
To say that the city of New Orleans has been through a lot in the last few years, would be an understatement. While the Crescent City recovers from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the one constant has been its rich music tradition and its flagship event the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
The fest once again returns to the city’s Fair Grounds Race Course on the last weekend in April and the first weekend of May to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a diverse and eclectic line up that brings together national touring acts with a plethora of local musicians. Among those set to grace the many stages and tents include Wilco, Kings Of Leon, Galactic, Erykah Badu, Dr. John, Emmylou Harris and just about every Neville you can think of.
If you can’t make it down to the Big Easy for the festivities, then maybe you’ll be able to hit one of these recently announced tours…
Dave Matthews Band recruit the likes of The Roots, OCMS & The Avett Brothers as openers for their spring tour (begins: 04/14)
Inaugural BtN artist Blitzen Trapper hit the road (begins: 02/18)
Kreutzmann/Burbridge/Murawski line up a five date February run (begins: 02/12)
Former Blips selection The Virgins have a busy ’09 already mapped out (begins: 01/15)
NMAS stay busy over the next couple of months (begins: 12/26)
Finally, recent tour mates The Hold Steady and Drive-By Truckers, as well as former Trucker Jason Isbell all head out on their own in 2009. Craig Finn & Co. will take their raucous bar band rock on the road in early Spring with the War On Drugs, while the Truckers open up their tour with a three-night run in their hometown of Athens, before heading North to South in the first two months of the year. Meanwhile, Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit have lined up a lengthy three month trek in support of their sophomore release.
If the 9AM phone calls I received from my friends down in New Orleans are any indication, this year’s Jazz Fest took things to a whole new level. Yesterday, the Neville Brothers made their first post-Katrina appearance in the Crescent City to perform a scorching set that closed things out at the Fairgrounds.
For more from Jazz Fest be sure to check out the NY Times’ ArtsBeat blog.
Here’s some video of Mike and Page of Phish at Jazz Fest
As always Uncle Neddy keeps tabs on the shows of the week
HT Contributor Randy Ray recently spoke with Chris Kuroda about life after Phish and doing lights for the likes of R. Kelly, Aerosmith and the Black Crowes. CK5 also mentions that Trey Anastasio contacted him recently to work on a new project. It’s nice to see that just like us, Kuroda clearly misses the Phish experience.
We got an interesting report from Jazz Fest that Page McConnell joined Widespread Panic for Fixin’ To Die in the middle of WSP’s set at the fairgrounds today. This marks McConnell’s first sit-in with Panic since March 9, 1994 in Burlington where he added keys to Holden Oversoul and Love Tractor. The Chairman of the Boards also lent his talents to PBS earlier in the day. You can catch video of Widespread Panic’s set at the AT&T Blueroom on Saturday afternoon thanks to a delayed webcast.
Speaking of guest appearances at Widespread shows, gorgeous fiddle player Ann Marie Calhoun jammed with the band on Saturday night in Raleigh. Our friends at Jamtopia are keeping tabs on all the videos to surface of her guest spot. Here’s a clip of Ann Marie tearing it up during Fishwater on Saturday:
After impressing a total of two Foo Fighters fans with the initial lineup for the Virgin Mobile Festival, the promoters of the event have dropped the hammer by announcing the addition of Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Iggy Pop and Wilco.
Now THAT’s a lineup! Event promoter Seth Hurwitz isn’t finished yet, so stay tuned for some last minute additions. The Virgin Mobile Festival takes place on August 9-10 at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore. Say hello to Bubs for us.
Let’s start off with a few more festival announcements:
The Outside Lands festie released the daily artist lineups
Del McCoury finalizes plans for the inaugural DelFest
R.E.M., NIN, STP are set to headline the Voodoo festie
The Guardian unveils the leaked lineup for Glastonbury ’08
Finally, Umphrey’s McGee and Gov’t Mule are teaming up for a special co-bill at Red Rocks on August 31. Presale tickets are available through Umphrey’s Ticketing and Mule Ticketing today at noon. UM will also be playing a rare acoustic show on September 1 at the Fox Theatre in Boulder.
While nearly every band in the world has a presence on MySpace, only a few of them are actually making money from the site. That may change with last week’s announcement that nearly all of the major labels have signed on for the social-networking site’s new MySpace Music initiative.
Artists will now be able to sell downloads, merchandise and concert tickets directly through their MySpace site. Details are still a bit sketchy, but we expect this deal to be a big winner for everybody involved.
And now, without further ado: here are a buncha links to kick off the week:
And finally, Perry Farrell has confirmed that the Lollapalooza lineup that Jim DeRogatis leaked on Friday was indeed correct. Farrell also took a shot at DeRo, who responds with a smackdown on his blog.
It’s official, so get ready for The Neville Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Santana, Sheryl Crow, Widespread Panic, Dr. John, Al Green, Diana Krall, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, The Raconteurs, Irma Thomas and thousands more. So The Raconteurs land on two festival bills in the span of a week — be careful, Young Jack, don’t step all over Franti/Keller Festival Territory.
Apparently you can go home again — the Neville Brothers will return to the traditional closing spot at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival they held for more than a decade. Strangely, this marks the first time Aaron, Art, Charles and Cyril Neville will perform in their hometown since Hurricane Katrina.
That news may be a few days old, but we thought it interesting due to the non-relationship between the city and the Brothers since Katrina. And Cyril’s made comments about the lack of a viable music scene at times when everyone else wants to fellate the fallen city. “People thought there was a music scene in New Orleans – there wasn’t,” Cyril told the Chicago Sun-Times. “You worked two times a year: Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. The only musicians I knew who made a living playing music in New Orleans were Kermit Ruffins and Pete Fountain. Everyone else had a day job or had to go on tour.” Now for some non-NOLA news:
Sleater-Kinney and NPR’s Carrie Brownstein ponders why Collective Soul is the lasting band from the ’90s
Finally, Bob Lefsetz makes some great points about the high ticket prices for the upcoming Winwood/Clapton shows at MSG that went on sale this morning…
