“Oh,” she shrugged. “You’re one of those guys.”

I’d been chatting up a leggy blonde at someone’s rooftop party well past midnight when she lobbed that one at me. The topic of conversation had turned to music at some point — it so often emanates from geeks with beat game — and having just run the table for six straight Beirut victories, my voice must’ve conveyed a loud conviction that bordered on either batshit insanity or total deafness.

“One of which guys?” I asked sheepishly, trying to play cool the fact that during my pointed lecture I had just spat on her face, breast, chest neck and head.

“You know, those guys,” she retorted. “Those guys in their twenties that talk about The Band like they’re the greatest thing in the world, as if possessing such a love for an obscure group of rock musicians you weren’t even old enough to see makes you cooler than everyone else, when really it just makes you an elitist that refuses to play nice with his own generation.”

The Band

“Look, ma’am,” I began with arrogant charm, “I make no apologies for wearing my love for the most underrated mostly non-American band in American rock history on my short sleeve for the world to see. You know how they say if we didn’t jump into World War II that all of Europe would be speaking German right now? Well, if The Band hadn’t hung ‘em up in 1976 we’d all be singing Canadian-Injected Southern Country Soulful Rock right now. You don’t assemble a collection of fucking talent into one band often enough that I’m willing to just brush them into the dustpan of misplaced rock. Music From Big Pink? I mean, c’mon…”

“I’m gonna go get another beer,” she mumbled, inching away slowly. “Bye.”

I know that all sounds more like an anecdote in a J. Peterman catalogue than a newsy blog post about a new tribute album hitting shelves on January 30, 2007, but I felt the need to preface my first real post on here about The Band with a full disclosure of my belief in their greatness. Nobody puts The Band in the corner.

So when ScottyB e-mailed me the information that 429 Records is releasing Endless Highway: The Music of The Band early next year, I perked up like I’d stumbled upon a cache of free porn. Hornsby on King Harvest? My Morning Jacket on It Makes No Difference? The Allmans on The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down? ALO on Ophelia? I’m normally not a tribute album guy, but buying this disc sounds like a total no-brainer, a real Schiavo. Read on for the full setlist…

Many thanks to the 429 folks for building the music section of the Endless Highway website, which has full samples of each tune. I listened to the whole thing tonight — only a handful of songs sound like the originals, and that’s a serious feather in the album’s cap. On the “Check This Out” tip, Steve Reynolds’ Stage Fright, Roseanna Cash’s Unfaithful Servant, Blues Traveler’s Rag Mama Rag and Trevor Hall’s Life Is a Carnival are all worthy of your undivided aural attention.

Endless Highway

Here’s the complete tracklist for Endless Highway, which reads kinda like a fantasy set that some dude on a message board posted as a joke:

Jack Johnson “I Shall Be Released”
The Allman Brothers “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
Death Cab For Cutie “Rocking Chair”
My Morning Jacket “It Makes No Difference”
Lee Ann Womack “The Weight”
Jakob Dylan “Whispering Pines”
Gomez “Up On Cripple Creek”
Bruce Hornsby “King Harvest”
Rosanne Cash “Unfaithful Servant”
Blues Traveler “Rag Mama Rag”
Joe Henry “Bessie Smith”
Guster “This Wheel’s On Fire”
Widespread Panic “Chest Fever”
John Hiatt & North Mississippi Allstars “Ain’t No More Cane”
Jackie Greene “Look Out Cleveland”
ALO “Ophelia”
Steve Reynolds “Stage Fright”
Josh Turner “When I Paint My Masterpiece”
Gov’t Mule “The Shape I’m In”
Trevor Hall “Life is a Carnival”
The Roches “Acadian Driftwood”

Now if we can only get this group of artists to do a tour promoting the release of this thing, we will definitely be in business…

Free Music: I can’t end this post without throwing youse a bone to the real deal, so get yourself a free login to the Concert Vault and check out these shows: 8/29/76 at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre, 2/14/74 at the Los Angeles Forum, and 1/14/74 at the Boston Garden.