We’d like to welcome photographer/journalist Mike Sherry into the Hidden Track Family to add some much needed coverage of the West Coast. For Mike’s first assignment he headed out to Morrison, Colorado for a wonderful weekend at arguably the world’s most beautiful music venue: Red Rocks.

Red Rocks never fails to amaze the eyes & ears. It’s an iconic music destination, worth planning a visit just to see your favorite act perform, and moreso with a two-day billing of closely-tied bands. This Labor Day weekend I enjoyed two nights of outstanding music and fantastic access to photograph the action. RatDog kicked things off with a subdued Help on the Way, paced too slow for my liking (Bobby stopped Jay Lane’s first tempo) but eventually the energy picked up, thanks bigtime to an infusion of Derek Trucks’ bright slide on Loser & Warren Haynes’ rascally voice on Loose Lucy. Having a guitar sparring parter certainly seemed to fire up Mark Karan, and crowd got more responsive as the evening faded into night. Chants for Not Fade Away echoing between the rocks made the air feel especially nice & warm.

READ ON for more of Mike’s thoughts and stunning photos from Red Rocks…

The Allmans brought the kind of show I like: full of surprises & heavy on exploration. It was a welcome surprise to see up close Gregg Allman looking healthy & upbeat, sounding strong from the first verse of You Don’t Love Me. Les Brers in A Minor set the tone with an early instrumental firestorm, and I noticed for the first time Derek leading the action as he & Warren traded licks, stretching & then whittling down the intervals to fit. Just as she did with Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall during RatDog’s set, Susan Tedeschi sent the heartrates of anyone not already climbing the stairs soaring with her clear, powerful voice on I Ain’t Superstitious & Don’t Think Twice. An equal treat, as most folks know, is Susan’s prowess on the Les Paul, especially counterpointed by husband Derek’s slide.

Completing the Help > Slip suite from RatDog earlier, all the members of Bobby’s troop joined the Allmans for Franklin’s Tower, lighting up every face in the crowd and on the stage. Dreams and Mountain Jam in the same show sows the grounds for major improv, and though jams developed sweet and patiently they also swelled to fruition and frenzy with stunning ease. Just as Mountain Jam seemed to be gliding back to earth, out of the blue comes the most wicked Dazed & Confused to crumble any doubt that this band delivers live like no other.

Worth more than a mention was Gregg performing Sweet Melissa on acoustic, as well as Oteil including Little Martha in his solo. Oteil on 4-string most of the night meant the rocks were slamming with good vibes, and Whipping Post sent my head reeling happily around, taking in as much from above, behind & around as well as digging the Brotherhood of Light melting on the sandstone.

HT Staff

Hidden Track was started in October of 2006 and features a team of dedicated contributors from across the country. This article was written by one of the newest members of our team or was a collaboration by more than one contributor. Want to contribute to Hidden Track? Send us a pitch to scott at glidemagazine dot com.

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