The Bearded Pigs

Tomcat's Tomcat

Hey Tomcat,

Once in a lifetime opportunity....

http://www.garykramerguitar.com/Tomcat.htm

Day Three of City Stages

"We're gonna do a song about a little town in Georgia," said Gregg Allman before tearing into a blistering version of Statesboro Blues for the second song of the Allman Brothers set.  I'd been able to gradually work my up to some twenty or thirty yards from the stage and it was pretty astonishing to watch those guitars blazing.  Worth dealing with the crowds.

It was a sampler sort of a day.  Marian & Josie came along, and we parked the chairs near the children's area.  While the girls played I went wandering around the festival grounds, catching a bit of gospel over here, and a fine closer by the Alabama Blues Women Showcase over there, and a couple of songs from Alexi Murdoch (who I'd never heard of) that were intriguing enough for me to buy a CD.  High on the fun scale was seeing Taylor Hicks with the Little Memphis Blues Orchestra on the homegrown stage.  It was the first he's played with his band since all of the American Idol stuff happened and he was clearly having a great time, as was the hometown crowd.

I stayed for just a few Allman Brothers songs before heading back to the classics stage where Lynn was bopping to the Grassroots, Herman's Hermits and the Beach Boys.  The Beach Boys were into their set when I got back, and Marian asked me to walk Josie to sleep, so I picked her up and danced around the fountain with her for a long time until she finally crashed.  And then we packed her into her wagon and made our way back to the car.

If last year was the year of the 'cello at City Stages (how many did we count up?), this year it was blues guitars -- from Luther Dickinson on Friday night to Derek Trucks & Warren Haynes last night, I saw some incredible guitar playing.  James McMurtry did a fine job as well and watching him, I could almost see my way toward playing some of the lines he was after.  But these other guys?  They're doing something else altogether and all you can do is close your eyes and let it wash over you.

Of course I missed as much good music as I saw, but that's the way of it with this festival.  Next year's can't come soon enough.

A Lazy Lowkey Festival Day

Theoretically, and strictly from an anthropological perspective, I would've liked to've seen Taylor Hicks with Snoop Dogg last night.  With Hank Williams, Jr closing things on one of the other stages, and Los Lonely Boys tearing it up at the other end of the grounds, it's just the kind of mashup that makes City Stages such a great event.

But we ended up heading home early, deciding to have a bit of a quiet evening and a good night's sleep before heading down today with Josephine and Marian.  Even so, by the time we left, we'd had five solid hours of music, ranging from the marvelous innovative MingusSphere to the high-stepping cajun energy of L'Angelus to the the honky-tonk of Radney Foster.  The weather was a little cooler and it was pleasant to stroll around and watch the crowds and hear the sounds.

There's another great range of music on tap for today.  Lynn's going to camp out by the Coca-Cola stage for the Grassroots, Herman's Hermits and the Beach Boys.  I'm looking forward to the Derek Trucks band, followed by the Allman Brothers, and hope to catch a bit of Brandi Carlisle, the Duhks, and the subdudes along the way.

City Stages, Day One

Earlier in the day, I was fantasizing that Hiatt would look over his shoulder back at Cody Dickinson and shout, "Y'wanna do the funk version or the shuffle version?" before launching into Memphis In The Meantime.  Not surprisingly, he didn't say that before closing the set with it.  On the other hand, hearing Luther's guitar start feeding back as Hiatt walked onto the stage at the beginning, signaling they were about to kick off with a blistering version of Perfectly Good Guitar, goes right into my memory bank of finest musical moments.   That he bookended his set with two from the Pigs list was a pretty neat trick.

And then when he came back out to do a solo piano version of Have A Little Faith before bringing the North Mississippi Allstars back for one more closing romp -- well, it was a pretty fine culmination to a pretty amazing musical day.

As usual, City Stages was a mix of great sets by people I'd never heard of before, revelations by people whose reputations I'd known for years without ever having a chance to listen to their stuff closely, and superb work from longtime favorites.  I find myself thinking, "Why do I only have four John Hiatt albums?  What's wrong with me?!"   And, "How quickly can Compadre Records send me everything that James McMurtry has ever recorded?"  And, "I wish I could see the faces of the rest of the Pigs lined up watching Luther Dickinson play that slide guitar with that rapturous look of joy on his face..."  And, "Aren't those kids in The Bridges way too young to be sounding that good...?"

After watching the noontime Unplugged sets, TG and I had a wonderful lunch at the newly opened 26 Restaurant at Five Points, and then headed over to Design & Display to pick up my mixer, speakers & amp.  We were back downtown just before the gates opened, so we were able to set up our chairs about a first down's distance from the stage.  At the singer/songwriter/Americana stage (currently the mypeople.com stage -- the sponsor seems to change every couple of years), the street is divided into a half for people with camp chairs and a half for people to stand.  So we typically stake out a good spot there, and can then wander the festival knowing that we've got good seats when we come back.  The system works pretty well.

Hiatt and the Allstars hooked up awhile back to record his latest album, Master of Disaster, but I didn't realize they'd be touring together.  It's a match made in heaven (or, at least, in Mississippi).  The Allstars did a fabulous long set of their own, and then, after a bit of a break, came back with Hiatt to finish up the day.  The amount of fun that these guys have on stage together is positively inspiring.

The real revelation of the day for me, however, was McMurtry.  I've know about him for years, but I doubt I've heard more than the occasional song or two.  The sound mix was really good (not always the case on the first night of the festival), so the lyrics came through very clear -- biting, clever, sarcastic, sharp...  And he's a superb guitar player as well.  The name of his band is the Heartless Bastards, and it suits.

We'll head back down early in the afternoon today.  There's a lot more music waiting...

The Evidence of Melbourne

I've written about the infamous Melbourne conference performance here.   In today's email, I find a note from Lisa, who we saw at the MLA meeting in Phoenix.  She was also in attendance at the Melbourne meeting, and told us that she'd send pictures when she got home.  The pictures have a arrived, so here's a small sample:
 

Where's Russell?

Why Russell won't be performing at the Southern & Mid-Atlantic Chapter meeting in Atlanta.

http://www.wsfl.com/index.php?page=264

the whole story  http://onelanebridge.blogspot.com/

Rotten timing.

See ya in Philly   -Russell

Serendipity?

I am always amused by the way that my I-pod throws up tunes in shuffle mode.. Yesterday it played "Wheels on Fire" - the Byrds version.. the live version from "Untitled" followed immediately by the album version from "Dr Byrds and Mr Hyde".. Is this a sign that the BP's should play it in Atlanta?? Do I have too much Byrds material on my I-pod? Is David Crosby an alien?? Curioser and curioser..