SMM #56: August 1st, 2023
Some albums that I currently have in heavy rotation, another scattered nuggets playlist, and notes on a couple of live shows that rounded out the month.
What I’m Listening To
WARREN ZEVON - Stand in the Fire: Recorded Live at The Roxy… hadn’t listened to this one from 1980 in years… it’s just tremendous! One of the best live rock ‘n’ roll albums you’ll ever hear… a great artist, with a great batch of songs and a band that is firing on all cylinders… Zevon sounds like he's having the time of his life as he rips into every song… high points for me are “Lawyers, Guns & Money,” one of my all-time favorite songs (and one of the few I actually know all the lyrics to haha) and his cover of “Bo Diddley’s a Gunslinger” is as good as any Bo cover I’ve ever heard…
TRAFFIC - Welcome to The Canteen… another classic old live album released in 1971… it’s a compact 6 songs but all stellar performances, especially the last two jammed-out showstoppers, “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and “Gimme Some Lovin’”... original Traffic member Dave Mason reunited with the band for this tour and the album features two of his best solo tunes, “Sad and Deep as You” and “Shouldn’t of Took More Than You Gave”...
B.B. KING - Indianola Mississippi Seeds… I love blues guitar but was never a big B.B. fan, always preferred the more fiery lead players like Buddy Guy and Otis Rush… have been reading a Leon Russell bio and it mentioned that he played on this album from 1970… had never listened to it so I checked it out and it's quite good… also features guest artists Joe Walsh on guitar and Carole King on piano (someone I wouldn’t expect to see on a B.B. King album!)…
Playlist: Scattered Nuggets - Rock and Roll, Vol. 12
Back to rock ‘n’ roll with this issue’s playlist, including, some cool covers of well-known songs… kicking it off is JD McPherson covering the 50s Billy Boy Arnold blues nugget, “I Wish You Would,” a song popularized in the 60s by The Yardbirds featuring a young Eric Clapton… the next rockin’ tune features the powerful vocals of Danielle Nicole… have seen her live a few times playing bass & singing with one of my faves, the North Mississippi All-Stars… next is a stripped-down reworking of Aerosmith’s classic “Sweet Emotion” from guitarist Leo Kottke and Phish-bassist Mike Gordon that works surprisingly well… the Hindu Love Gods was a one-off project combining the band R.E.M. with Warren Zevon on vocals, replacing Michael Stipe… the album was all covers and is a great listen, including this version of Prince’s “Raspberry Beret”... following this is Prince himself, ably assisted by Sheila Easton on vocals, on this crunching rocker from 1987’s Sign ‘O’ the Times… Paul Pena is a totally unknown early 70s artist who has one self-titled album from 1971 that includes this catchy rocker… amazingly, the album does NOT include his “claim to fame” - the song “Jet Airliner” that became a top 10 hit for the Steve Miller Band in 1977… Pena wrote and recorded the song in 1973 for an album that was not released until 2000 (and is no longer available) due to conflicts between him and his label… Glenn Schwartz, who passed away in 2018, was a legendary Midwestern blues-rock guitarist and the original guitarist in the James Gang - later to be replaced by Joe Walsh… this killer cut features Schwartz, Walsh and The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach, who brought them all together and cites Schwartz as his “biggest rock 'n' roll inspiration“... Phantom, Rocker & Slick was a short-lived collaboration between the former Stray Cats rhythm section and Earl Slick, one of David Bowie’s former lead guitarists… the Quaker City Night Hawks are a solid Texas rock band whose claim to fame is several of their songs were used in the TV series, Sons of Anarchy (this wasn’t one of them)... next are Rod Stewart & Faces with one of the best Chuck Berry covers ever as the band jams it out for over five rollicking minutes (the Berry original was only 2:13)... Matt Anderson is a veteran Canadian blues-rock guitarist & singer and this tune from his latest album reminds me of New Orleans slide guitarist, Sonny Landreth… next is Joan Jett & The Blackhearts with the Springsteen-written song “Light of Day” from the 1987 movie of the same name, starring Michael J. Fox and Jett… I’ve heard of country-rock artist Parker Millsap but never listened to him before coming across his fired-up performance on this electric guitar rocker… definitely need to explore his music further! Discovered the Canadian rock band, Big Sugar in the 90s via a couple excellent CDs… the leader Gordie Johnson has worked with bands like Gov’t Mule, ZZ Top and Widespread Panic and also formed a hard rock band called Grady with former Stevie Ray Vaughan drummer, Chris Layton… the playlist wraps up with a lengthy instrumental jam from Curtis Knight & The Squires, featuring a then unknown Jimi Hendrix blazing away on lead guitar… he was soon to become VERY known!
July Concert Roundup
Date: July 20th, 2023
Act: Son Volt, Peter Bruntnell
Venue: City Winery, New York, NY
I had never seen Son Volt live before or been to the new City Winery NYC venue located in a great spot on Pier 57 on the Hudson River so I killed two birds with one proverbial stone…
Although they have mostly flown under the radar, Son Volt has been putting out consistently good country-rock for close to 30 years now… their current tour is billed as “28 Years of Son Volt with Songs of Trace & Doug Sahm”... that’s a mouthful! Anyway, in the previous issue of SMM, I reviewed their latest album, Day of the Doug: The Songs of Doug Sahm and Trace was their 1995 debut album and is still considered their best album… hence, the theme of the tour…
Opening act Peter Bruntnell is a veteran English singer/songwriter who did a solo acoustic set of witty story songs… not really my bag but he was entertaining… I’ve gone back and listened to some of his early 2000s albums and it’s full band country-rock, worth further exploration… he claimed Son Volt is his favorite band and I could definitely hear their influence…
Son Volt came out right at 9:00 and proceeded to run through a rockin’ 25 song, nearly 2 hour set… and when I say “run” I mean it… they rushed from song to song with minimal time in between, like they had a plane to catch! Perhaps the venue had an 11:00 curfew since they finished ~10:50… they started off with a bunch of Doug Sahm tunes highlighted by “Give Back the Key to My Heart,” a song that Sahm himself recorded with Uncle Tupelo, leader Jay Farrar’s original band… they then played the complete Trace album, followed by several other songs from the band’s catalog… the encore was a great version of The Band classic “The Weight” and Uncle Tupelo gem, “Chickamauga” featuring some great guitar work from Farrar…
Regarding the venue, City Winery is basically a “supper club” style restaurant… tables range from 2 seats to 10 seats and you pick your seats and end up sitting with strangers… not that big a deal but I much prefer an old fashioned open floor, standing concert venue or theater like the Beacon… on the plus side, it is a very intimate setting and you are close to the stage no matter where you sit…
Date: July 23rd, 2023
Act: Great South Bay Music Festival
Venue: Shorefront Park, Patchogue, NY
The Great South Bay Music Festival celebrated its 15th anniversary this year with a four-day event that featured a great lineup of performers including Gov’t Mule, Hot Tuna, Phil Lesh & Friends, Dave Mason, the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening…
During the earlier years of the festival I usually did not find the performers they booked very interesting and felt the overall quality was pretty low… I finally decided to check it out for the first time in 2015 when one of my favorite bands at the time, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, played… we went again in 2018 and, while the music was fine (Hot Tuna, Little Feat), I was very unhappy with the overall experience and swore I would never go again (see my GSBMF review in SMM #37)...
Seems that during the Covid shutdown the event organizers reevaluated the festival and decided to bring in higher quality performers and cut back on the undercard… last year I returned for the closing Sunday to see two of my favorite bands, Tedeschi Trucks Band and Los Lobos, and this year was excited to see Gov’t Mule headlining Sunday with their “Dark Side of The Mule” tribute to Pink Floyd… saw them do this at Jones Beach in 2018 and it was outstanding so I was really looking forward to seeing it again…
Sunday’s music started at 2:30 and I’m fine with this later start time as opposed to the 11:00-11:30 start time of most festivals - especially if the roster of performers isn’t that deep… we got to the gate and found the usual long line but it seemed to move faster than in past years… once we were in, my friend John and I set up our chairs out in front of the main stage and headed for the beer tent where we hung out for a while in the shade… I decided to pass on the first two main stage acts, Long Island instrumental jam band Tauk and 20 year old guitarist Brandon TAZ Niederauer (saw him once when he was 11 years old with Gary Clark Jr at Central Park Summerstage)... instead, we headed to other end to watch local Long Island veterans, the Stanton Anderson Band… these guys have been together for 50 years and I remember seeing them many times in the 70s at various bar/clubs along the South Shore… they were considered one of the better bands working that circuit back then and they still sounded great, especially on a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”...
From there we headed back to the main stage and caught most of Duane Betts' set with his new band, Palmetto Motel… have seen Duane a few times and he does a good job of carrying on the Allman Brothers tradition of his dad, Dickey… plus, his vocals and guitar sound are very similar… next up was another son of a famous rock dad - Jason Bonham, son of Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham… Jason is touring this summer with his Zep tribute band Led Zeppelin Evening and they performed an enjoyable set of nine well-played Zeppelin classics… most notable was singer James Dylan, who did a great job of recreating Robert Plant’s unique vocals - not an easy thing! Headliner Gov’t Mule was next and after opening with two of their own tunes, they launched into the Pink Floyd classic “Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts 1-V”... the rest of the set consisted of nine more Floyd classics, including, “Have a Cigar,” “On the Run,” “Time,” “Money” and “Comfortably Numb” (see setlist)... the set was accompanied by a laser light show which was cool but kind of loses a lot of its effect outdoors… one other negative is Shorefront Park is right on Great South Bay and as dusk approaches the winds seem to really pick up coming across from the bay and, at times, it muffled the sound… not much you can do about that I guess but definitely not desirable!
Although my future attendance will definitely depend on the performers they book, overall, it was a fun day at the GSB Festival and I commend them for booking some top-line talent the past two years… — SL