Very interesting...
Ok, the Allman Brothers Band... from Brett Underhill on Vimeo.
Fanatics
Showing posts with label Gregg Allman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gregg Allman. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Steve Winwood, with One Hell of a Back-Up Band
After contributing as a frontman with Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith and Traffic, Steve Winwood launched a solo career in 'circa 1977 and, by doing so, he became a household name of fame in the world of rock 'n roll.
More recently, he re-united with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker to play a few sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden - one of which I took-in with my buddies Jim and Craig. It was fantastic.
This morning, a (youthful, wonderful, as opposed to old) Trinity high school friend, Kit, passed along a post via facebook of Steve Winwood playing lead guitar while being backed-up by my two all-time favorite guitarists, Eric Clapton and Derek Trucks. The clip is featured on The Blog (at) TerryLyons.com today.
Derek is very much on my mind, as I saw him perform with the Allman Bros. Band last week, and I'm looking forward to seeing the ABB play yet another legendary night at The Beacon this Wednesday. Last week, I witnessed an epic night with a "One Way Out to Blue Sky" segue that ramped up the show in only its third and fourth songs of the night. Later on, I chuckled as Trucks and bass Othiel Burbridge smiled brightly as Gregg Allman brought it home during Desdemona. It was a classic and a wonderful moment to share with DT as he was only six rows away.
Later on that night, The ABB brought along the era of "The Band" with Gregg Allman's eerily wonderful vocals on "Tears of Rage." It was a religious experience and certainly was along the three highlights of the night, the third being a brass-section-led version of one of my all-time favorite Van Morrison tunes, "Into the Mystic."
The headliner for that tune, aside from living guitar legend Warren Haynes' lyrical performance, was "The Dude," a musician that I just met in February of this year at a Southside Johnny & The Poor Fools show in NYC. Neal "The Dude" Pawley plays Trombone in the Southside Jukes Horns but he plays just about everything when he's jammin.'
Check out "The Dude" with the Poor Fools.
And, now, Steve Winwood, E.C. and Derek Trucks...
TL
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Best
After practicing and performing for years and years, the sun rises and the day finally comes when Derek Trucks hits the 5 percent. In fact, he hits the 1 percent. He is among the greatest living guitarists in the world and he will soon become one of the greatest to ever play a guitar.
He has already earned the un-official title of the very best slide guitarist in the world and his Gibson SG, signed by many of his idols, is bringing in accolades like Grammy Awards, and the support and damn-near idolization from an ever-increasing legion of fans, all stemming from religious-like experiences at their shows, one of which was held at the House of Blues - Boston just a few days ago. Here is their stunning story and some insight to becoming the very best in the world.
***
 |
| Derek Trucks (3rd from right) helped reinvigorate the ABB |
The story reads...
Every day for more than six decades, 85-year-old Jiro Ono has walked
into his 10-seat restaurant in a Tokyo subway station to make his
specialty, sushi. It is, in fact, the only food on the menu, and in
spite of its humble location, the restaurant is the first of its kind to
be awarded a prestigious three-star Michelin Guide rating, and sushi
lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimages, calling months
in advance for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar. The documentary film
about him, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, has inspired slide guitarist Derek Trucks.
“(Jiro) has gone to work the same way for 60 years and just perfecting his craft and just watching him go through every day and even at his age just uncompromising. That’s the stuff that’s inspiring,” says Trucks who himself enjoys a similar status with guitarists and roots music fans, unequalled since the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan more than two decades ago. It’s all about discipline. He told one newspaper reporter that the first 90% of learning your craft is really the easy part. The next five is harder, and the next five is what separates everybody else.
“I’m not sure I’m out of the first 90% yet,” he told me with a nervous laugh, “but the beauty of music – especially when you’re listening to the greats – is that your heroes are great enough that you always come after ‘em. You never fully get there and surpass them. So if I ever get to the point where I’m feeling that I’ve got it under control, I can put on an Ali Akbar record or a John Coltrane record or great western classical album and it’s pretty humbling. I feel, especially as a guitar player, there’s plenty of meat on the bone. There’s plenty to learn.”
At age 32 Trucks has become one of the youngest recipients of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a 13-year member of the Allman Brothers Band. He is also the youngest person on Rolling Stone Magazine’s poll of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and the only person under the age of 50 in the top 20 on that list. He came in at number 16. Unlike most axe wielders his age, he is extremely focused on discipline, and sees himself as a younger version of Jiro Ono.
With wife/singer/guitarist/songwriter Susan Tedeschi, Trucks has written 16 songs for the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s third album, due out later next year. They are currently finishing a national tour with their 11-piece group. The tour has included eight co-headliners with B.B. King, a three-night stand at New York’s Beacon Theater, and a closing set at this year’s Newport Jazz Festival. The group has two albums, Everybody’s Talkin’ and Revelator, the latter a Grammy winner. He and his wife took so many awards at this year’s Blues Music Awards, they prompted one other winner to quip, “Thank God Derek Trucks wasn’t nominated in my category.”
Veteran rock journalist David Fricke called The Tedeschi Trucks Band the best Dixie-fried group since Delaney and Bonnie more than 40 years ago. Eric Clapton was the guitarist in that large super group. Derek, in fact, was named after Clapton’s Derek and the Dominoes band and toured with the British guitarist in 2006, but he says it was his wife who turned him onto Delaney and Bonnie.
“You know I came to Delaney and Bonnie a little later, certainly before we started this band. The idea for this group was certainly influenced by the Dominoes, Delaney and Bonnie, Sly and the Family Stone, Mad Dogs and Englishmen and the Allman Brothers. Those were the kind of communal big bands just rolling down the road. That whole family vibe was a huge part of Susan deciding to try this. It was kind of a crazy thing to throw together an 11-piece band in 2010 or whenever we decided to do it, but that template was certainly big in our minds when we put this together.”
The biggest difference between the seminal big rock bands and TTB is discipline. Watching Delaney and Bonnie perform live in 1970 was like trying to balance on a tight wire — at any time they could turn the whole concert into a train wreck. “I think we’ve taken the train wreck element out of it for the most part,” says Trucks. “On the rare occasion you’ll feel it coming off the tracks, but I definitely think that’s the difference. That’s kind of the evolution of the thing. I mean those guys were experimenting with the whole format, with their bodies, with their music. The traveling rock band, that whole concept had just been invented when those guys were doing that.
“So I think we have a lot of time and experience to learn from, and I feel we’ve definitely taken it in a different direction. I mean, part of the idea of putting this band together was to actually help our family, to be with our kids more, to be together more. So I think that’s maybe a little different concept than what put those bands on the road (chuckles).
“I think the impulse is a little different, but the core, the idea, is the same. You want to be surrounded with people you love being around, people that you respect musically, and you wanna go from town to town and bring the church with ya. You want to bring that thing. You want people to feel better when they leave. I feel like that sentiment is very much the same.”
Both Susan and Derek have impressive track records with their own bands, not to mention Derek’s credit, along with Warren Haynes, for having resurrected the old Allman Brothers war horse. That said, TTB is more than the sum of its parts, and discipline trumps obsession when it comes to the group updating their rock, jazz, and blues influences. Trucks takes seriously his obligation to educate young people to the historical wonder of American music.
“As much as I love being home and having somewhat of a routine, you feel like being on the road and taking it to people is kind of your duty. We gotta be out there doing it because there’s not enough real bands doing it, real musicians, and American music really is one of our gifts to the world. I remember just a few nights ago flipping through and seeing the American Music Awards, and I was like there’s not one ounce of American music. All this shit is just depressing, you know?
“And I think about my kids and their friends and the stuff they’re being constantly exposed to, and it’s kind of across the board now. It’s the food you eat, it’s the music you hear, it’s the news you get, the television being thrown at you. There’s not a lot of substance there, so I feel like I was fortunate enough to grow up in a situation where there was a lot of good music around, and it was important the way my dad and mom would talk about music and listen to music. You could tell it was their religion in a way. It meant something, and it wasn’t background noise, and it wasn’t – yeah, it just wasn’t something to party to.
“It was (like) it actually mattered, and I feel like if you’re lucky enough to be doing that and able to bring that to people, it’s your duty to do it so even on the road when you get worn down, you think about that, and then you think about people like B. B. King or Willie Nelson at their age just beatin’ the road. Then you shut up and stop your bitchin.’ You go to the next town.
“I think with anything you do you just have to keep your nose to the grind. I think once you start buying the hype, that’s when you’re in trouble of heading in the other direction. I think sadly we’ve all seen it many times. I know a dozen musicians that I’ve seen in the last five or 10 years kinda come and go. You see all this potential, and you see this fire, and then you see everybody kissing their ass, and then you see them a few years later, and then you hear them, and it’s like that’s not as good as it was two years ago. You’re like what happened? It’s all mental, man. It’s all a mental game. You have to realize you can never really let up.
“I guess it comes down to you have to enjoy this work. You have to enjoy the grind in some way or at least get some satisfaction out of it, even if you don’t enjoy it all the time. You gotta keep going back to it.”
Susan Tedeschi graduated from Berklee College of Music at age 20 with a bachelor’s degree in music composition. Husband Derek, on the other hand, is 10 years younger, was on the road at age 11, and most of the musicians he’s played with are “roads” scholars. Those disparities, he says have caused no conflicts. “Yeah, you know, it’s funny. She went to school for a lot of that, but with her it’s straight intuitive. Her thing is just musical guts. She knows what feels right, and she has the ability to just unleash at will.
“With (band keyboardist) Kofi (Burbridge) he was a child prodigy. I think he was on stage with Duke Ellington when he was just a kid in D.C. I mean those pictures of Kofi with the masters when he was really, really young. So he went to school in his teens for music. I mean he knows it inside and out, but with him it’s his ears, you know. For me you learn whatever somebody has to give. If it’s something you’re unfamiliar with or something that moves you, I feel like you can really take it from anywhere.”
As disciplined as he is, Derek Trucks is also versatile, having established himself in genres as varied as blues, rock, jazz and jam band. “I feel like with my solo group and with this band, too, but definitely when I was on the road with my guys, we always had the sense we were kind of one toe in all the different scenes, but never fully embraced by any of them.
“We were kind of a blues band but not blues enough for the hard core blues crowd. It was kind of too adventurous at times. We were not a jazz band, but just enough to get on the jazz festivals. We were kind of not a jam band but enough to play the jam band festivals. I kind of like the band orphan vibes. Nobody would fully take us in, and in the beginning it was a little difficult because it was hard to get a label to record you.
“It was hard to do that, but I mean for me it was fuel for the fire. I was glad we didn’t get stuck in any of those worlds where you have to – uh – I don’t know if I have that personality anyways, but I think once you’re in a world like that you start catering to it in a way, and I feel like by not being fully embraced early on it just gave us free reign, and then you kind of use that as propellant.”
The last year for Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi has been a Cinderella adventure. They’ve rubbed shoulders with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards at the White House blues concert, and the Apollo Theater Hubert Sumlin Tribute respectively. They inducted Freddie King into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and played with Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Tony Bennett, and Stevie Wonder on the first annual International Jazz Day at the United Nations General Assembly. And they got to compare notes while touring with B. B. King. They’ve broken through several ceilings as a blues couple who also are parents of two school-age children and crossed over into several genres that promise to give blues a higher visibility — a role Derek takes very seriously.
“I feel a sense of wanting to turn people onto this music and wanting to just keep the level of it up. You wanna always make sure anything you retain, anything you play, is to a certain level, and hopefully that brings people along, but I don’t know if setting out on a mission like that makes it false. I think you just have to do what you do. You just have to dig in and play music, and a lot of that, whether it was Duane (Allman) or Stevie Ray (Vaughan) or anybody, a lot of it is just time and place. You were the right guy at the right time doing the right thing. You know, those guys were students and lovers of music, and they gave their life to it.”
About Don Wilcock-- Don Wilcock started writing about blues for the Army Reporter in Vietnam before there were any American blues magazines. He's edited five different blues magazines and interviewed 4000 artists. He's vowed to be the last blues journalist standing.
“(Jiro) has gone to work the same way for 60 years and just perfecting his craft and just watching him go through every day and even at his age just uncompromising. That’s the stuff that’s inspiring,” says Trucks who himself enjoys a similar status with guitarists and roots music fans, unequalled since the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan more than two decades ago. It’s all about discipline. He told one newspaper reporter that the first 90% of learning your craft is really the easy part. The next five is harder, and the next five is what separates everybody else.
“I’m not sure I’m out of the first 90% yet,” he told me with a nervous laugh, “but the beauty of music – especially when you’re listening to the greats – is that your heroes are great enough that you always come after ‘em. You never fully get there and surpass them. So if I ever get to the point where I’m feeling that I’ve got it under control, I can put on an Ali Akbar record or a John Coltrane record or great western classical album and it’s pretty humbling. I feel, especially as a guitar player, there’s plenty of meat on the bone. There’s plenty to learn.”
At age 32 Trucks has become one of the youngest recipients of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a 13-year member of the Allman Brothers Band. He is also the youngest person on Rolling Stone Magazine’s poll of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and the only person under the age of 50 in the top 20 on that list. He came in at number 16. Unlike most axe wielders his age, he is extremely focused on discipline, and sees himself as a younger version of Jiro Ono.
With wife/singer/guitarist/songwriter Susan Tedeschi, Trucks has written 16 songs for the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s third album, due out later next year. They are currently finishing a national tour with their 11-piece group. The tour has included eight co-headliners with B.B. King, a three-night stand at New York’s Beacon Theater, and a closing set at this year’s Newport Jazz Festival. The group has two albums, Everybody’s Talkin’ and Revelator, the latter a Grammy winner. He and his wife took so many awards at this year’s Blues Music Awards, they prompted one other winner to quip, “Thank God Derek Trucks wasn’t nominated in my category.”
Veteran rock journalist David Fricke called The Tedeschi Trucks Band the best Dixie-fried group since Delaney and Bonnie more than 40 years ago. Eric Clapton was the guitarist in that large super group. Derek, in fact, was named after Clapton’s Derek and the Dominoes band and toured with the British guitarist in 2006, but he says it was his wife who turned him onto Delaney and Bonnie.
“You know I came to Delaney and Bonnie a little later, certainly before we started this band. The idea for this group was certainly influenced by the Dominoes, Delaney and Bonnie, Sly and the Family Stone, Mad Dogs and Englishmen and the Allman Brothers. Those were the kind of communal big bands just rolling down the road. That whole family vibe was a huge part of Susan deciding to try this. It was kind of a crazy thing to throw together an 11-piece band in 2010 or whenever we decided to do it, but that template was certainly big in our minds when we put this together.”
The biggest difference between the seminal big rock bands and TTB is discipline. Watching Delaney and Bonnie perform live in 1970 was like trying to balance on a tight wire — at any time they could turn the whole concert into a train wreck. “I think we’ve taken the train wreck element out of it for the most part,” says Trucks. “On the rare occasion you’ll feel it coming off the tracks, but I definitely think that’s the difference. That’s kind of the evolution of the thing. I mean those guys were experimenting with the whole format, with their bodies, with their music. The traveling rock band, that whole concept had just been invented when those guys were doing that.
“So I think we have a lot of time and experience to learn from, and I feel we’ve definitely taken it in a different direction. I mean, part of the idea of putting this band together was to actually help our family, to be with our kids more, to be together more. So I think that’s maybe a little different concept than what put those bands on the road (chuckles).
“I think the impulse is a little different, but the core, the idea, is the same. You want to be surrounded with people you love being around, people that you respect musically, and you wanna go from town to town and bring the church with ya. You want to bring that thing. You want people to feel better when they leave. I feel like that sentiment is very much the same.”
Both Susan and Derek have impressive track records with their own bands, not to mention Derek’s credit, along with Warren Haynes, for having resurrected the old Allman Brothers war horse. That said, TTB is more than the sum of its parts, and discipline trumps obsession when it comes to the group updating their rock, jazz, and blues influences. Trucks takes seriously his obligation to educate young people to the historical wonder of American music.
“As much as I love being home and having somewhat of a routine, you feel like being on the road and taking it to people is kind of your duty. We gotta be out there doing it because there’s not enough real bands doing it, real musicians, and American music really is one of our gifts to the world. I remember just a few nights ago flipping through and seeing the American Music Awards, and I was like there’s not one ounce of American music. All this shit is just depressing, you know?
“And I think about my kids and their friends and the stuff they’re being constantly exposed to, and it’s kind of across the board now. It’s the food you eat, it’s the music you hear, it’s the news you get, the television being thrown at you. There’s not a lot of substance there, so I feel like I was fortunate enough to grow up in a situation where there was a lot of good music around, and it was important the way my dad and mom would talk about music and listen to music. You could tell it was their religion in a way. It meant something, and it wasn’t background noise, and it wasn’t – yeah, it just wasn’t something to party to.
“It was (like) it actually mattered, and I feel like if you’re lucky enough to be doing that and able to bring that to people, it’s your duty to do it so even on the road when you get worn down, you think about that, and then you think about people like B. B. King or Willie Nelson at their age just beatin’ the road. Then you shut up and stop your bitchin.’ You go to the next town.
“I think with anything you do you just have to keep your nose to the grind. I think once you start buying the hype, that’s when you’re in trouble of heading in the other direction. I think sadly we’ve all seen it many times. I know a dozen musicians that I’ve seen in the last five or 10 years kinda come and go. You see all this potential, and you see this fire, and then you see everybody kissing their ass, and then you see them a few years later, and then you hear them, and it’s like that’s not as good as it was two years ago. You’re like what happened? It’s all mental, man. It’s all a mental game. You have to realize you can never really let up.
“I guess it comes down to you have to enjoy this work. You have to enjoy the grind in some way or at least get some satisfaction out of it, even if you don’t enjoy it all the time. You gotta keep going back to it.”
Susan Tedeschi graduated from Berklee College of Music at age 20 with a bachelor’s degree in music composition. Husband Derek, on the other hand, is 10 years younger, was on the road at age 11, and most of the musicians he’s played with are “roads” scholars. Those disparities, he says have caused no conflicts. “Yeah, you know, it’s funny. She went to school for a lot of that, but with her it’s straight intuitive. Her thing is just musical guts. She knows what feels right, and she has the ability to just unleash at will.
“With (band keyboardist) Kofi (Burbridge) he was a child prodigy. I think he was on stage with Duke Ellington when he was just a kid in D.C. I mean those pictures of Kofi with the masters when he was really, really young. So he went to school in his teens for music. I mean he knows it inside and out, but with him it’s his ears, you know. For me you learn whatever somebody has to give. If it’s something you’re unfamiliar with or something that moves you, I feel like you can really take it from anywhere.”
As disciplined as he is, Derek Trucks is also versatile, having established himself in genres as varied as blues, rock, jazz and jam band. “I feel like with my solo group and with this band, too, but definitely when I was on the road with my guys, we always had the sense we were kind of one toe in all the different scenes, but never fully embraced by any of them.
“We were kind of a blues band but not blues enough for the hard core blues crowd. It was kind of too adventurous at times. We were not a jazz band, but just enough to get on the jazz festivals. We were kind of not a jam band but enough to play the jam band festivals. I kind of like the band orphan vibes. Nobody would fully take us in, and in the beginning it was a little difficult because it was hard to get a label to record you.
“It was hard to do that, but I mean for me it was fuel for the fire. I was glad we didn’t get stuck in any of those worlds where you have to – uh – I don’t know if I have that personality anyways, but I think once you’re in a world like that you start catering to it in a way, and I feel like by not being fully embraced early on it just gave us free reign, and then you kind of use that as propellant.”
The last year for Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi has been a Cinderella adventure. They’ve rubbed shoulders with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards at the White House blues concert, and the Apollo Theater Hubert Sumlin Tribute respectively. They inducted Freddie King into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and played with Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Tony Bennett, and Stevie Wonder on the first annual International Jazz Day at the United Nations General Assembly. And they got to compare notes while touring with B. B. King. They’ve broken through several ceilings as a blues couple who also are parents of two school-age children and crossed over into several genres that promise to give blues a higher visibility — a role Derek takes very seriously.
“I feel a sense of wanting to turn people onto this music and wanting to just keep the level of it up. You wanna always make sure anything you retain, anything you play, is to a certain level, and hopefully that brings people along, but I don’t know if setting out on a mission like that makes it false. I think you just have to do what you do. You just have to dig in and play music, and a lot of that, whether it was Duane (Allman) or Stevie Ray (Vaughan) or anybody, a lot of it is just time and place. You were the right guy at the right time doing the right thing. You know, those guys were students and lovers of music, and they gave their life to it.”
About Don Wilcock-- Don Wilcock started writing about blues for the Army Reporter in Vietnam before there were any American blues magazines. He's edited five different blues magazines and interviewed 4000 artists. He's vowed to be the last blues journalist standing.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Stormy Monday. And Tuesday's Just as Bad.
It's an easy decision to dedicate this nasty storm to Gregg Allman, Eric Clapton and the late Duane Allman. Today (Sunday), we closed up all the summer stuff on our porch, brought every single thing that might go airborne inside, and did all of the things the American Red Cross recommends. Water? Check, All the flashlights and candles in strategic places and easy to light and reach - check. Snacks and non perishables - check. We're as ready as we're gonna be.
So, here ya go - They call me Stormy Monday ... and Tuesday's just as Bad.
Thanks EC
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Happy 40th to Susan Tedeschi: Tribute to "the Experience"
While you are accustomed to many a sports-related post on TheBlog@TerryLyons.com - I love to recognize the very best in classic rock entertainment. Among the most talented musicians that I have had the pleasure to meet is Susan Tedeschi.
Susan happens to hail from Boston and is married to the world's greatest living guitar player, Derek Trucks. As you well know, Derek heads up the DTB and regularly plays guitar for the Allman Brothers Band when he's not sitting in or on tour with Eric Clapton (2nd best living guitarist , IMO). This summer and fall, Susan and Derek gave fans a treat when they toured together.
When the two appeared together at a DTB show at NYC's Nokia Theatre a while back, we had the good fortune to have VIP and backstage passes for the show. Susan was hosting when not playing and at one point, she gave me a special treat. She handed me a pass (that the roadies and guitar technicians use) and it allowed me to get a side-stage look at her hubbie as he was playing with his band. Susan later joined in for a medley of "The Band" - from the Band's greatest performance - The Last Waltz. It was terrific.
Anyhow, this post is dedicated to Susan today, Nov. 9th, her 40th birthday (hope she doesn't mind 'revealing' her age but, then again, it was plastered in today's Boston Globe, along with this review of Susan's work with the Experience - a tribute to Jimi Hendrix.
Happy Birthday Susan. Hope to see you at a concert very soon. Maybe the one listed under the Globe story?
Reveling in the Hendrix experience
By Scott McLennan Globe Correspondent / November 9, 2010
It doesn’t take a dozen exceptional guitarists to extol the virtues of Jimi Hendrix. But having that many certainly makes for a great show, as was the case Sunday at the Orpheum with the “Experience Hendrix’’ concert.
Steve Vai, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Vernon Reid, Ernie Isley, Eric Johnson, Susan Tedeschi, Brad Whitford, Johnny Lang, Mato Nanji, and a triple dose of pedal steel players — Robert Randolph, Darick Campbell, and Chuck Campbell — produced a fiery three-hour show that explored all facets of Hendrix’s brief and brilliant career.
Isley, an early supporter of Hendrix, and bassist Billy Cox, who was in both the Experience and Band of Gypsys, brought historical heft as they teamed for the opening salvo of “Stone Free’’ and “Message to Love.’’ Cox reminded the packed house how Hendrix rested his unparalleled guitar architecture atop a steady foundation of blues and soul. Isley, best known as an R&B player, showed how Hendrix opened up new possibilities for guitarists, and he demonstrated with a mind-melting rendition of “Manic Depression.’’
Living Colour captured Hendrix’s brash showmanship. A crazed “Crosstown Traffic’’ found singer Corey Glover prowling the aisles and balconies of the theater, with bassist Doug Wimbish in the floor seats and Reid letting loose screams and howls from his guitar.
Drummers Chris Layton from Double Trouble and Will Calhoun of Living Colour manned the kits throughout the night, and when Cox wasn’t playing, the bass was handled in turns by Wimbish and Scott Nelson, from Shepherd’s band.
Tedeschi’s performance showcased the elegance of Hendrix’s songwriting. She teamed with Johnson to tackle the wistful “One Rainy Wish,’’ then moved on to the psychedelic poetry of “If 6 Was 9’’ and “Spanish Castle Magic,’’ tunes that summoned Aerosmith’s Whitford and Indigenous’s Nanji for additional guitar firepower, though Tedeschi delivered some of the toughest solos of the lot.
Just how far Hendrix’s legacy reaches beyond rock ’n’ roll became evident when Randolph and the Campbell brothers — players schooled in the gospel tradition — trained their pedal steel guitars on “Hey Joe’’ and “Purple Haze.’’
Lang, using the night’s only acoustic guitar, and Whitford crafted a majestic version of “All Along the Watchtower.’’ Shepherd tapped both “Voodoo Chile’’ and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’’ to highlight Hendrix’s influence on modern blues. Vai’s note-packed performances reminded how high Hendrix set the bar for those wanting to be impressive soloists.
Vai, Reid, and Randolph engaged in ebullient jamming during “Love or Confusion’’ and “Foxy Lady,’’ and Cox, singing and playing bass, brought the show home aptly with “Red House.’’
***
Key concert news....
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Allen Woody, a respected bass player known for his work with Southern rock acts Gov’t Mule and The Allman Brothers Band. His passing in 2000 brought together former bandmates, friends, and fellow musicians (including The Black Crowes and Phil Lesh) to pay tribute to both Woody’s life and his contributions to the rock and roll world with the ”One for Woody” benefit show. Now, a decade later, The Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule camps are ready give back and celebrate the life of their friend by hitting the stage once again.
The original benefit was held at the historic Roseland Ballroom in New York City on September 21, 2000, less than a month after Woody was found dead of an apparent overdose. Thus, it’s only seems fitting that the legendary venue will also serve as host for “Another One for Woody” on November 22nd. Confirmed acts include The Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule, as well as country/blues rock act The North Mississippi All Stars Duo.
“Another One for Woody” tickets go on sale November 5th and you can get yours at the Roseland Ballroom official site. A portion of the proceeds from the event will be donated to help raise money to keep music education alive in schools. For a taste of what’s to come, check out a performance of “I Shall Be Released” from the original benefit concert below.
In related news, Gregg Allman just announced his first new album in 14 years. Titled Low Country Blues and due for release on January 11th, the T Bone Burnett-produced effort hears Allman offers his take on classic Blues tracks from the likes of Muddy Waters, BB King, and Buddy Guy, among others. Album’s tracklist can be found below the aforementioned video.
Ya' gotta love T-Bone Burnett!
***
Also, as long as I'm dedicating this entire post to music, I might as well plug a tribute to the late John Lennon (celebrating what would have been his 70th - back in Oct.). The show is coming this weekend, Nov. 12th, at The Beacon Theatre in NYC.
See this blog from WFUV - Fordham University's radio station.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
TL@50 - A time to ? Life and Times
Here are TL's recommendations on Life & Times @ age 50: Learn and enjoy life in the formative years; Take stock at age 27 and take a MAJOR look at age 50. When in doubt, turn to Rock music.
By TERRY LYONS
The pages of the calendar are turned one at a time. The second hand of life keeps on ticking and the seconds become minutes become hours become days, then they become weeks and months and years before decades pass by one grain of sand at a time through the hourglass of our very lives.
With that in mind just yesterday, I took a good look at TL@50. And, looking within, I asked myself some pretty tough questions. Not all of the questions had answers, and, many of the answers hopefully will come in 2010. I can live with that.
Overall, the message I send out to one and all from my 50 years on this earth is this: "I feel very, very fortunate." I have a great family, great Mom and Bro, tremendous wife and kids, and so many friends that I can really count on - with dozens of friends living all over the globe. I've learned so much through all of them. I've travelled the world, spreading the gospel of NBA basketball and I am now embarking on an amazing journey to build a business and tackle new opportunities as a true entrepreneur, albeit during one of the toughest times in American business history. I am happy to face a gallant and challenging task. Need I ask for more?
The microscope lens underneath all of my questions provided one clear answer: "The best things in life are free."
That's what they say, anyway, and I believe it to be true. But those "free" things come with a pretty serious price tag. They come with a price tag of passing time, of aging, they come with a lot of stress, frustration, worry, disappointment, and, sometimes, failure. The rewards far outweigh the cost and its nasty, toxic by-products. The big paybacks in life come wrapped in wonderful, living, breathing packages.
For me, those packages are named Victoria and Alexandra, and, it's just great to see them grow and to let them flow.
After 50 years on this planet and countless opportunities in my own personal wacky, revolving world which includes so many wonderful relationships, family, friends, religion, education, sports, business and everything else you can dream up, I took a little stock yesterday afternoon and quickly realized that the best things in my life were my two daughters and their wonderful but amazingly different personalities. As they go out to the world, their lives reflect everything about my own life.
So I started to ask myself a million questions.
Did we bring them up the right way?
Are they happy?
Are they healthy?
Are they well educated?
Are they good kids?
Will they be ready for life?
Will they succeed?
What hurdles will be thrown our way?
Will I see them grow up?
Will they meet great guys or creeps?
Will they choose to be married?
Will I walk them down the aisle?
Will I see them turn 50?
Will they find true happiness?
Many of those questions already have answers while most do not.
My mind drifted to an exercise I sometimes play: Let me pose the questions of life and turn to music to help me seek the answers, and find some insight and maybe even discover some comedic relief along the road. To assist, I sent an e-mail to a few trusted friends of rock 'n roll. And, as I so often am reminded, my friends came through for me in a huge way and with tons of info and support.
The simple e-mail was this: "I am writing an essay on the "great questions posed by Rock n' Roll artists and their lyrics (or song titles). Please send any and all suggestions.
The answers were terrific and I thank Spy, Howie, Chris, Jan, Mike, Ian (from Britain) and a few others.
One theory proved out, in spades. The big questions of life are nearly all addressed in some shape or form, in rock music. However, the answers are never written in the lyrics but are hidden between the lines. So, without further adieu, here are the important questions of rock n' roll which can be pondered for eternity: (I will first list my personal favorites, then a bunch of great suggestions sent in by the boys).
TL Favorite All-time Questions of Rock n' Roll:
"Crossroads, will you ever let him go?
Will you hide the dead man's ghost,
Or, will he lie, beneath the clay?
Or, will his spirit roll away?"
- The Allman Brothers Band, with the song, "Melissa" - written by little known Steve Alaimo and very well known Gregg Allman.
And, here's a few other gems... my 'runners up' of the lyrical questions of life and times in rock:
"What's going on? - Marvin Gaye
"Who are you?" - The Who
"Woah, oh, what I want to know, will you come with me? ...
Woah, oh, what I want to know, where does the time go? ...
Woah, oh, what I want to know, how does the song go?" - Grateful Dead
"Have I told you lately that I love you? - Van Morrison
"How long has this been going on?" - Van Morrison
"Do you want to know a secret?" - The Beatles
"Should I stay or should I go?" - The Clash
"Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?" - Chicago
"Lord, lord, Miss Sally..why all your cryin'? - Allman Brothers Band
"Can you see the real me, can ya, can ya?" - The Who
"Do you think it's alright?" - The Who
"Tommy, can you hear me?" - The Who
"(Goodbye Ruby Tuesday) - Who could hang a name on you?" - The Rolling Stones
"Angie, Angie, when will all those clouds disappear?" - The Rolling Stones
"How bad do you want it?" - Don Henley
What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?
She lost her sparkle, you know she isn't the same
Livin' on reds, vitamin C, and cocaine,
All a friend can say is "Ain't it a shame?" - Grateful Dead
And now, a full list of great suggestions from the boys:
"Why do fools fall in love?" - Dion
"Who wrote the book of love?" - The Monotones
Why does love got to be so sad? - Derek and the Dominos
"Who'll Stop the Rain?" - and "Have you ever seen the rain?" - Fogerty for Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Do you want to dance?" - Beach Boys - "Do, ya, do ya, do ya - do you want to dance?"
"Have you seen your mother, baby, standing in the shadow?"
"Is a dream alive if it don't come true, or is it something worse?" - Bruce Springsteen
"Are you experienced?" - Jimi Hendrix
"Is there anybody out there?" - Pink Floyd
"How long, how long must we sing this song?" - U2
"Whose gonna ride your wild horses?" - U2
"What difference does it make?" - The Smiths
from the Scottish band, Travis, courtesy of Ian W:
Why does it always rain on me?"
"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" - REM
"What is Hip?" - Tower of Power
"What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?" - Nick Lowe
"What ever happened to those good times we used to have?" - The Buckinghams
"How can you mend a broken heart?" - Al Green, who posed a number of other questions, like:
"How can you stop the rain from falling? How can you stop the sun from shining? What makes the world go 'round? and the all important... How can a loser ever win?"
Of course, rock n'roll posed some pretty silly questions, too. For example:
"Why don't we do it in the road? - The Beatles
And, as I often do, I will leave you with the lyrics for an important message on an important day in my life. Here's Eric Clapton to sum it all up:
Standing at the crossroads
trying to read the signs
To tell me which way I should
go to find the answer
And all the time I know
Plant your love and let it grow.
Let it grow
let it grow
Let it blossom
let it flow
In the sun
the rain
the snow
Love is lovely
let it grow.
Looking for a reason
to check out of my mind
Playing hard to get
a friend that I can count on
When there's nothing left to show
Plant your love and let it grow.
Let it grow
let it grow
Let it blossom
let it flow ...
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Peakin' at The Beacon ...
Coming soon....
Allman Brothers Band - Concert Review from March 16th at The Beacon...
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