although i have written about my musically related travels before, somehow exiting the fiasco of the last 16 months gives me a renewed vigor to go out on the road and see some live music at some bucket list venues. so i will give a new title to this volume of work, and hopefully there will be many more to come soon.

volume two was inspired by the subject of my post two weeks ago. mrs. redeyegin and i were sitting on the back porch listening for the first time to the new tedeschi trucks album with the live ‘layla’ recording from lockn’.

as is her wont, she can multitask and surf her phone while she listens to music. at some point in the second set or so she says: ‘you know, they are playing in red rocks in two weeks.’ i likely replied something to the effect of ‘ that would be great first show there’ (having never been there before).

within about a half hour, right about the time the cd was ending, she had all the logistics and pricing worked out. i had to check my schedule at work, but by monday she locked it all in.

for those that don’t know, red rocks amphitheater outside of denver is one of the premier (if not the premier) outdoor music venues in the country. a geological phenomenon, the naturally occurring theater was created over the eons, with two large slabs of sandstone rock posing as the outside walls, looking down over a steep canyon that rolls down to another rock wall behind it. it is located at a transitional zone where the high plains meet the rockies, about 6500 feet above sea level.

many local artists performed there informally after the turn of the last century, but things really took off after it was decided in 1936 to start formally building the infrastructure. it was added to the list of projects for the new deal inspired civilian conservation corp. the major part of the project was to add seating and stairs to the steep canyon. it was finally completed in 1941, just over 80 years ago.

because of its natural beauty and extraordinary acoustics, it is a must stop for not only musicians but fans as well. the fact that i had never made it out there before was not acceptable, and so it was time to go.

logistically, we had all kinds of issues going there and back, none of them being the fault of my fearless planner. let me just say that we have nothing good to say about frontier airlines and stubhub. oh, and did i mention that it was pouring down rain that afternoon up to about 30 minutes before the show? the rain began falling softly again after the first set, but by then i had fallen in love with the place, and tedeschi trucks were playing so great it was all worth it.

it was not until the day of the show, after doing some reading, that i realized they likely were not going to be playing with their full band. due to covid and other considerations, they were traveling without their horn section and most of the backup singers. they had also replaced one of their drummers and had a relatively new keyboardist.

i was a little bummed about that, but halfway through the first set it became clear that the new format allowed derek and susan to focus on some older blues oriented songs and stretch out a little bit. susan may have benefited the most, as she got more guitar playing time, and easily filled up the vocal space and the canyon with her tremendously strong voice.

when they came out for the second set, i noticed another guitarist that was not there before. they did not do any closeups of him, other than his guitar, but i seemed to recognize both his playing and visual styles. after a few songs they introduced nels cline from wilco, and it all made sense. nobody around me knew who he was – most knew wilco but not their lead guitarist. derek is one of the best guitarists on the planet, but so is nels. he has a more avante garde approach than derek, but he played a more traditional approach for the evening. he easily held his own with derek and the rest of the band for the rest of the night. they closed the second set with the allman brothers’ ‘in memory of elizabeth reed’. derek and nels would have made duane and dickie and the boys proud. it was stunning.

a perfect capstone to a wonderful night at the foot of the mountains.

thanks mrs. r.e.g., let’s go back soon.