i mentioned in my last post that i was lucky to catch mavis staples at jazzfest in new orleans a couple of weeks ago. unbeknownst to me, this album was set for release just this past friday. it captures a visit she and her band made to levon’s barn in woodstock in the summer of 2011. after a few days of kicking around some songs there, they eventually put on a live show for 200 or so lucky locals – her band combined with his.
mavis and levon had gone way back, first getting to know each when recording ‘the weight’ together for the ‘last waltz’ documentary in 1975. pops staples, her father, had been impressed by the gospel reference to nazareth, and that recording is one of my favorite parts of the movie.
twelve interesting covers, many of them gospel oriented. two by her father, but also songs by dylan, curtis mayfield, buddy and julie miller, larry campbell (who is on guitar here), and a few others. one of my favorites is ‘you got to move’, by mississippi fred mcdowell and reverand gary davis, made famous by the stones on ‘sticky fingers’. the version here is much more upbeat then keith and mick’s version.
much to love here, as there is clearly a chemistry in the air – not just the two headliners, but both bands. it was one of levon’s last recordings, as he would be gone by the next year. might be something to get for your memorial day party.
for years, decades really, i have been aware of the large music festival held each year in new orleans, known mostly as jazzfest. what i did know about it turned out to be mostly true, in that it was a very large event that featured a wide variety of musical styles, not just jazz, and that you could wander around all day and take in as many artists as you could muster. for a music lover like myself, this sounded like manna from heaven. i also envisioned that in a perfect world, i could go there on my own, not have a specific plan in place, and just go where the muse led me, unencumbered by any other distractions.
but for whatever reason, i never took the initiative to go down there. that is, until i met some like minded friends about 5 years ago who had similar tastes in music, and had been going down there every year for a long time. they graciously offered to allow mrs redeyegin and myself to tag along with them the next spring, and walk us through the experience. that was in 2018, and we had so much fun we went again, taking another couple with us the next year. after two trips down, i sought permission to go down on my own with the group. with the pandemic, that reality did not come into play until last weekend, the first jazzfest since my 2019 trip.
for a voracious music consumer like myself, it is somewhat akin to a football game with four quarters (if you do the whole final weekend – it is four days of music from 11 am to 7 pm). you look at the various stages and artists ahead of time, have a game plan, and then prepare accordingly. and if you are smart, you have a plan b in case you need to make some game time adjustments. an example would have been on friday, when the heat got to me, and i decided to hang out in the gospel tent (out of the sun and water misters overhead) for about an hour. you also have to pace yourself, because each day has a great lineup, and you want to see as much as possible. it is not hard to see 5 different artists each day, and if the logistics work out see at least part of 2 other acts.
have i mentioned the food yet? logistically, the overall event is very well run, but maybe the best feature, other than the music, is the vast variety of food that is offered by local vendors. you will not go hungry here.
one of things i like best about this festival is that all of the final acts finish by 7 pm. you are back at your hotel and ready to go out to dinner by 8 pm. at dinner we would compare notes – who was the best you saw today, which one surprised you, and what were the best covers.
on thursday i saw the iguanas, leo nocentelli, new orleans suspects, playing for change band, billy strings, and ended the evening in the blues tent with betty lavette. the suspects and playing for change were two bands not on my radar, but they are now. the latter did a great cover of stevie wonder’s ‘higher ground’. betty’s cover of john prine’s ‘souvenirs’ was very moving. A good way to end a great day.
on friday, after a rain delay, i saw flow tribe, cimafunk, the zion harmonizers, sonny landreth, and finished with black crowes at the big stage. cimafunk, a funk band from cuba, was one of my highlights. not exactly my cup of tea, but they were killing it. black crowes covered ‘papa was a rolling stone’ , which they said was on their newest album, ‘1972’. apparently all covers from that year. i have that on order and will let you know what i think.
saturday i started the day in the blues tent with bill kirchen, then buckwheat zydeco jr, rory block, a bit of rickie lee jones, puss n boots (a norah jones side project), shovels and rope, then the legendary mavis staples. i was impressed with shovels and rope – they did a very energetic set. kirchen’s ‘times they are a changing’ cover was the highlight of his set.
sunday started with brother tyrone and the mindbenders, then off to the gospel tent for some religion with the dynamic smooth family. yvette landry and the jukes, honey island swamp band, dwayne dopsie and the zydeco hellraisers, beausoleil, ricky skaggs, and then finished in the blues tent once again with buddy guy. a very busy day. yvette, dwayne and ricky were great, and my favorite cover was the latter doing bill monroe’s ‘uncle pen’.
all in all a great weekend, and i look forward to going back again.
did i mention 1972 above? on a side note, today is the 50th anniversary of the release of the stone’s ‘exile on main street’. reader bill vv sent this tribute to me.
i first learned of ian’s work when i got his debut album, ‘between the country’, in 2019. i felt his writing and delivery were profound and unique, and that album stayed in my rotation for quite a while. he somewhat dropped off the radar after that, i am sure partly due to the pandemic. but now we get his follow up to that album – what he considers to be the flipside – with ‘river fools and mountain saints’. he claims he conceived of the title first, and then came up with the characters and stories to flesh it out. the landscape and people of his hometown of lee county kentucky are imbued throughout, appalachia history seeps up through the tracks.
it is tempting to try to lump him in with other kentucky artists that have recently made it big, like chris stapleton, sturgill simpson, and tyler childers. but ian is deeper and more pure than that. it is always unfair to compare new artists to legends like dylan and prine, but it is not terribly out of line here. i can hear a bit of both, especially their earlier work.
he says that most of his characters are real life people, with ‘river fool’ being about a local legend who is a fixture in the region, who ‘spends his days in a muddy haze, tangled in the cattail poles, working on an ancient bottle’. rather than trying to cast him as a local drunk, he shows the carefree and happy life he leads. it may be the most uplifting song on the album.
it was recorded over a span of two years strictly on reel to reel tapes, at a leisurely pace that gave time for the songs to marinate and evolve. if you liked his last one, you will surely love this one.
redeyegin 