road trip chronicles, volume 2: red rocks, co

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.

mccartney 3-2-1

just a quick little post to bring your attention to an interesting series that has been showing on hulu for a couple of weeks now. it features the legendary producer rick rubin interviewing paul mccartney in a studio setting. they explore and dissect various tracks from the beatles’ catalogue, as well as some of paul’s solo material. they also delve into the history of the band, their relationships, and then their ultimate demise. paul is candid but respectful. i gained new found respect for ringo. i think my favorite element is how he describes how creative and revolutionary they were in the studio, always supported by their longtime producer george martin. broken up into 6 bite size episodes, i think every beatles fan will find it useful.

at the very least it is a good appetizer for the much awaited documentary coming out soon by peter jackson – ‘get back’.

hat tip to freddie…..

tedeschi trucks band and trey anastasio, ‘layla revisited’

trey anastasio was scheduled to join derek and susan’s band for an upcoming 2019 show at the lockn’ festival. they were looking for songs for their set, and when a couple of selections from the legendary ‘layla’ album by derek and the dominoes came up for discussion, someone said ‘why don’t we do the whole album?’. and so they did.

‘layla and other assorted love songs’ was recorded in 1970 and featured eric clapton and duane allman on guitars. clapton admitted later in life that ‘layla’ was actually inspired by his infatuation with his friend george harrison’s wife, pattie boyd.

the album figured prominently in young derek’s life. it was played often in the household, partially because his uncle butch was one of the drummers for the allman brothers band. his namesake comes from the title. derek primarily plays slide guitar, and duane is widely considered to be one of the greatest slide guitarists in rock and roll history.

although a few songs from the album have figured prominently in tedeschi trucks setlists over the years, they had to do some rehearsing to get themselves and trey up to speed on the lesser known songs, not to mention create horn charts. but tedeschi trucks is quite simply one of the best touring bands in the country right now, and they rose to the occasion. doyle bramhall also sat in on guitar, and so with him, trey, derek and susan playing rhythm and/or lead, the jams can get a tad cacophonous at times. but they all treat the source material with great respect and energy. that would have been a great show to see. i have embedded a few selections below.

one last note (taken from derek’s liner notes – another reason i still like to buy the physical cd if possible). when derek and susan were doing some research for who wrote one of the songs, derek got a chill when he saw the official release date of ‘layla’ – november 9th, 1970. the day susan was born.

mrs. redeyegin and i are contemplating going out to red rocks to see them in a couple of weeks. if we make it i will let you know.

road trip chronicles: woodstock, ny

if you are a huge music fan like i am, there are certain areas of our country that are associated with the creation of your passion. be it new orleans, new york city, nashville, austin, laurel canyon, etc., there is not a list does that not usually include woodstock. it has always been on my list of places i needed to go see, and i finally made my trip this weekend.

the occasion was a richard thompson two night stand at levon helm’s barn in woodstock. when thinking of a woodstock trip, it was always going to include a show at his barn/studio. artists and music lovers make the pilgrimage to this venue to both honor the legend of levon helm and to support the community that thrives around it. and i can tell you, if you can find a musician you like on their calendar, you should consider making the trip. it is a really cool place and the intimacy and quality of the stage is something you will never forget. i don’t know the actual capacity, but it can’t be more than a couple hundred folks.

richard thompson was great both nights. all of my traveling partners were huge fans of him, and we all commented that none of us had ever seen a bad show by him. it was a perfect venue for his acoustic sets and his typical between song banter. his opening act of tift merritt was solid both nights. i have been a big fan of hers since i bought her ‘tambourine’ album in 2004. she has faded from the scene for a while now, and this was her first public performance in a number of years, but she nailed it.

we stayed in an old farmhouse just outside of town that the owner said was built in 1749. it was a great staging ground for our forays over to the the barn (about a mile away) and downtown woodstock, maybe a few miles at most.

saturday was spent exploring the area. it will come as no surprise to regular readers of this site that i am a big fan of dylan and the band, two of the most famous residents of this small town. so one of my must do items on my list was to find ‘big pink’, the rental house that some the members of the band lived in, and where all of the ‘basement tapes’ was recorded. we discovered that it was about a 15 minute drive from our place. after about ten minutes it became abundantly clear that it was on a private one lane road that backed up into the hills. there were plenty of no trespassing signs, but we were so close and when we found it we jumped out of the car and took a few pictures and then got our asses out of there.

then we went down to bearsville, which is a small village just west of woodstock, where dylan and robbie robertson lived near their manager, al grossman. grossman invested much of his money he made in the business into the surrounding area, including the bearsville studio and the bearsville theater.

the former is now closed, but we stopped at the latter for some live music and some bbq. the theater is also a music studio now, and the band recorded their third album – ‘stage fright’ – there. they recently released an expanded version of that album upon it’s 50th anniversary, and it has a great second disc with a live show from royal albert music hall in 1971. i highly recommend it.

as far as the actual town of woodstock goes, it is likely to be what you would expect. is there a large contingent of hippies now eligible for medicare? yes. are there a lot of restaurants with creative and healthy menu items? yes. is it hard to find a tie dye t-shirt? no.

it is a charming little city set in the foots of the catskill mountains and has a rich musical and artistic history that very much predates the 60’s. before it became famous for the musical scene in the mid sixties, it was a fairly conservative populace that kept things simple there. for a long time there was a dissonance between the local townfolk and the musicians who would bubble up from new york on the weekends. one of the more concrete examples of that was the planning for the famous woodstock concert of 1969. originally planned to be on the outskirts of town, the local leaders put their foot down and resisted the organizers. so much so that it was relocated to a farm about a 90 minute drive away in bethel, ny.

it was a wholly (holy?) satisfying trip, and i am so glad we went. would i go again? if just to see woodstock, i would say no. but i could justify it to get to levon’s place again, if someone comes up on the bill that would be perfect for the venue.

thanks to my traveling buddies – kevin, john, and chuck. we have some stories, don’t we?

lord huron, ‘long lost’

i have been drawn to this band’s unique sound ever since i first heard them in 2010. this is their fourth album, and it is at least as good as anything they have done so far. when describing their sound, one often runs across the phrase ‘spaghetti western’, and there is some value in that. many of the songs offer up aural landscapes featuring echo saturated melodies, soaring vocals, and dreamy orchestral flourishes. and all of this is packaged in catchy, well crafted songs. all i can say is you just have to listen to a few songs to get an idea of their sound. my guess is that you will either like them immediately, or you will decide that it’s just not your thing.

ben schneider founded the band in 2010, and he is the main songwriter. hailing originally from lansing, michigan, he now resides in los angeles and works primarily out of whispering pines studio. the studio, originally built in the 70’s by aretha franklin’s bandleader, provided some of the inspiration for the theme of this album.

schneider and his band imagined all the country and soul artists who might have played there, and created a cast of fictional characters and their stories. it is presented as a concept album, and the liner notes ask you to listen to it sequentially and all the way through in one sitting. there are small transitional segments narrated by an emcee, which gives it the feel of a seventies tv music show. schneider says he wanted it to ‘feel like a long lost classic you missed somehow – nostalgic and familiar in a way, but you can’t quite put your finger on it’. and i think that seems about right.

here are a few tracks to whet your appetite: