Music

Why Blog When….

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…you can dance your ass off to extraordinarily fine music:
RRE_31722.jpg
Put Railroad Earth on your must see many times list. Neither the commercial CDs or the downloaded live shows that I’ve listened to so far do justice to the live performance.
Some might call them blue grass oriented and I suppose they are but that label is overly constrictive. These guys play music! They are all fine individual players and when wrapped together something much larger than the sum of the parts rears up, grabs ahold of you, and takes you right to the core of what you need…you choose it.
We humans may be a bit underconfigured for this music. You really need 6 sets of arms and legs to dance with these guys. Especially when they are jamming!
Oh, you must be movin’ ahead all the time. Even when they plumb sad themes or the underbelly of life the music does not let you dwell there. Especially during the first set there was a constant feeling that the big bang was about to occur, that all the forces of creation were gathering and driving forward to a great flowering.
I don’t yet know Railroad Earth’s music well enough to provide a full set list but here are a few (order not exact): Set 1: Storms: Set 2: Railroad Earth, Smilin’ Like a Budda, Long Way to Go; Encore: Catfish John (beautifully done!). There was much, much more: the first set lasted over an hour and the second set started at 10:13 and ended at 11:30 (including encore).1
This was an all ages show and ranged from sub-teens to geriatric. Everyone was friendly, open to conversation and eager to talk about the band.
There were maybe 200 people in a relatively small venue which, thankfully, was non-smoking (the smokers could go outside or into the attached bar). If you wanted you could be stage front – 2 feet from the band. I found the sound to be a bit muddy that close and spent most of my time about 16-18 feet back in the center where the sound was pretty crisp.
There were 3 audiences taping rigs and they may have provided patches for more decks so I suspect this show should circulate soon.
A special treat was getting into the venue early, a good 90 minutes before show time, and being treated to the sound check while eating dinner.
1 Here is the full set list (thanks Scott!):
Railroad Earth
4/6/2005
Bishop’s Pub
Vashon Island, WA
I: Storms, Old Dangerfield, Bird in a House, Stillwater Getaway,
Railroad Earth, Place Where Songs Begin, Head
II: Cold Water, Mourning Flies, Moonshiner, Like a Buddha>El
Cumbanchero, Magic Foot>Luxury Liner, Sing for Me, Seven Story
Mountain, Long Way to Go>Fiddlee
E: Catfish John
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Below the fold, in reverse order, is the menu for the rest of the weekend. Blogging will be very, very light!

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Radio Alternatives

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Last week Mark Morford hammered a bit on corporate rock radio:

This is the problem with rock radio. It has become the last option, the thing you listen to only when all other options fail, when you’re too tired to pop in a CD or too lazy to reach for the iPod or just a little too buzzed on premium tequila and postcoital nirvana to care about searching your glove box for that old AC/DC tape.

After getting subsequent feedback from his readers he now has some alternatives to recommend presented, of course, in his own unique style, i.e., some of you may be a bit offended. Oh, well:

These are places to go and listen anew and dig deep into the raw bloody gorgeous musical universe and rediscover the joys of radio and realize it really doesn’t, despite the howlings of the rigid neurons and the religious Right and the ass-clenched FCC, have to be all about preprogrammed DJs and bleeped f-words and endless goddamn repeats of Eric Clapton.

Of those on his list, I have listened to KPIG and KEXP and find them both very worthy. Give’m a try.

Lee, Haggard, and Dylan

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The Modulators attended the opening night of Bob Dylan’s tour and for a first night it was quite technically well done. Merle had issues with the sound during his set but it was, I think, more a problem for him than the audience. Set changes, etc., were carried off with precision and determination…really, it seemed there would be no extra time allowed for the first two acts.
Amos Lee walked on stage right at 7 performed a pleasing, low key, 30 minute set. I hadn’t heard before but Mrs Modulator was familiar with him and looking forward to the performance. And, I can understand why. He has a great voice, good stage presence, writes fine lyrics, and is very easy to listen too. His music has a bit of a country folk feeling that sat a fine tone for the rest of the evening.He was off the stage at 7:30 with no encore allowed though I think the audience response warranted one.
Fifteen minutes later The Strangers played Merle Haggard onto the stage to a rousing, everyone on their feet, welcome. And then the crowd sat back down. A drag….
Merle’s performance was strong and entertaining and even in the sit down crowd he still had us wanting to stomp our feet and, yes, also wanting to knock down a few long tall ones. Too bad they weren’t available where you could enjoy the music. The 50 minute set was to0 short! Kind of like his songs. As noted above, Merle wasn’t happy with the sound. He wanted more volume. Just like he has in his preferred setting of 40 years: bars and dancehalls.
Haggard’s memorabilia table was overloaded with red, white and blue “love it or leave it” type of stuff. But, from the songs he sang and the words he spoke it was pretty clear that his version of “love it or leave it” is much more nuanced than what you will hear on talk radio or read on some blogs and mailing lists. His strong performance of That’s the News brought a huge rsponse from the crowd. Especially the lines:

Politicians do all the talkin’: soldiers pay the dues.
Suddenly the war is over, that’s the news.

While he still wasn’t going to hold back on hammering the media he was also not cutting any slack to the administration. Merle’s voice was strong, the band played well, and all to soon The Strangers were playing Merle off the stage.
Dylan was a bit late. He didn’t come out until 9:04..:) and he was gone at 10:49. Too short. But, then, we did get about 3 hours of fine performances from the artists. I shouldn’t complain but I will anyway…give me more!
The Lee and Haggard sets almost, but not quite, prepare you for the ambiance. Think Dylan in a Vegas lounge; think the Roy Orbison Black and White Night show that is a regular on PBS; think Dylan run through the chops of the Cowboy Junkies!
Except that you would have been able to understand all the lyrics if Margo Timmons had been singing them. Yep, Bob brought out full gravel for this show. Long time Dylan fans are fully aware of this voice and it is powerful but I strongly suggest that those of you catching shows on this tour spend some time listening to the old and new albums, reviewing the lyrics and tuning your ears. Or bring your Startrek universal translator. Newbies be warned.
His set list was relatively short and, folks, you may not be ready for the new arrangements or, at least, the new sound. Bob endlessly changes what he does and this is a big part of why I go back regularly.
Bob’s band for this tour was, last night, excellent and nicely built on the country/folk platform put up by Lee and Haggard. All the players1 were up to snuff and you will enjoy them! Of course, Bob and his players did have the blessing of full volume which was not given to the openers.
The selection was fine if abbreviated. But Dylan tunes are not Haggard length. Bob definitely has lyrics. One song probably has more lyrical words than either of the openers used in their entire sets and the breaks between songs, if they existed at all, were short. So, the 14 songs averaged out to about 7 minutes each of meaty performance. If you are not familiar with Dylan check out the lyrics to the song linked at the bottom of this post.
I’ll jump right to the end because the three encore tunes were my favorite part of the performace. The entire audience finally got up and danced! Like a Rolling Stone was, for this night, pretty driving and the entire Watchtower was performed in a subdued, exotically tense mode much like Dave Matthews does the opening verse. Dylan closed with a moving version of Haggard’s Sing Me Back Home. We thought Merle would come out and join in that finale but no joy. They wrapped it up and sent us home.

But even the President of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
Bob Dylan, It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

1For the curious Dylan is playing piano this tour.

Map your Music

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