ACL Sunday

We stood through most of Shooter Jennings show. It was good country rock. They are a tight band, and it was fun, but it was Sunday, so we wandered around (I ditched the girls and was hanging with Guy at this point) and ended up at Okkervil River's stage, didn't grab me, and then watched a bit of the Raconteurs. We were too far away and so we decided to call it a day. We ended up at the new Chuy's south of the city and after a couple of margaritas I was laughing so hard (sorry, I can't even begin to tell you why) I was crying. Another great week in Austin. There are more posts to come. I have lots of pictures to post and a few more videos to upload. There are stories I still want to tell as well. But for now, I need a shower real bad. :-) Thanks to those of you who have kept track of me on the blog.

Re: [worldclassrock] ACL Sunday continued

Mike put on a great show, blending southern gospel with some Stax and soul. Man can this guy sing and with a 4 piece horn section and 2 backup singers he had the WA MU tent believing.



Now listening to Joe Bonamassa a guitar wizard. I feel like I'm back in the 70's with his sometimes bluesy but always electric rock and roll guitar.





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ACL Sunday continued

Watched a few minutes of Octopus Project. Uhmmm... Interesting. If the video comes out okay I'll post it. Sort of industrial techo with a pretty crazy show. Then caught a few minutes of Patricia Ahn. She was cute but I think she needs more seasoning. Very cute video coming. Up next Mike Farris in the blues tent.





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ACL Sunday

It's casual day on another beautiful day in Austin. We are all wandering around, hitting parts of shows and just having a mellow day. I did some shopping in the marketplace and am now catching Nicole Atkins. When she was last here she played one of the smaller stages. Today she is on the number 2 stage and is having no problem adjusting. Her big rock sound is perfect for the large stage and the extra amps. I videoed a nice version of crystal ships. It should be up tomorrow sometime.


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ACL Festival 2008 Saturday

So... Plant and Krauss were good. But I sure wouldn't pay the $125 a seat that they wanted when they blew through town a month or so ago. Still, it was worth sitting and standing in the same spot all day for this show. Robert Plant is still larger than life. And when he wails, no man alive makes that amazing sound. So, when you join this great voice with one of the finest voices in music today, Alison Krauss, it is a joy to behold. Therein lies one of the problems of this show. Just not enough duets. Each of them focused on their own music as well as the music from their album. There were several Led Zep songs placed throughout the show which had the crowd going wild. All of them were twisted around and sometimes slowed down, making for a very unique effect. The crowd didn't care and often sang along. The band was amazing. T-Bone Burnett was the band leader and sang one of his current songs, almost apologizing for it afterward saying, "You don't hear a song like that every day. I figured I could get away with it in Austin". What was he thinking though? The song just did not fit with the rest of the music. Jay Belarose, on the drums, as always, created atmosphere that no other drummer can even come close to. Buddy Miller, on guitar, proved that he could accompany Plant on the BIG songs. Hanging on the front rail, this is probably as close as I'll ever come to Robert Plant, so I am a very happy camper today. Videos are still uploading on Youtube, but you can check out the 3 Zep tunes and more at http://www.youtube.com/infomas

CCR

It was billed as John Fogerty, but it was really a CCR show with only a couple of songs from his solo CDs. AND Kenny Aronoff on drums! The two great drummers back to back, with Jay Belarose playing with Plant/Krause. Anyway, John and band ROCKED. It must have been like this to see CCR in the day. I think I lost my voice singing along.


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More acl

Just sat through a fun set from Sharon Jones and thr Dap-Kings. Her soul review had us bouncing around for the whole hour. You just have to watch the videos when we post then later. Robert Earl Keen is up next. Then Fogerty. And finally Plant and Krauss.


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Re: ACL day 2

Couldn't really hear Mugison. The fleet Foxes were okay. As Deb said, harmonies for the sake of harmonies can wear on you.


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----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce Greenberg
To: 'worldclassrock@yahoogroups.com' <worldclassrock@yahoogroups.com>; 'thepromiselive.aclmf@blogger.com' <thepromiselive.aclmf@blogger.com>
Sent: Sat Sep 27 09:39:52 2008
Subject: ACL day 2

We are in the front of the number 2 stage and plan on staying put all day. Front row for Plant and Krauss. At this stage we will be able to also hear the sets at the stage to the side. Up first at that stage is Mugison (Iceland's answer to Beck). Then at this stage is Fleet Foxes (think CSNY). Hope you all are having a good weekend so far. We are.


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ACL day 2

We are in the front of the number 2 stage and plan on staying put all day. Front row for Plant and Krauss. At this stage we will be able to also hear the sets at the stage to the side. Up first at that stage is Mugison (Iceland's answer to Beck). Then at this stage is Fleet Foxes (think CSNY). Hope you all are having a good weekend so far. We are.


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ACL Festival 2008 Friday

There is just too much going on and we're getting too old... So the brief descriptions that I posted today will have to do for now. But head over to my Youtube area and check out all the videos as they get completed: http://www.youtube.com/infomas . Hopefully tonight or tomorrow you will find several Patty Griffin Videos and one Swell Season video. Deb will have video uploaded at some point also, including a song or two from Carolyn Wonderland's performance at the Saxon. I should chat about that for a minute. First, Carolyn was on fire, playing for over 2 hours. Her solos where hot, her singing was over the top and we were drained when it was done. BUT... There was this cow (you'll understand my anger when I'm finished) who decided to get in front of everyone (there is a very small area in front of the tables just in front of the stage) and danced almost every song. She turned to someone part way through the night and said the words that drive me crazy, "I paid my $10, I'll do what I want. Kiss my ass!" Now, when I turned my chair to face the stage and stuck my legs out, just a bit, I am 8 inches from the stage. And so I stayed there as a public service. This allowed at least the people behind me to see. Near the end, this cow, got pissed because i refused to move my legs (they weren't even stretched out) and so she would put one of her arms out, trying to block my view, while dancing. As Deb said, it was pathetic. This was this woman's night to shine and she wasn't going to let anyone stop her. Pictures are going to have to wait until I have more time. Oh, and Deb's Youtube area is http://www.youtube.com/user/downthunderroad  

Acl continued

Patty Griffin was great as always. I got a very cool signing from her (can't tell you right now). We tried to see Jenny Lewis but the tent was overflowing all the way to the food court ( that is a long ways, trust me). So we split up and I am sitting next to the stage waiting for The Swell Season. If Alejandro starts to blow them out, I will probably ditch them and watch Mr. Escovedo rock us two nights in a row.

Guy! Where are you? :-)


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Acl friday

It took less than 2 songs to realize that I didn't want to be watching Vampire Weekend. Moved over to Jakob Dylan, who isn't all that exciting so far, but at least he isn't Vampire Weekend.


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Rodney Crowell

Hadn't heard him before and wasn't expecting him to be this good. Opened with a song about intelligent design.

Overheard the winner of the contest to play. They closed with Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner! Great taste in music at least.


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Wow

ACL is still a dozen hours away and already there are highlights! Just sat through an amazing set from Alejandro Escovedo and now we have Sarah Borges back at the Continental. More later.

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ACL Festival Wednesday Pre-Shows

Look at this picture. Enlarge it. This was my first visit to the real Salt Lick in Austin and man what a meal we had. And then I saw this pit filled with meat. I just wanted to jump in. YUM!!!!

After dinner we headed over to the Hills Austin Cafe to see Charlie Robison. He is the white trash brother of Bruce Robison and now ex husband of Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks. Bruce is a better writer, but Charlie was a lot of fun. Bruce Joined him for a bunch of songs on this live radio broadcast. This is more Deb's kind of country folk, so that's about all I'll say here.

It was off to the Continental for a great double bill: Jon Dee Graham and James McMurtry; and all for $7.00. I love Austin! Jon Dee, as you may know, was in a horrible auto accident (fell asleep at the wheel and hit a concrete barrier) in July. With broken and floating ribs and now missing a spleen, he somehow (he says he is on pain meds) was able to get back on stage again. Jon Dee has always been a passionate performer, but he seems to be playing with an extra amount of adrenalin these days; playing like someone who is glad to be alive. It was a short but very lively set, including one new song. Enjoy the video. The image is pretty dark but the song is worth it. 

James McMurtry put on a nearly 2 hour set (we didn't get out of there until nearly 2:30) playing songs mainly from his last 2 CDs. If you haven't seen this guy live, you are missing so much. Sure he is one of the best songwriters in the biz today. He's a poet. His stories are always several levels deep. Is he talking about growing old or the effects of a hurricane or a society on the brink or all three at the same time? His songwriter really is amazing. But in concert, he turns up the electric guitars and just nails his sound into you. You're bouncing around to some of the finest lyrics either side of the Mississippi. And his fans seem to get it. A would be pole dancer jumped up on stage and gave us all a show as James sang, "Choctaw Bingo" and the girl was actually singing along to this amazingly horrifying song. All of this is laid before us with a complete lack of emotion. But that just seems to emphasize the point. He is like an angry father who is giving you that look of disapproval. Don't mess with me. 

Tuesday ACL Pre-Show 2008

So, I flew in to Austin from Dallas with a little tail wind and beginnings of a head cold. Hopefully this doesn't last long. Deb and Linda had my room all ready to go and after some good hot wings we were off to the Saxon Pub for The Band of Heathens. What we didn't realize was that Bruce Hughes, who used to play with Bob Schneider not to mention Poi Dog Pondering, was the next act on the bill. How cool is that? 

The band of Heathens is a three guitar three vocal country rock band with plenty of harmonies and great guitar licks. Along with the guitars bass and drums they added a keyboard player (with lots of organ) giving them a lot more funk to the sound. I've never heard them without the keyboards and honestly, I don't think I need to. They had a great sound with him and I hope they keep him in the band. This was a very nice way to  start the weeks activities. 

Bruce Hughes had a typical Austin lineup. Everyone had Austin creds, from Judd Newcomb who has played with everyone in Austin was on guitar. The drummer was borrowed from The Band of Heathens. The bass player, Harmoni ( http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=7295699 ) replace Bruce when Bob kicked him out of the band (he even joked about it on stage) and the keyboard player, Mark ( http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=26790201 ) is a producer for lots of bands in Austin. Mark by the way had a theremin built into his keyboard (more on that later). Bruce, played a sort of funky, Philly white soul with lots of mean solos from Judd and Mark. Mark was just really amazing, turning the keyboard into a junk box of sounds that weren't really music but fit the songs perfectly. All were seated during the entire show, and yet, it rocked and we bounced and... What a way to start ACL week for us. 

Tonight may be a triple bill: Charlie Robison at Hills Cafe, and then Jon Dee Graham and James McMurtry at the Continental Club. Hopefully this head cold disapates soon. 

ACL 2008

ACL 2008 is just a week away!

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