wild sweet orange @ ear x-tacy/louisville (07.31.2008)

tonight, the birmingham, alabama based band "wild sweet orange" played a nice 45 (+/-) minute in-store set @ the most excellent ear x-tacy here in louisville to celebrate this week's release of their first record "we have cause to be uneasy." the band performed tonight as a 5 piece, while billed as a four piece consisting of; preston lovinggood (vocals, acoustic guitar), garrett kelley (bass), chip kilpatrick (drums), taylor shaw (electric guitar), unfortunately i didn't get the name of the other player on guitar tonight. i got to talk to them for a few minutes after they played tonight, all very pleasant, nice young men that seemed very appreciative of the support they've received.

i always hate the dreaded "what kind of music do they play" question... well, it's a nice blend of rock, power pop with a little twinge of a folkish vibe on at times. but no doubt, they can bring it, they are a really good band with a very talented vocalist. lovinggood's voice is great, very much his own but at times you'll hear a little bit of bono or maybe griffin house come out when he starts to wail. not a bad thing at all. he is the perfect compliment to their sound, which i'm sure is no accident, since he is the chief songwriter and producer.

i really enjoyed their live performance and i'm still running through the record for the first time and digesting it lyrically, sonically i'm really enjoying it, the sound is really nice. a very nice listen; "ten dead dogs," "sour milk," and "an atlas to follow" seem to be the standouts for me on the first pass thru.

my suggestion, go to wildsweetmusic.com (streaming audio link on top left of page) or www.myspace.com/wildsweetorange and have a listen for yourself, it's worth your time.

and on a side note, while i myself am a "southern boy" and grew up on the music of "allman brothers band" and the like, i always love seeing a band that comes out of the deep south that breaks that "southern rock" stereotype and dispells the theory that if you come from the south, you've gotta sound like "lynyrd skynyrd" to be successful. good on them for doing that.


photos by bill ivester

tour schedule
August 1, 2008 Pontiac,MI PIKE ROOM AT THE CROFOOT
August 3, 2008 Chicago,IL LOLLAPALOOZA Show Time- 12:30 PM
August 4, 2008 Omaha,NE THE SLOWDOWN
August 6, 2008 Minneapolis,MN THE VARSITY THEATER
August 10, 2008 Austin,TX STUBBS
August 11, 2008 Houston,TX STUDIO AT WAREHOUSE LIVE
August 12, 2008 Dallas-Ft. Worth,TX HOUSE OF BLUES
August 13, 2008 Shreveport,LA The Rustic Cowboy
August 14, 2008 Memphis,TN The High Tone
August 20, 2008 Nashville,TN Belcourt Thearter
August 27, 2008 Orlando,FL THE SOCIAL
August 28, 2008 Gainesville,FL COMMON GROUND
August 29, 2008 Athens,GA 40 WATT CLUB
August 30, 2008 Columbia,SC 5 POINTS PUB
August 31, 2008 Mt Pleasant,SC VILLAGE TAVERN
September 2, 2008 Charlotte,NC Neighborhood Theatre
September 3, 2008 Charlottesville,VA GRAVITY LOUNGE
September 4, 2008 Philadelphia,PA KHYBER
September 5, 2008 Brooklyn,NY SOUTHPAW
September 6, 2008 Hoboken,NJ MAXWELLS
September 8, 2008 Baltimore,MD FLETCHERS
September 9, 2008 Richmond,VA CANAL CLUB
September 10, 2008 Greensboro,NC GREENE STREET CLUB
September 11, 2008 Atlanta,GA THE EARL
September 12, 2008 S. Jacksonvil,FL JACK RABBITS
September 13, 2008 Tampa,FL WMNF Birthday Bash
September 14, 2008 Gainesville,FL Real Big Deal Fest

Newport Folk Festival (August 2nd & 3rd)

i was really hoping to make it up for this, my three current favorites; over the rhine, cat power and cowboy junkies are all playing the (arguably) most famed and prestigious ongoing festival in the history of music, the newport folk festival. plus sets by legends like levon helm, brian wilson* and richie havens along with sets by other greats like; gillian welch, steve earle/allison moorer, son volt, the black crowes and jakob dylan, playing where his father was booed off the stage 43 years ago for "going electric." jakob, by the way, will be playing a solo acoustic set. it should be a great weekend and with jimmy buffet "headlining" and closing it out, there would be a great opportunity to slip out early and beat the traffic.

hopefully we will be getting a full report from friend and previous contributor, keith bergendorff who will be attending the festival along with several cowboy junkies and over the rhine shows in the region.


The Newport Folk Festival is a multi-day, multi-stage music festival held at the historic Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island.

Saturday, August 2
Doors: 10:00 AM - Show: 11:30 AM to 7:00 PM

Cowboy Junkies 11:30 - 12:20
Young @ Heart Chorus 11:30 - 12:10
Sydney Wayser 11:30 - 12:00
Red Rooster 12:25 - 1:15
Jakob Dylan 12:30 - 1:20
Richie Havens 12:40 - 1:30
Jesca Hoop 1:35 - 2:15
Steve Earle & Allison Moorer 1:40 - 2:30
Trey Anastasio 2:00 - 3:00
American Babies 2:35 - 3:05
She & Him (feat. Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward) 2:50 - 3:40
Willy Mason 3:30 - 4:10
Stephen & Damian Marley 3:30 - 4:45
Jim James (of My Morning Jacket) 4:00 - 5:00
The Felice Brothers 4:35 - 5:35
The Black Crowes 5:15 - 6:45
Cat Power 5:30 - 6:30

Sunday, August 3rd
Doors: 10:00 AM - Show: 11:30 AM to 7:00 PM

Ryan Fitzsimmons 11:30 - 11:50
The Honors (OurStage Winners) 12:10 - 12:55
Brandi Carlile 12:15 - 1:00
Over The Rhine 1:15 - 2:10
Richard Julian 1:20 - 2:10
Calexico 1:20 - 2:20
Kaki King 2:30 - 3:20
Jake Shimabukuro 2:30 - 3:30
Gillian Welch 2:40 - 3:40
Son Volt 3:40 - 4:40
One Flew South 4:00 - 5:00
Levon Helm 4:10 - 5:10
The Avett Brothers 5:00 - 6:00
Jimmy Buffett 5:40 - 7:15

Schedule subject to change
* "official" postings/articles note brian wilson as a performer, i have yet to find his name/time slot on a schedule.

free stream and download: tom waits - "glitter and doom" @ the fox theatre/atlanta (07.05.2008)

free stream @ NPR "All Things Considered"

free download @: NPR "All Things Considered - Podcast"

i was there and while "stunning" a great compliment, it is simply an understatement. =)

Glitter And Doom: Tom Waits In Concert
Hear A Stunning Performance, Recorded At Atlanta's Fox Theater

A trip through the world of Tom Waits can be disorienting. His ramshackle story-songs, with their creaky instrumentation and dusty poetry, usually leave listeners with more questions than answers, and his persona outside of his music revolves around a playful but guarded mix of fiction and reality.

To promote his latest tour, Waits offered the media an extended print interview — one he conducted with himself — and a taped press conference, featuring Waits seated at a table of microphones, answering questions amid bursts of flashbulbs and murmurs. Only at the end, as Waits donned a bowler hat and exited, did viewers see that the room was empty and the sound of the press corps was merely a record playing.

Both interviews were filled with more wildly imaginative stories and questionable trivia (was a sunken Japanese freighter really raised with 20 million ping-pong balls?) than actual details of the tour. But that's the allure of Tom Waits: It's hard to know what to believe, but the world he creates is enchanting enough to get lost in.

Here's what we do know: Waits has dubbed his summer 2008 tour "Glitter and Doom." It's a trek through the lower half of the U.S. he describes as "PEHDTSCKJMBA" (pronounced "pess-kuh-JUM-buh), an acronym for each of the tour's stops: Phoenix, El Paso, Houston, Dallas, Tulsa, St. Louis, Columbus, Knoxville, Jacksonville, Mobile, Birmingham and Atlanta.

For his Atlanta stop, recorded at the city's historic Fox Theater on July 5, Waits delivered a stunning and epic two-and-a-half-hour performance, including songs he says he's never attempted outside of the studio before. Backing Waits is a five-piece group featuring Seth Ford-Young (upright bass), Patrick Warren (keyboards), Omar Torrez (guitars), Vincent Henry (woodwinds) and Casey Waits (drums and percussion). "They play with racecar precision and they are all true conjurers," Waits says. "They are all multi-instrumentalists and they polka like real men."

Waits wraps his tour with seven stops in Europe, including his first-ever concerts in Spain and the Czech Republic, with a finale in Dublin on Aug. 1.

Set List
"Lucinda / Ain't Going Down to the Well"
"Down in the Hole"
"Falling Down"
"Chocolate Jesus"
"All the World Is Green"
"Cemetery Polka"
"Cause of It All"
"Till the Money Runs Out"
"Such a Scream"
"November"
"Hold On"
"Black Market Baby"
"9th and Hennepin"
"Lie to Me"
"Lucky Day"
"On the Nickel"
"Lost in the Harbor"
"Innocent When You Dream"
"Hoist That Rag"
"Make It Rain"
"Dirt in the Ground"
"Get Behind the Mule"
"Hang Down Your Head"
"Jesus Gonna Be Here"
"Singapore"
ENCORE
"Eyeball Kid"
"Anywhere I Lay My Head"

many thanks to NPR and public radio for making music like this available.

featured artists - cowboy junkies

written and submitted by jason lent

margo timmins

“This song I’d like to dedicate to the young girl in Utah, and her family.” Margo Timmins - “This Street, That Man, This Life”, Petaluma, CA, 2002

Simple words spoken quietly by singer Margo Timmins of Cowboy Junkies deep into the band’s set on the final night of a grueling five night run up the California coast. The young girl in Utah was Elizabeth Smart and the song, written a decade earlier, tells a story hauntingly too familiar to anybody who read the newspaper that spring. The real life story ended happily but really, how happy can such a story end? Somewhere between the polar tips of sadness and happiness is a place swathed in a mixture of the two colors. This place is called life. Few bands write and perform in this place as consistently as Cowboy Junkies.

As the influence of MTV started to fade from my life in the late 80’s, one of the last bands to register on my musical radar was Cowboy Junkies. I picked up the seminal Trinity Session as high school began and set it aside for a few years. Rock and roll might have been ready for the revolutionary lo-fi recording of Trinity but I was still taking the Duran Duran pins off my Member’s Only jacket. A few years later, our paths would cross again on television.

In anticipation of the follow-up release Caution Horses, VH-1 aired a short special on Cowboy Junkies (seriously, this happened, I have a copy) and the video for the first single, “Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning.” With my musical tastes having moved from Thompson Twins to Eric Clapton and the early delta blues artists, the time was right for me to revisit Cowboy Junkies. Twenty years later, I still haven’t left.

Two things everybody seems to know about the band is that they recorded a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” and they’re depressing. Both of these facts are slivers of truth with far more depth than most listeners will ever notice. As a band, singer Margo Timmins with brothers Michael (guitar/songwriter) and Pete (drums) and Alan Anton (bass), they are constantly challenging the listener by adapting a diverse range of songs from The Cure to Townes Van Zandt. Sheryl Crow singing “Sweet Child Of Mine” is a cover, and a terrible example of one. Cowboy Junkies exploring an acoustically bare, first person reading of Bruce Springsteen’s “You’re Missing” works on a different artistic plane.

Yes, the stories found in Cowboy Junkies songs are dark but happy endings are relatively subjective in life, something that Hollywood and Miley Cyrus would prefer you forget. Many of the early narratives that Michael passed to Margo were filled with the Southern Gothic traditions of writers like Flannery O’Connor. As years pass and the realities of family life creep into the business of being a band, the tone of the writing and the pace of the music often flows through the speakers like the words of a Richard Ford novel float across the page. Happiness and sadness twist together to form a frail tempest of hope that refuses to stop living.

The endurance of Cowboy Junkies both artistically and commercially lies in the honesty of the band. There are few bands more open with their fans, both in person and in cyberspace. Everything from rough, first take recordings to hand written lyrics are available for the listener to explore through the band’s website. Singer Margo Timmins still comes out after every show to talk and take countless pictures with fans. On stage, the sonic clouds of dark mystery swirl from the amps without disengaging the audience. Cowboy Junkies are a shared experience.

Before the show in Petaluma that night in 2002, the band invited in five or six fans to watch a tired sound check. One fan had his wife and daughter with him, something he had mentioned to Margo the night before when he requested a song that had impacted their family in a meaningful way. Remembering this and despite not having played the song in years, the band dedicated it to the daughter and played it for the family, unrehearsed, in an empty concert hall. Watching the moment unfold, I realized that the most important moments in life are the small, all too fleeting times when life comes into focus. The moments when sadness and happiness both make sense and have equal importance to our souls. It is these moments that come alive in Cowboy Junkies.

find out more about cowboy junkies @ cowboyjunkies.com

read more from jason @ essential junk

photo by bill ivester


submit you own story about your favorite band or artsit to bivester@gmail.com

music by the album

here is something you might enjoy, a great site called music by the album, that was started by a fellow patty griffin fan. his goal is to maybe introduce you to a new artist and/or a new album that you may not have been aware of previously. and then to listen to their creation, "the album" as it was intended, in full, from beginning to end. there are some great choices and nice diversity of music and artists on the site. hope you enjoy. and it's definitely stuff you won't be exposed to on your local radio stations.

here is an explaination from russell, the site's founder...

Welcome to Music by the Album

Art is an expression of the creator’s self, entertainment is an expression of what the creator believes others enjoy. It’s good we have both, but may we always have musical artists.

Now that we can download music a song at a time, create our own playlists, and let our digital music players randomly select the songs it plays, it seems the album is becoming less and less important. I do all three of those things myself. But, I still like to listen to an album from beginning to end, with all songs played in the order as intended by those involved in creating the album, primarily the musician(s) and producer(s).

This site is designed to give others an opportunity to do the same with some albums that I find to be interesting in some way or another and that others might as well. I don’t follow any guidelines for the albums I post other than that. What makes an album “interesting” to me? That varies from album to album - it might be the sequence of the songs, it might be the overall sound of the music, it might be the concept of the album, it might be the story behind the album or artist and have nothing to do with the music itself, or, in many cases, it might be a combination of any one or more of the above. What I find interesting extends to many genres. In fact, I often find an album interesting because it includes several genres on the album.

Most of the posted albums were released in the 15 years or so prior to the post and some were released just prior to the post. A relatively few of the posted albums were released many years prior to the post. No classics or platinum albums will be posted - the albums posted here are pretty much all released on independent labels that don’t consider radio airplay as an indicator of quality music. Instead, most of the albums (but not all) are by lesser-known artists and groups.

I encourage registration. If you register, you will get email notification of postings. You will also be able to comment on the albums.

Please note that you do not have to listen to the album in one sitting. You can skip around and pause as you wish. That said, I highly recommend that you listen to these albums from beginning to end if you have the chance.

I’ve tried to set up the site so that the music files cannot be downloaded. I imagine some hackers can figure a way around it, but please don’t try.

enjoy music by the album and if you find something you like, please support the artists by purchasing a copy and if possible, but it at your local independent record store.

New Releases (for Tuesday June 29th)

July 29
Richie Havens - Nobody Left to Crown
Wild Sweet Orange - We Have Cause To Be Uneasy
Sugarland - Love On The Inside
Third Day - Revelation
Scars On Broadway - Scars On Broadway
DJ Laz - Catagory 6
Coolio - Steal Hear
Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider
Rick Springfield - Venus In Overdrive
Soulfly - Conquer
Eddie Floyd - Eddie Loves You So
Walls Of Jericho - The American Dream
Cephas & Wiggins - Richmond Blues

Goodbye Katie

since katie's story and passing has touched so many people, many who only knew her through her words and music and there has been so much interest and such an outpouring of compassion and sympathy for her family and friends, i thought one last goodbye on the day of her memorial service was appropriate.

said well by karin bergquist from "over the rhine": "We are so saddened to learn that Katie has passed away. So young, beautiful and talented. Such a loss for those of us left behind. Our thoughts and prayers are with Katie's family and friends. We cry with you."

peace katie, sleep well.

A Charmed Life’s Cruel End Brings a Test of Faith for Survivors

Katie Reider in 2006. This month she died of a rare tumor at age 30, leaving behind her partner and two young children.
They were three kids from Cincinnati who met in a Christian theater group in the summer of 1995 and spent a lot of time talking about God.

There was Dan Stroeh, tall, athletic, smart, eloquent, the son of a Lutheran minister. There was Karen Boone, a gymnast since age 5 who found God as a junior in high school and seemed wise beyond her years. And there was Katie Reider, beautiful, talented, funny, fearless, sort of the female version of Phineas, the effortlessly perfect alpha male in John Knowles’s “A Separate Peace.” In a group of talented heartland kids, she was the one who lit up the room, surely the most blessed of them all.

And through the years, as college friends, as Karen and Katie became lovers and partners, after Dan presided over the backyard wedding where they ran barefoot together into the future, after the couple moved to Montclair and he to Manhattan, they remained friends and soul mates.

But still, in some ways, they ended up just where they started, three kids from Cincinnati who spent a lot of time talking about God.

There’s really no way to make sense of the horror that befell Katie Reider, a singer/songwriter, with a huge following back home and a growing national fan base, who seemed on the cusp of much larger success when her life was destroyed by a rare tumor that ate into her jaw and face, stole her voice, left her blind in one eye and finally killed her this month at the age of 30.

And surely all of their Bible reading and earnest late-night discussions of God’s plan could not have prepared them for the Job-like tale in which they became players. Still. It sounds like something from the heart, not some rote recitation of received wisdom when Dan and Karen say surely there was some plan, some meaning, even some good in Katie’s nightmare.

“She’d often wonder why God was doing this to her, why God made her suffer so much,” said Karen, who took the last name Reider in 2005 when she became pregnant for the first time. The couple had two children, now ages 2 and 4, using a donor. “Sometimes she’d cry out in pain: ‘God, give me mercy.’ But she never doubted there was a purpose. She never lost her faith. And I have to believe this can be life-changing in a positive way because Katie would have expected nothing less.”

You can pick out the lessons you want from their story. About faith — as balm or as placebo. About love’s unexpected paths, and in this case, in a conservative environment not always accepting of a gay relationship. About medical care: Karen’s employer began including employees’ partners in their health coverage plan in January 2007, and the plan covered what could have been deemed a pre-existing condition. That spared them an insurance and financial catastrophe on top of a personal and medical one.

But it all began with what seemed like a toothache on Valentine’s Day 2006. By that point, Katie had become a local star admired for both her music — part rock, part folk — and for her stage presence. She had a rambunctious sense of humor and an ability to connect to the loneliest person in the back row. She had recorded four CDs, placed songs on shows like “Dawson’s Creek,” and attracted interest from major labels.

“She was always the kind of writer who would crack open her chest and rub her heart raw,” Dan said.

It seemed a bothersome irritation when the tooth problem arose. But then antibiotics, painkillers, steroids, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, radiation, chemotherapy — nothing seemed to work as what was eventually diagnosed as a rare inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor collapsed the left side of her face and attached itself to the blood vessels in her brain. She became too weak to perform; then the tumor ate into her palate so she could no longer sing and could barely speak. Each turn in the road opened to something worse.

Her doctor, Manuel Revuelta, an internist and infectious disease specialist at Beth Israel Medical Center, said he never saw a crueler case or a more remarkable patient: upbeat, full of life, seemingly hopeful throughout. She insisted on being photographed as the disease worsened. It fit her goal of an open, transparent life, and the photographs showed both her disfigured face and an incongruously joyous glint in her good right eye, as if to say, I’m not what I was, but I’m still me.

As her situation became dire, a fan, Lauren Fernandes, hoping to keep Katie’s voice alive and to raise money for her family and medical care, put up a Web site called “500,000 hits in 365 days.”

Katie leaned on family, bandmates, and on Karen and Dan, often literally. He, it turned out, had success as a playwright (which began when he won the Kennedy Center’s 2001 National Student Playwriting Award) and also suffered from ill health in the form of a genetic disorder of the nervous system that left him barely able to walk.

Katie and Dan read from psalms together in the hospital. And when she was up to it, the two old friends, both very old at 30, held onto each other as they tottered down the hospital hall.

Finally, spent, exhausted and out of hope, for the first time unable to look at her face in the mirror, she died on July 14.

Dan said he and Katie talked to the end about embracing uncertainty while feeling in their gut the visceral presence of God.

Katie’s brother, Robbie, also a musician and also steeped in religion, who lost a newborn child a few years back and his mother to multiple cancers as Katie’s health deteriorated, is less sanguine. “What I would have believed five years ago about God and faith is very different from what I believe now,” he said. “Christians are always throwing around lines about how God is good, God is good all the time, and my take on that is, if that’s true, God’s definition of good is very different than mine. I’m still trying to work it out.”

But, then, in their own ways, they all are. On Saturday morning, with Dan presiding, family, friends and fans of Katie will gather at a church in Cincinnati to hear her voice, hear her band, celebrate her life, contemplate heaven and contemplate earth.

And then family members will gather for pizza and beer, her kind of sacrament, just the way she would have wanted to say goodbye.

By PETER APPLEBOME | The New York Times

happy birthday mick!

as david letterman said last night...mick jagger is turning 65 tomorrow. it's a shame keith richards isn't still alive to see it. =)

Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger turns 65 on Saturday

Happy birthday, Mick Jagger - Saturday, you'll be old enough to qualify for Medicare.

Geriatric Jagger is turning 65 - five months before Keith Richards joins him in that craggy company.

That brings the total age for all four remaining Stones - Jagger, Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood - to 257.

Then again, Mick can take consolation in the fact that he still has his hair, not to mention the 28-inch waistline of a teen. He also remains spry enough to command a stage for two hours, moving like a crazed chicken all the while.

Jagger proved this yet again with the release of the rapturously received new movie "Shine a Light."

Directed by Martin Scorsese, the flick captures a recent Stones' performance from the city's Beacon Theater that's as highly caffeinated as anything Mick and the group offered 20, or even 30, years, ago.

While they no longer sell huge amounts of albums, the Stones remain the biggest concert draw in any year they choose to tour.

Though Jagger famously said he would sooner die than play "Satisfaction" when he's 40, he and the band have opened many shows in their fifth decade with that very number.

He's had far too many lovers to count, sired seven children by four different women, and bedded enough supermodels to fill a Brazilian beach.

He's reportedly dating stylist L'Wren Scott, 25 years his junior. Jagger continues to generate enough income to have an estate worth $463 million.

All this activity hasn't stopped some people from ranking on the most obvious signs of his age - those canyon-like wrinkles of his.

British jazz singer George Melly once asked Mick why he's so lined. "Laugh lines," Jagger said, to which Melly replied, "Nothing's that funny."

After every tour, reporters invariably ask Jagger when he'll retire. The skinny star remains mum.

"I'm sure it will happen one day," he said recently. "It hasn't happened for the moment. We don't look at the clouds of tomorrow through the sunshine of today."

BY JIM FARBER
DAILY NEWS MUSIC CRITIC

cat power - sessions @ aol

god, i love this woman...


don't explain


naked if i want to


new york new york


ramblin' (wo)man


silver stallion

DiG! (free movie stream)

this is pretty cool, a (legal) free stream of the movie "DiG!"

you can watch it in it's entirety free of charge (you just have to "watch" a couple of short commercials). i watched the first few minutes and it looks pretty entertaining...


DiG!
Seven years in the making and culled from 2000 hours of footage, DIG! plunges into the underbelly of rock n roll, unearthing an incredible true story of success and self-destruction. Anton A. Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols are star-crossed friends and bitter rivals - DIG! is the story of their loves and obsessions, gigs and recordings, arrests and death threats, uppers and downers, and the delicate balance between art and commerce.

over the rhine - fraze pavilion/dayton, oh (07.23.2008)

beautiful show on a beautiful night night in a beautiful venue full of beautiful people.

last night, once again, OtR delivered bigtime. a killer show at the fraze pavilion in kettering, oh (south of dayton). it was a beautiful night for an outdoor show, not too hot or humid, nice breeze, the only negative was that as the sun set it was very bright and directly in the eyes of the band (but they all looked pretty hip in their shades). this show was a part of a summer series of free wednesday night shows sponsored by the venue, the city and several local businesses. personally, i'm always leary of these types of shows, since they are free the crowd has no "investment" in the show, many times they are filled with people that are not really fans of the artists or of music in general and they tend to be a place to just hang out for the evening. thankfully, that was not the case last night. great crowd.

the venue holds around 4,000 with a variety of seating; comfortable fixed "stadium type" seating up front, a nice casual lawn in the middle and aluminum bleacher seating in the rear. my guess is that there was well north of 3,000+ people there. the audience was great, quiet, attentive, respectful and appreciative. since OtR has played in dayton pretty much since their beginning and had many a sold-out night @ the canal street tavern, there also was a nice awareness of them and the music. the fraze is a nice, small outdoor "shed" or ampihtheatre in the middle of a large park/green space with much better acoustics than most. maybe it's the size and/or it being surrounded by trees rather than a sea of asphalt and parking lots. and as usual "juicy" had it dialed in perfectly.

the band was in great sprits and having a lot of fun playing and enjoying the crowd. while introducing "trouble" and playfully (and "suggestively") dedicating it to those out "on a date," karin spotted a young married arriving a little late, just spreading out their blanket on the lawn and had a little fun with them. soon the whole crowd was turning back and looking at them.

they played two sets, mostly from "ohio" and "the trumpet child" with a couple of covers thrown in;

set one
i don't wanna waste your time
born
trouble
i'm on a roll
miss ohio (gillian welch cover)
cruel & pretty
the trumpet child
who'm i kiddin'
changes come

set two
ohio
professional daydreamer
show me
drunkard's prayer
if a song could be president
don't wait for tom
b.p.d.
my city was gone (pretender's cover)
encore
orphan girl (gillian welch cover)
latter days (K&L Only) *not originally on setlist

everything was great, but they really rocked it on "miss ohio" & "my city was gone" and you could have heard a pin drop during "latter days." kenny is a nice addition to the usual foursome and as i joked with karin after the show, the lynyrd skynyrd dual lead guitar thing works well for them.

apparently everyone liked what they heard too. i jumped in and helped @ the merch table both during the break and after the show and we were slammed, i've never seen it that busy. they sold out of a couple of cd's and tees and still had people buying as security was hustling everyone out of the venue.

as i said; beautiful show on a beautiful night night in a beautiful venue full of beautiful people.


the line-up was:
karin bergquist (vocals. acoustic guitar, piano, cookie sheet) | linford detweiler (piano, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) | jake bradley (upright bass, electric bass, electric guitar) | mickey grimm (drumkits) | kenny hutson (electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, electric mandolin)

kudos to karin for her "this cookie sheet kills fascism" note on the bottom of her cookie sheet. the spirit of woodie guthrie lives on in these trouble times, he would be proud. =)

and congrats to jeanne on #75

Oft-Confused Yank Crosses Atlantic to See Singer from Canada

printed below is a great story of by friend (whom i came to meet and know through the band, cowboy junkies). it is posted in it's entirety, unedited, exactly as it was submitted (as it should be). yes, it's long, but it's a great, fun read.

enjoy.

Oft-Confused Yank Crosses Atlantic to See Singer from Canada
written & submitted by: chuck schulkins

chapter one:
After a rather limited 2007, travel wise, I'd been yearning to cover some new ground this summer. News that Loreena McKennitt would be touring Europe served as a catalyst of sorts, and I was hoping to see her in France or Spain. Spanish dates did not appear for quite some time, and Quimper, in Brittany, loomed as a distinct possibility, as she was doing two shows there and it would place me in the general vicinity of a castle I'd always been fond of due to its inclusion in an old Kirk Douglas movie, The Vikings. European tour news from another band led me to compare a couple of itineraries, and I eventually settled on plans to see Ms. McKennitt in Cologne and Sigur Ros in Arras, France, followed by a couple of days in Brittany and a couple of days in Paris. After extensive flight shopping, Luxembourg closed the loop, as for some reason, it was several hundred dollars cheaper to fly there than to Cologne, or Paris, or anywhere else in the general vicinity.

July 4, 2008
And so it came to be that I found myself in a parking garage at Luxembourg's Findel Airport, loading my stuff into a diesel-powered Mercedes along with a thick stack of "drive-alive.uk" directions, a couple maps, a guidebook, and two concert tickets, pondering the task I'd set for myself in the name of "relaxation": Hundreds and hundreds of kilometers on the road, through four countries and numerous strange cities, with a working vocabulary of "Hello", "Goodbye", "Thank You" and "Do you speak English" in a handful of languages. Make no mistake, though, I was counting heavily on most folks speaking at least a little English, and for a gregarious and affable visitor, that's plenty. In addition, I've had a fair amount of seasoning on European roads, having been mildly or badly lost in half a dozen countries.

I'd taken an overnight flight with two stopovers, so I was pretty tired, but thanks to the purchase of a nifty pillow, I'd managed to get two or three hours of sleep on the plane, and felt pretty fresh. On the way to Cologne, I stopped for lunch in Vianden, a small town in the middle of Luxembourg on the Our River, with a fine looking castle atop a ridge dominating the landscape. A riverside snack of smoked trout salad and a Diekirch (a Luxembourg beer, I believe) was quite idyllic. You can drive up to the castle, or, as I did, you can ride a chairlift from the river to a ridge overlooking the castle, which offers fantastic views on top as well as on the way up and down. If you're ever in Luxembourg, check it out. It can't be too far away.

I didn't have directions or even a fixed route to Cologne, but I figured I'd merely follow the Our for a piece, then veer off East by Northeast, and meander my way with the sun over my left shoulder until I spotted signs for Cologne (perhaps I should say Koln). I really couldn't get too badly lost, for sooner or later I'd run into either the E29 or the Rhine river, than follow that to Koln. The drive took me through lovely rolling countryside and little villages, and I pretty much had the roads to myself, which was a good thing, considering how narrow they were.

It was pretty easy to get oriented in Koln, what with the Rhine River and a couple of very large bridges defining the layout. A short time after entering the city, I was checked in, and although it wasn't at all late, the overnight travel caught up with me, and I slept like a dead man for about 10 hours.

July 5, 2008
I spent the day wandering around Koln. The weather was great, although it was a bit on the warm side for all the footwork I undertook. The twin-spired cathedral was very impressive. The views of the city as one walks over the Rhine are quite impressive, but the city itself is somewhat nondescript in some respects, being flat and straight, with few of those tight, curving, hilly streets that make exploring so fun. Still, there is much to admire. I visited the Museum Schnutgen, which features medieval religious art and furnishings, an odd choice for me to visit, but certain ivory carvings, memento mori, were alone worth the ticket price.

After crossing back over the Rhine for a reconnaissance of sorts (I wanted to make sure I knew exactly where the concert venue was) I went back to the hotel to rest up a bit. Later, I was quite glad that I did so, as it turned out that for those of us with general admission tickets, it was standing room only. Luckily, I'd arrived early enough to get a spot behind the last row of seats (not terribly far away), almost directly in the center, quite near the soundboard.

I'm sure the outdoor nature of the show added to the existing challenges faced by the sound engineers, i.e. mixing the sounds of various combinations of ten performers, many of them playing rather subtle instruments. At times, the wind swept a bit of nuance away, but by and large, the sound was quite fine. In lesser hands, the mix of European and middle Eastern sounds could easily slip into a sort of "easy-listening" mish-mash of styles, but Loreena and her band have the depth to pull it off in grand fashion. The arrangements varied from quite delicate numbers that prominently featured the cello and harp, to lively percussion-heavy songs that made me glad I was on my feet. Likewise, Loreena sang at times with great subtlety and at other times, with great power.

The band and setlist were quite similar to what I'd seen last fall. Stolen Child was slated as the opener, but was not played, which was a shame, as I'd never seen that song performed. I was delighted, however, that Beneath A Phrygian Sky was substituted for the last encore. I'd never seen that one before, either, and it is one of my favorites from the latest CD. There were a few changes to the band, as well. Hugh Marsh was not there, and I missed his fiery violin (not that Zolton Lantos was bad by any means, just a different style). Caroline Lavelle was along for the tour; I'd have missed her terribly had she not been there. All in all, it was a fine show, on a cool, breezy, cloudy evening.

The rain held off until the show was over, and I didn't know if it would be possible to greet Loreena again, but I hung around a bit waiting for the rain to subside before the fairly long walk to the bus stop. I'd also seen a rather nice poster for the event, and was looking to see if any were up for grabs, but to no avail. As it turned out, a group of us who had stuck around were ushered in for a brief meet and greet. As always, Loreena was very charming.

Brian Hughes - acoustic and electric guitar, oud, bouzouki
Ben Grossman - hurdy gurdy, percussion
Rick Lazar - percussion
Clive Deamer - drums, percussion
Simon Edwards - acoustic and electric bass, marimbula
Stratis Psaradellis - lyra, lute
Donald Quan - viola, keyboards, tabla, accordion
Caroline Lavelle - cello
Zolton Lantos - violin

The Gates of Istanbul
The Mummer's Dance
Bonny Portmore
Marco Polo
The Highwayman
Dante’s Prayer
The Bonny Swans
Caravanserai

Raglan Road
The Mystic's Dream
Santiago
The Lady of Shalott
The Old Ways
Never Ending Road

Huron Beltane Firedance
Beneath A Phrygian Sky

My body had yet to adjust to the time change, so I hadn't been hungry when suppertime came around, but after the show, a nice snack of good cheese and bread, washed down with a couple glasses of a local beer (Koln has more breweries than any city in Germany!) really hit the spot.

July 6, 2008
After a sound sleep, I set off on the four or five hour drive to Arras for the Main Square Festival. Figuring the town to be jammed with festivalgoers, I'd planned on taken advantage of the camping grounds arranged by the festival organizers, and this proved to be a good move. Even if I'd reserved a room, the town was so overcrowded, I don't know where I would have parked the car. The organizers also did a great job placing signs showing the way to the campground, and there was a free shuttle to the festival.

What a zoo! Imagine a very large town square jammed with people, and more pouring in every minute. Vampire Weekend had started by the time I arrived, and although I listened to them for a while, they didn't really grab me. The square seemed to slope slightly down towards the stage, and the stage was fairly high, so you could see fairly well from quite far away, and the sound was pretty good, except towards the far end of the square, where it fell victim to echoing. The only place you could sit was on the square, in the street, or, if you were lucky, on the curb. I grabbed a quick sandwich (very nice, actually) and a Coke, then hit the bathroom. (A badly inadequate number of portable johns, which I did not require again for the evening, which was fortunate, as the lines grew to astounding length). As the Wombats took the stage, I wandered around, seeking a Holy Grail of sorts, that is, a comfortable spot where I could see and hear well. The Wombats, a Liverpool band, did not appeal to me, and frankly, I did not want to be there. It was easily the low point of the trip, and I did not see how I could possible enjoy Sigur Ros in such circumstances.

I worked my way from the corner of the square near stage left, back towards the far end of the square and around to the corner near stage right, when I happened upon a bit of "luxury", an open spot where I could sit and lean back against a tarp-covered fence. It'd been a long day, but I caught my second wind, and when The Do took the stage, I decided to through myself into the fray, and wormed my way through the crowd to a decent vantage point. The Do consist of Olivia (vocals, guitar) and Dan (bass, keyboards) [sorry - can't seem to find their last names] and were joined by a drummer. They really perked me up - the rhythm section was very lively, and I enjoyed Olivia's singing. I can't really describe them too well, but I was reminded a bit of Bjork, more of the Sugarcubes days than her latter material. They played about 45 minutes or so, quite a nice set.

The crowd got a bit tighter, and I followed a "current" more towards the center by the time Sigur Ros took the stage. I wasn't sure how they'd work in this setting, having seen them twice before in nice theatres full of rapt fans, but they played a great set that emphasized more of their occasional thunder rather than their often ethereal sounds. As I expected, they were again augmented by the charming string quartet, Amiina, and during the third song, I was surprised and delighted to see a brass quintet (two trombones, two trumpets, sousaphone) joined them. (Amiina and the brass quintet, the Horny Brasstards, also played other instruments, and in fact, at one point, practically everyone on stage was playing some sort of percussion.) It was the perfect set for the circumstances, not the ideal Sigur Ros show in some respects, but thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.

Sigur Ros "proper":
Jónsi Birgisson - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Georg Hólm - bass
Kjartan Sveinsson - keyboards
Orri Páll Dýrason - drums
Amina:
Hildur Ársælsdóttir
Edda Rún Ólafsdóttir
Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir
Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir
The Horny Brasstards
(sorry - I believe Helgi Jonsson was one of the trombone players; no further info)

svefn g englar
sæglópur
við spilum endalaust
hoppípolla
með blóðnasir
inní mér syngur vitleysingur
hafssól
gobbledigook
popplagið

I'd made an effort to learn more about Radiohead in the weeks leading up to this trip, soliciting opinions, then buying three CDs and borrowing three others. I liked some of their material, particularly OK Computer, but I just couldn't really warm up to them, so I awaited their headlining set with a wait-and-see attitude.

Somehow, as the crowd surged again as they took the stage, I was pushed closed, right behind a crop of short people, and had a great view of the band for the next two hours. We were jammed so tight it was hard to raise your arms to clap, but it was all in the name of fun, everyone seemed content, if overly "cozy". Right from the get-go, I enjoyed Radiohead's show. It was a magnificently varied and paced set, and about halfway through, I wondered what had happened to all those songs I was indifferent to. I guess it shows that you just can't force feed yourself music. I can't really offer much in the way of commentary beyond the preceding, but if you google "Radiohead" and "Main Square Festival", you can find some fine reviews by some uberfans.

Thom Yorke - vocals, keyboards
Ed O'Brien, Jonny Greenwood - guitar
Colin Greenwood - bass
Phil Selway - drums

15 Step
Airbag
There There
All I Need
Where I End And You Begin
A Wolf At The Door
Nude
Pyramid Song
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Climbing Up The Walls
The Gloaming
Faust Arp
No Surprises
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Reckoner
Exit Music (For A Film)
Bodysnatchers

Cymbal Rush
Videotape
Paranoid Android
Dollars & Cents
Idioteque

House Of Cards
The National Anthem
Street Spirit (Fade Out)

As the main set ended, I faded back through the crowd - by then I was quite dehydrated, and knew I'd wake up in my tent mad with thirst and with no where to turn unless I stocked up on some water, and I feared the concession stands might close soon. I bought three bottles of water, drank one in about three swallows, then turned my attention back to the stage for the encore. As luck would have it, I found a spot with a fairly clear view of the stage, and although I was now much, much farther away, the sound was still very good. The first encore was OK; the second, accompanied by a second bottle of water, was great.

By the time I made it back to the shuttle bus, I'd been on my feet for five straight hours (mainly cobblestones!), and it was well over eight hours since any part of my body had rested on anything that wasn't either sedimentary, igneous, or metamorphic in origin. Naturally, there were no seats left on the bus, but I knew I'd soon be able to lie down, and perhaps get on speaking terms with my angry feet again. The campground was rather odd at night; lit up brightly from one corner to the other, with guards walking muzzled dogs along the perimeter - summer of love, it wasn't. I was so tired, I crept into the tent and except for airing out my feet, dropped off to sleep without even bothering to undress. Props to The Do for kick-starting me, and to Sigur Ros and Radiohead for vanquishing my fatigue. ROCK AND ROLL!

July 7, 2008
I'd have liked to have slept in much longer, but I woke up fairly early, having to visit the facilities, which were about a hundred meters away. I figured if I had to go to that much trouble, I might as well break camp and hit the road. So, for the third straight morning, I had to set out for the day without my morning coffee, and it was killing me.

The drive to St-Malo was a pleasure, more beautiful countryside unspoiled by billboards. The good thing about the lack of sleep was that I arrived there many hours earlier than anticipated, almost too early as it turned out. As I followed my detailed directions into town (drive-alive.uk is great!), I noticed all sorts of people lining the streets, many of which were blocked off. I belatedly remembered that the Tour de France was departing from St-Malo that day, which I'd dismissed as I anticipated that they'd be gone long before I hit town. As it turned out, I saw them whizzing by in the opposite direction. The crowds and detours had thrown me off my course, so after nearing the walled city, I luckily found a place to park on the street, then walked around to orient myself. This wasn't too hard, as the walls of the city and surrounding inlets are quite easy to match with the map, and soon after returning to my car, found my hotel, which was conveniently located near free street parking. I caught a big break, as I was able to extend my stay there from two to four days, not a given anywhere near St-Malo in peak season. (I'd decided to skip Paris and extend my time in Brittany - it was a great feeling to park the car and know I'd not have to drive for 72 hours!)

My room was right on the English Channel, well, on an inlet of the English Channel, anyway, with sailboats and the gentle lapping of the surf right on hand. It was only a kilometer, or perhaps a bit more, from the nearest city gate, and I had the whole afternoon, so I walked into the old town.

St-Malo is a very cool place to visit. You can walk all around the walled portion of the city, and walk atop the ramparts or along the beach as you please. A couple nearby little islands are accessible when the tide is out, offering nice views back to the city. Tight streets and staircases up and down the walls are very picturesque. A spit of rain drove me inside long enough to happen upon a couple of cycling Brits who'd followed the Tour de France for a few days, and were killing time waiting for their ferry back to Jersey. While we chatted, I had a hard cider, which I learned is quite popular in Brittany, and this suited me just fine. The rain lasted about two ciders, after which I wandered about the charming town and had a decent supper of paella, followed by some more wandering and cider.

July 8, 2008
I had breakfast at the hotel, which included my very own whole pot of coffee (bliss!). Now, I've always adopted to the local customs as much as possible, but I have to tell any Europeans who may be reading that you're getting ripped off with these "Continental" breakfasts. A baguette or croissant, coffee or tea, and juice, is merely the preliminary to breakfast. Meat, potatoes and eggs should follow. Ah, well, I'll shut up.

More idyllic ambling occupied the day, and I sought out the open air market to stock up on some cheese (and what cheese!!) and other goodies for the next day's planned visit to Mont St. Michel. I also walked out to the little island, and at around supper time, while getting a bus schedule for Mont St Michel (I decided to let someone else drive so I wouldn't get lost), there ensued a sequence of good fortune, confusion and more good fortune that sometimes make travel memorable. I happened to spot a brochure in the tourist office for the 37th Annual Sacred Music festival, and it seemed that the first concert was in the nearby Cathedral St-Malo in about 10 minutes, and was free. Choir music isn't among by favorites, but when it's well done and accompanied by a grand church organ, it can't be bad, and I couldn't pass it up. I hurried over to the cathedral, but it appeared to be closed. I wandered all around it, and was ready to abandon the idea, but was lucky enough to encounter a pair of likewise confused would-be concertgoers. They solicited my help (in French!) and we quickly determined that English might work better between an American fellow and a British couple. The man spoke French pretty well, and took a look at my brochure, and his knowledge enabled him to clear things up. The 7pm start time I'd noticed was for only some of the shows, and the show that night was at 9pm (he and his wife had been somehow misinformed as well). Had we not run into each other, me with the info and he with the understanding, we all would have missed out. After our fortuitous meeting, I went off to have dinner (great scallops, so-so salmon, very fine sundae) and returned a couple of hours later.

The concert, by the choir "Maitrise d'Antony", university students if I puzzled through the brochure correctly, was conducted by Georges Bessonet and accompanied by organist Beatrice Piertot. The program they handed out included their repertoire, which drew from a wide variety of composers, but the actual works performed that evening were announced by the conductor. Aside from the single organ-only piece midway though the show, which sounded like something by Bach, I had no idea exactly what they played. It was all quite enjoyable, especially the second half.

…more to come later, including an exciting tale of gendarmes and teenagers!

chapter two:
July 9, 2008
Deciding to leave the driving to others, I hopped on a bus mid morning, bound for Mont-St-Michel, the small island dominated by an abbey surrounded by ramparts and battlements, in nearby Normandy. The early part of the drive, right on the coast, was very picturesque. I was quite surprised to see glimpses of the Mont from a striking distance.

On the way, a woman sitting across the aisle struck up a conversation with me, and we chatted for the rest of the trip. After several stops, nearly everyone got up to get off the bus. I assumed that was our stop, but the pair of Canadians in front of me, who were also bound for the isle, remained seated, and my new friend Zhou, after questioning the driver, also stay on board. Well, it became apparent a few stops later that we had screwed up and missed our stop. Zhou spoke pretty good English and French in addition to her native Mandarin, but apparently she and the driver didn't quite understand one another. After some consultation with the driver, we ended up getting off the bus to see if we could somehow find other means of getting there. At worst, however, we had merely to wait for the next bus (quite a long wait), but Hannah, Guy and Zhou decided to give hitchhiking a try. I was pretty well convinced that the chances of finding a driver who happened to be going to our exact destination were very remote, and knew we'd be worse off if we ended up only partway.

An American tourist is led astray by a pretty, young, exotic female. She suggests they hitchhike, and an obliging car soon arrives. The next thing he knows....
- Hostel 3 - at theaters everywhere this Friday -

Eventually, we all decided to bow to the inevitable and have a seat at the bus stop. I broke out some nice cheese and odd, football-shaped strawberries and passed them around. We had no knife, so I gnawed away on a hearty morsel of tasty sausage all by myself. At this point, I mentioned to my companions, as I'd written earlier, that I had a perfectly good rental car back in St-Malo but I'd opted for the bus so as not to get lost. Gotta luvvvv irony.

The delay made the sight of the Mont all the more exciting. It has an almost surreal appearance. It was quite, quite crowded, but there were still many opportunities for nice photos, and considering the crowds inside the walls, there were very, very few people wandering the sands. Zhou and I enjoyed sharing the visit with one another, and in the end, we had enough time to tour the abbey and do a fair amount of walking on the surrounding sands. The only thing I missed was the chance to walk far enough out on the sands to get a shot of the full island jutting out from the flat expanse of sand. It takes a while to walk far enough out, and you've got to be careful, as it's very hard to tell merely wet, but firm, sand, from muck that could steal a shoe, or worse. I did get some nice pictures of various profiles of the island, though. If I ever return there, I'll try to do it in the off season, and visit as near dusk or dawn as I can.

July 10, 2008
By this point in my original plan, I'd have been riding the Metro to visit Paris for the day. Further explorations of Brittany were too alluring, though, so instead I was bound for Fort La Latte, west of St-Malo. The change in plans left me without exact directions, merely an AAA road map of France. I figured I'd just hug the channel until I saw signs for Cap Frehel or Fort La Latte. As it turned out, the route was well marked, and the drive featured nice views of the English Channel, fishing boats, and little villages.

The present structure of Fort La Latte essentially dates back to the late 17th century; the central keep is several hundred years older. This particular castle came to my attention via The Vikings. The castle and its surroundings were beautifully used in the film, mainly during an attack at the films climax. Norsemen mount a huge log on wheels to use as a battering ram to break through the first gate, then toss axes at the second (raised) drawbridge, imbedding them to form a ladder of sorts for Kirk Douglas to ascend to the to mechanism and lower the drawbridge. A duel between Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis takes place a the very top of the keep, no finesse and witty banter a la Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone, and no physics-defying acrobatics of latter day movies, just two bitter enemies clanging broadswords at each other with a stunning stretch of coastline as a backdrop. Ever since I learned the castle's actual location several years ago (in the movie it is set in North Umbria), I was waiting for the opportunity to visit it. Now, I've never been one to seek out Hollywood locations, but for some reason, I'd been very interested in the particular one, and it was more fun being there than I'd imagined.

After passing by the main entrance, a wide dirt path eventually veers to the right, while a smaller trail goes off to the left. I opted for the path less traveled, and was rewarded a few minutes later with a great view of the castle from just the right distance. The trail snaked further west, away from the castle and toward Cap Frehel and a lighthouse, before switching back to the east for more great views of the castle and the rocks below. (The views from the other approach are nowhere near as fine.) Once at the castle, I was delighted to learn that you can explore virtually every bit of it, including the very top of the keep. They've added steps to the outer tip of the keep, but nicely done, so that you wouldn't really notice something new. I suppose it was rather childish, but I couldn't resist the impulse to spurn the steps and scramble up the side. I darted all around the castle, snapping photos of and from just about every part of it.

(A note about the weather - I'd stumbled upon a BBC weather report a couple of days before, and it was supposed to be raining steadily on that day. However, my charmed luck with the weather on this trip continued. It was a beautiful, warm, mostly sunny day, with just enough clouds to add interesting texture to the pictures and check the heat a bit. Through much of my trip, in fact, ominous clouds lurked, and a solid day or two of rain could have easily mucked things up. As it turned out, it only rained for a few "coffee-break" length interludes.)

Thoroughly sated by the visit to what will always be my favorite castle in the world, I hit the road for Landerneau and the Kann-Loar Festival. I couldn't get too badly lost, as all I had to do was keep the channel on my right and look for signs to St. Brieuc, then Brest, then look for a turnoff to Landerneau as I approached Brest. As it turned out, Landerneau was a "straight-shot" off the highway, which in European terms meant three straight roundabouts entered are 6 and exited at 12, followed by one entered at 6 and exited at 9, thus last one featuring posters for the festival. (Up to this point, I couldn't help but ponder the faint possibility that I'd made some horrid mistake and the festival was actually in some far off town with a similar name.) Finding open, free parking a short down the road, I set out on foot for a piece and spotted a Kann-Loar merchandise booth as I neared one end of the festival. They spoke virtually no English, but I remembered the appropriate French word, "billet?", and after one of the nice ladies spoke at length accompanied by several vague gestures, I gathered that I could purchase a ticket somewhere east of where I stood. East it was, then, and I encountered a tourist office not long after, and cheerfully walked out a few minutes later with a ticket in hand for that evening's Karen Matheson concert. I decided to celebrate with a glass or two of cider, and picked a bar that had a Kann-Loar Festival poster in the doorway, thinking I might be able to talk them out of it. (I'd brought a tube across the Atlantic with me and would have hated to bring it back empty. I'd struck out on the Loreena poster, but I've already got a German concert poster, so I was really hoping for something from France. Happily, I got a poster from the concert at Cathedrale St-Malo.)

I had a nice chat with another bar patron. I'm told that many in Brittany identify more with Celtic people than with the French, and it seems that this feeling is stronger the farther west one gets. In fact, the main street of Landerneau is lined with various flags of Celtic countries such as Wales and Ireland, as well as regional flags from various other countries (Spain, for one) where Celts are predominant. (The patron also helped out a fellow Celt (part Celt, anyway) by pleading with the bar owners for the poster, which is now safe with the rest of my collection.)

After my second cider and a walk to confirm the venue site, I suddenly got very hungry and I picked the first place that looked inviting and selected from the "fixed menu". The first course, "crudites", was a plate full of delicious vegetables, nothing fancy, just dice beets, grated carrots, corn, beans, etc, but served cold. Normally, I like my vegetables steaming, but I enjoyed these very much. Broiled mackerel and rice made up the main course, followed by chocolate mousse and coffee.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with her, Karen Matheson is a Scottish singer from the traditional Gaelic band Capercaillie. Oddly enough, when this trip was nothing more than a loose plan involving Loreena McKennitt, Sigur Ros and Fort La Latte, I was pondering other musical possibilities, and had thought how remarkable it would have been if Capercaillie had somehow timed a visit to Brittany with mine. Too remarkable to actually happen, of course, but Karen Matheson's "solo" appearance was good enough, and eventually lured me from a planned visit to Paris. (I even swallowed a modest hotel deposit!)

Now, I'd have preferred a Capercaillie show, what with the fiddles and pipes, and all, but this show was very, very enjoyable. Aside from a bit of the "mouth music" that sounded like it had appeared on a Capercaillie CD, I knew none of the material, which was drawn from Karen's three solo CDs. Her four piece band, including some of her colleagues from Capercaillie, was fine, and the material, a mix of English and Gaelic lyrics, was beautiful. I'm going to have to buy some of her CDs very soon. Special guest Dan Ar Braz joined for a few songs, adding a wonderful display of loving dexterity on his electric guitar.

I was able to get a setlist from stage, otherwise I wouldn't be able to provide much in the way of a setlist. The titles on the setlist were sometimes scanty and I had trouble with the handwriting, so I was glad I'd scribbled a few notes during the show. Even so, I struck out completely on the specific names of the "mouth music".

The opening act was the trio of Marthe Vassalo, Annie Ebrel and Nolween LeBuhe, who sang Breton music a capella. They were very skilled and talented, but the music was a bit difficult at times to my unaccustomed ears; I didn't take to it as readily as I did years ago to Capercaillie's Gaelic sounds.

James Mackintosh - drums
Donald Shaw - keyboards, accordion
Ewen Vernal - bass
James Grant - guitar
special guest - Dan Ar Braz - guitar

Gleann Baile chaoil
Bonnie Jean
"mouth music"
Calbharaigh
Luadh an Toraidh
O nach eisdeadh tu'n sgeul le aire
All the Flowers of the Bough
Goodbye Phoebe
"mouth music"
Mi Le M'uilinn (With Dan Ar Braz)
Crucan na bpaiste (w/Dan)
Moonchild
One More Chance>>"mouth music"
There's Always Sunday
At the End of the Night

Rithill Aill (w/Dan)

Two hundred and thirty kilometers awaited me after the show. By that time, I should have been able to find my way through the tight streets of St-Malo directly to my hotel, but I opted for the inelegant approach of following the signs to the walled city, then doubling back along the roads I'd walked on a daily basis for the last few days.

chapter three:
July 11
A splendid four days in Brittany was winding down, and I faced a long, long drive. Driving in unfamiliar areas of Europe isn't necessarily difficult, but there are a few things to get used to. For one thing the highways rarely say "North", "East" (or the equivalent), and you rarely have the opportunity to simply stay on the same roads for hours and hours on end. For a trip like I had in store for me that day, I had to commit a string of cities to memory, then stay reasonably alert. (Back home, of course, I can get on, say, I-75 and drive from the Canadian border to within a hundred or so mile so Cuba.) On the plus side, and it's a big plus, you hardly see any billboards, and I've rarely been bothered by slowpokes clogging up the left lane.

The weather was nice, as was the scenery. A pair of bridges in the vicinity of Le Havre, near the mouth the Seine, are particularly striking - there was a particular view I wish I'd had the chance to shoot a picture of - ah well, I can still see it in my mind for now...

The planned St-Malo/Caen/LeHavre/Amiens/St.Quentin string was as smooth as could be, but as I neared St. Quentin, I was forced to choose between "Centre" and "Sud" before I'd spotted any signs for my next link, Guise. I ended up entering the city and passing through at least five roundabouts, all choices leading either somewhere I knew I didn't want to go or somewhere I couldn't seem to locate on the map. It was all very frustrating, then suddenly, "Guise" appeared on a roundabout sign (accompanied by a fanfar and choir of angels, I swear!). Quite relieved, I turned to reenter the highwya, and chanced upon a pack of hitchhikers; four girls and one guy. What the hell, I thought - navigators! The group of young Belgians, all teenagers as I later found out, had been hitchhiking around France for a week or so, and happily piled into the car. The drive was quite the milk run, with numerous villages (and the occasional farm vehicle) slowing things down substantially, but it was a good time, Martin up front providing directions from time to time as we shot the breeze about music and other topics, the charming lilt of Flemish chatter flowing from the back, and Margo Timmins singing "Black Eyed Man".

An American tourist is lured into picking up a group of pretty Belgian girls. Suddenly...
- Hostel 4 - opens everywhere this Friday! -

I'd only seen one other hitchhiker during my vacation and wondered how common it was in Europe these days. Not very, according to Martin: "Our parents weren't too happy with the idea."

Once I got a round a couple of plodding trucks hauling bales of hay, we made decent time, but you had to be careful, as the speed limit would quickly vary from 90 to 70 to 50 each time a little town came up. I was reminded of this as we passed several gendarmes standing at the side of the road, and again more forcefully, fifty meters down the road, by the one who stepped out into the road, right palm facing me and left finger pointing to the shoulder, where I pulled off to a chorus of Flemish dismay pouring from the back.

The police officer approached and began speaking in French, naturally, and all I understood was to turn off the ignition. I waited for a pause, then placed my hand over my chest, fingers spread, and said ”pardon…no parlaiz francais”. I was glad that I had some translators on hand if necessary, but the officer spoke English pretty well. As I handed him my Ohio driver’s license and rental car papers, I explained that my International Driving Permit and Passport were in my luggage, then sweated it out in the car. France has a mandatory seat belt law, and we were clearly in violation with six persons in a small car. I had no idea if there were any laws against picking up hitchhikers, not the mention the perceived impropriety of a middle-aged man in the company of several minor females, no matter how innocent the situation was. I didn’t know if he’d make our lives miserable by unloading and searching the car (not that I had any contraband of any sort), or if I could pay any potential fines via credit card or a trip to an ATM.

After a short time, the officer returned to the driver’s side window, and I was stunned, even shocked, to hear him say, “Please be careful, the speed limit is 50, not 70.” I was afraid to utter a peep at first, not wanting to somehow spoil things like a batter who ticks off the umpire by taking a premature step towards first base before they ump makes his call, then ends up getting called out on strikes. I was safe, though, and after pause, I simply thanked him and told him I would indeed be very careful. After holding me up as a couple cars passed by, he waved me on my way, and I suffered through one more bad moment, wincing as my wheels spun out a bit on the loose gravel on the shoulder. (I’m sure he understood it couldn’t be helped.) Around the first bend, Martin and I grinned and shook hands, and after I asked the girls if they knew what “high five” meant, I reached back for a slapping of hands. They laughed about how they were trying to squeeze down and look as inconspicuous as possible. One of them told me that it probably was a good thing that I was able to speak at least a little bit of French to the officer, even though I had “a very strange accent”. I’m still surprised that he had no questions for us; apparently a speeding American in a car full of Belgian teens is business as usual in out of the way French villages.

I was indeed careful for the remainder of the drive, and we saw a car directly in front of us get pulled over a bit later. Ours paths diverged at Charleville-Mezierer, and with a handshake from Martin and a group hug initiated by one of the girls, we bid adieu to one another.

I’d had some castles visits planned, but it had been a long day and I stuill had a ways to go, so I bypassed the road to Bouillon Castle in Belgium and headed towards Luxembourg. I did take a detour through “The Valley of the Seven Castles”, though. The castles were somewhat anticlimactic after what I’d seen that last few days, and I missed a few a couple and skipped the last one, but it was a worthwhile detour. Some of the castles were fairly cool, and the drive itself, on winding roads through the valley floor, past villages, and at times up and down hilly roads in dense forest, was quite enjoyable. By the time I arrived in the city of Luxembourg, parked my car, and checked in to my hotel, I didn’t feel like venturing very far, so I merely grabbed a sandwich nearby, then had a couple Diekirch’s at the hotel bar.

July 12, 2008
I spent the full day and evening wandering around one of the most picturesque cities I’ve ever visited. (Keep in mind, I’ve never been to London, Paris, Rome, Prague, etc.) Luxembourg is situated on ridges over the Alzette and Petrusse Rivers; one can cross the rivers at various points, and also climb and descend between the two levels at numerous places, offering no ends to vantage points with striking views up, down, or across the ridges and valleys. A bit of rain sent me inside for a tour of the Pretusse Casements, tunnels and steps carved out of solid rock in the 17th and 18th centuries. The tour was fairly interesting, but the tunnels were quite clammy, and I grew a bit impatient for the end. By then it was lunchtime, a starter of minestrone took the chill out of my bones. (Their veal was also very good, as was the sundae I had for dessert. Hiking up, down and around the various parts of the city took up the afternoon. A leisurely late dinner consisted of a hearty seafood platter with half a lobster, a couple large prawns, a pair of langostinos, many, many small prawns, a few dozen snails, and various raw mussels, clams and oysters on the half shell. Everything had to be pried out of its shell with one of the many special utensils arrayed before me. I’d have preferred that the lobster was warm, with melted butter on hand, and the raw mussels were a bit hard to take (for that matter, raw oysters have never appealed to me), but the quality of the food was superb. I liked the snails more than I thought I would (my limited experience with escargot has always been of the warm variety steeped in garlic butter), but I filled up before I could finish them. I left a few oysters as well, but I made room for every one of the prawns.

A couple more Diekirch’s wound up my vacation.

July 13, 2008
Had a pretzel dog at the airport in Philly waiting for the last leg of my flight.

chuck,thanks for sharing this adventure.

katie reider - an interview with her father, rob...

a very touching interview with katie's father about her, her life, her music and her brave fight. it's well worth your time to listen.

from wnku.org

Cincinnati entertainer and announcer Rob Reider remembers his daughter, local singer-songwriter Katie, who died on the 14th of July after a two year battle with a rare brain tumor.

Katie's dad, Rob remembers his lovely daughter (© Copyright 2008, WNKU)

“the listening station”

this is kind of interesting stuff. i'm not a fan of "electronica," but this kind of has a neat sound and vibe to it. personally, i was pretty surprised that i kind of liked this...

computer vs. banjo

If you've always pigeonholed folk and electronica as polar opposites, Computer vs. Banjo will make you rethink everything you thought about both. Hatched in the musical crucible of Nashville, the genre-bending band fuses fingerpicked folk with experimental beats to create such a full, original sound, it's hard to believe CVB is just a duo.

Computer Vs. Banjo | “Give Up On Ghosts”

Computer Vs. Banjo | “Sinners Touch” (Tyson Rogers Remix)

THE BUZZ:
"Everything from guitars, drum machines and banjos to dobros, synths and mandolins are thrown into the musical blender. The result is a series of tasty digifolk jams from a band who doesn't need a weatherman to tell it which way the zeitgeist is blowing."
-Wired

"The name of the Nashville band Computer Vs. Banjo says it all: Johnny Mann and Beau Stapleton blend folky banjos and acoustic guitars with synth-heavy electronica and experimental beats. The computer tends to win the battle on the group's self-titled debut, but countless computerized samples of more traditional instruments give the record an eclectic, genre-bending sound."
-NPR

“Mann and Stapleton have created something truly extraordinary in Computer vs. Banjo's unique sound, making them Nashville's next big thing.”
-PopWreck

"From the very first listen, I was in love with this album. If Ill Lit and Califone had a love child, it would be these guys."
-Fuzzy Lion

Thankfully, CvB is just what I thought it was going to be. Catchy electro pop matched with poignant banjo, handclaps, fuzzed vocals and irresistible desire to hit repeat.
-Perfect Porridge

forecastle festival - louisville, ky (07.25-27.2008)

What is Forecastle?
Fore·cas·tle (f'ok_sol) n. ~ A superstructure at the bow of a ship where the crew is housed. Hard at work in the boundless blue sea, a place where workers congregate after a hard day of labor. A place where the people come together.

What is The Forecastle Festival?
Forecastle is where the Midwest connects™. Founded in Louisville, KY, the annual gathering is equal parts Music, Art, and Activism. A symposium for musicians, artists, and environmentalists, Forecastle connects the progressive Midwest.

What is the goal of Forecastle?
The goal of Forecastle is to establish a new cultural entertainment medium ~ Music.Art.Activism® ~ equally showcased in a scenic, outdoor environment. Merging entertainment with education, Forecastle unites the creative and activism communities of the Midwest, while building a new festival model in the United States.

July 25th - 27th
The Riverfront Belvedere 12:00pm - 11:30pm | $15 - 20 | All Ages

With performances from:
The Disco Biscuits
Tortoise
Z-Trip
GZA
Dr. Dog
Ekoostik Hookah
Del McCoury Band
Del the Funky Homosapien
The New Mastersounds
Groovatron
Snowden
Extra Golden
Catfish Haven
Gran Bel Fischer
Prizzy Prizzy Please
Devlin and Darko of Spank Rock
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's
Backyard Tire Fire
People Noise
Unwed Sailor
Paradigm
Code Red
Cabin

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

full schedule is available @: forecastle schedule

more information @: forecastle festival

missy higgins - louisville, KY (07.19.2008)

written & submitted by bill ivester

saturday afternoon, australian singer/songwriter missy higgins delivered a nice short (but very good) set at ear x-tacy. her music has ranges from the "folkish," serious singer/songwriter vein to a nice popish (but a little pissed off too) vibe. however you describe it, quite simply, it works.

i was unaware of her and her music, but was interested in checking her out after hearing about the in-store and then reading her bio decided to go see her play. i'm glad i did. her voice has hints of sarah mclachlan, maybe a splash of tori amos, but is uniquely her own. she and her guitarist did four-song acoustic set from her new record; "on a clear night." it was pretty well attended, mostly by people that seemed to be fans and familiar with her and her music. she has a very charming and engaging stage presence and was good enough that i picked up her (again, very good) new cd and a ticket for her show at phoenix hill tavern later that night.

her show @ phoenix hill was opened by one of louisville's better singer/songwriters, teneia sanders, who delivered a great 30+ minute set to one of the more horrible and rude audiences that i remember recently, i'll rant more on that later. but, she was a trooper, made a few subtle statements about it, which were completely ignored, and did the best she could under the circumstances and delivered a nice set.

missy came on with her full band and played a great set, a little over an hour and a half, a nice mix of stuff from her new record and previous releases. she switched off between guitar and piano, playing about half the show on each. she was backed by her 3 piece band (unfortunately, i didn't write down their names and can't find them on line) which was excellent. for me, highlights were "secrets," a nice funky little number, "peachy," and upbeat and poppy sounding song with some pretty pissed off lyrics. again, it works. and the show closer "steer" which she intro'ed as a song about taking control of your own life and destiny with a nice little reminder about our place in the scheme of things. reminding us that there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth and also reminding of the distance between the stars and compactness of the sand, putting into perspective a how small a place in the universe they we as people really occupy. in closing, she challenged everyone to go out on a clear night, lay on their back in the grass and to just look up at the stars. a good story, a nice reminder and a great way to close out the show.

this girl is a great talent, check her out.

ok, the rant... this was without a doubt the rudest, most obnoxious and self-absorbed audience that i have seen at a show in recent memory. for the life of me, i do not understand the mentality of people that go out of their way to buy a ticket to a show, drive to the venue and then sit there and incessantly talk louder than the performers who, by the way...have microphones and amplifiers! maybe you (the geese) just don't care, maybe you are there to socialize and/or are just trying to get laid. maybe you are just a rude, inconsiderate and selfish person and don't care. but for the record, you are not the show, you are not the reason we are there. the rest of us did not pay to see and/or hear you act like a fool. we are there for the performers, the people with their name on the ticket, the people on the stage. and FYI concerts are NOT (for the most part) an interactive experience, when a performer during their on-stage banter makes an observation or asks a rhetorical question that is not a cue to start a back and forth conversation with them.

and if you can't drink more than 2 or 3 drinks without making a fool of yourself, ummm...don't have more than two or three drinks. just a thought, show a little consideration and restraint. in other words, grow the hell up. it's amazing how a small group (hell, one or two can do it) of inconsiderate, self absorbed asses can ruin and/or seriously diminish the experience for the 100+ others in attendance. but last night it was probably 25-30% of the audience that was horrible. i just don't get it. we, and more importantly, the performing artists deserve better.

and if you think i'm kidding or over-reacting, to top off the evening, during the final song of the night, two girls got up and walked up to the front of the stage and one of them started posing in front of the stage, directly in front of missy, while the other took flash pictures of her. it's like they were taking goddamn tourist snapshots and she was posing in front of the statue of liberty or something. this was far beyond any stupidity and lack of courtesy/respect, i don't think i have never seen anything that stupid, inconsiderate or rude at a concert before. ever. idiots.

missy higgins


teneia sanders

New Releases (for July 22nd)

July 22
Almighty - Original S.I.N.
Black Kids - Partie Traumatic
Buddy Guy - Skin Deep
Candlebox - Into The Sun
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - CSNY / Deja Vu Live
CSS - Donkey
David Byrne - Big Love
Dr. Dog - Fate
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
Paul Weller - 22 Dreams
Pepper - Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations
Sugarland - Love On The Inside
Tea Leaf Green - Raise Up The Tent
U2 - Boy [Mastered Re-Release]

MMW [Medeski, Martin and Wood] is jazzed by Evolution tour

i saw these guys deliver a scorching set @ tall stacks in cincinnati a couple of years ago and while they are not necessarily my "cup of tea" musically, they are brilliant and gifed musicians nonetheless. their music is hard to describe and manages to walk a fine line between free form improvisational funked up jazz and jam band.

also, this is a great concept for a tour, not to mention, and extremely brave one...

Each leg offers audience new music

Medeski, Martin and Wood, or MMW as the trio is known to its legions of fans, is not your ordinary jazz group.

From their beginnings in the early 1990s, the three have stretched the boundaries of their music. MMW -- John Medeski on piano, organ and other keyboards; Billy Martin on drums and percussion; and Chris Wood on acoustic and electric bass -- throughout its career has incorporated elements ranging from funk to freeform to build its unique brand of jazz, which it will bring to the Kentucky Center's Bomhard Theater today.

MMW has fans in both the jazz and jam-band communities. Its tour schedule ranges from jazz clubs to pop festivals.

Louisville is the band's final stop on the second leg of its 2008 "Viva La Evolution Tours." For each of the three VLET treks, MMW will write new music, which it intends to play only for those audiences.

Following the performances, they will record the music as "The Radiolarian Series," the first volume of which it has just completed in the studio.

In a telephone interview, Wood expressed the excitement that he and his colleagues share: "This is fun, it's going to be all-new music, people get a chance to see works in progress. It's not like we're going to be playing stuff that we've played a million times and are sick of.

"I think it's exciting to see stuff that's fresh and new, and see the band members actually working it out on stage. I think people will get a kick out of it."

The approach is different, Wood said, adding, "The basic idea is that once we record this material, we're done with it, and probably won't play it live again."

They will not be recording the concerts for live-album releases; these performances are "strictly geared toward the studio process," he said.

While the trio operates as a self-contained unit, MMW also enjoys working with other artists. They have had a particularly rewarding relationship with guitarist John Scofield, with whom they recorded "A Go Go" in 1997.

They reunited as Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood for last year's release "Out Louder," which is available as a single CD and as a double set that includes 45 minutes of live performances.

Their most recent release is, of all things, a children's album, the whimsical "Let's Go Everywhere."

So, are they a jazz band, a jam band or jack-of-all-trades band?

"You can't control who is going to be attracted and come see your music and how people are going to categorize it," Wood said. "That just sort of happened and has its own life.

"We focus on the music. We are definitely affected. When we're in a festival situation with a sea of college-age kids, then it affects what material we come out with.

"If we're in front of a seated club, where there's a quiet, listening audience, then we're going to play two different shows in both those situations."

A musician who sounds equally comfortable on the upright acoustic bass and electric bass guitar, Wood said, "They serve different purposes. Once we figure out what we're going for in a certain piece, I tend to stick with one or the other.

"Sometimes we have a tune we're playing on tour, we feel like we haven't quite found exactly what it is yet, and then I'll experiment with the different basses and see what works."

Despite the configuration of keyboards, bass and drums, Wood and Martin do not serve as a rhythm section for the ostensible lead instrument. "My interplay with Billy is constantly changing from moment to moment," Wood said. "It's not set in stone; we're not just accompanying John."

He added, "With the trio, we have the freedom to change roles. We all, at times, have to take the lead. There's a lot of trading-off. There are times when Billy and I are interacting and accompanying John, while at other times when we're all equally interacting with each other."

By Martin Z. Kasdan Jr. • The Louisville Courier-Journal • July 18, 2008