A friend turned me onto this soul/funk relic that the Numero Group recently released and had to share. More info here. Got that sticky summer vibe, doesn’t it?
Niagara Falls
July 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
On my recent expedition to western New York I took a day trip to Niagara Falls. Its a place that I’ve visited many times yet I’m still in disbelief at how amazing it is every time I go back. We walked from the American side to the Canadian side and back, crossing the Rainbow Bridge, and then drove to Goat Island, which sits in between the set of falls, dividing the Niagara river into the “American” falls and the “Canadian” horseshoe falls.
I’ve done Maid Of The Mist and Cave Of The Winds but there’s nothing quite like watching (and listening to) the river cascade 170 feet over the edge of the falls at almost arms length.
Set your DVR to record this PBS doc on the falls, fascinating stuff:
I snapped some photos…
view of the horseshoe falls from the American side
horseshoe falls from the Canadian side
a view of the Niagara River above the falls - its a massive river and looks quite angry in this shot!
Big Rock Jammy Mountain
June 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The weather couldn’t have been more perfect on Friday as I headed up to the Catskills and Hunter, NY to take in my 2nd annual Mountain Jam. The weekend fest is curated by Warren Haynes and WDST, and takes place at the foot of Hunter Mountain the first weekend in June, now in its 7th year.
The Warren Haynes Band headlined Friday night with two epic sets…Warren and his new band are in top form and kept thousands of fans grooving to their mighty soul on the mountain side with cuts from the new ‘Man In Motion’ and more. Listen to Warren talk about his Stax LP on NPR’s Weekend Edition here. Next stop for WHB: Bonnaroo on Friday (June 10). Gov’t Mule headlined Saturday and My Morning Jacket closed out the fest on Sunday, with performances from Mavis Staples, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Soulive and many more throughout the weekend. I snapped some photos from Friday’s festivities:
Bela Fleck on the main stage as the sun begins to set
The crowd for Warren Haynes Band
Warren Haynes Band from the stage
Trance-y dance-y rockers Lotus close out Friday night. Took this at 2AM, it was time to call it a day.
Status Updates About the Weather
February 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The cold and snow are dominating the news, status updates and twitter trends in the US (for good reason) – I thought I would bring the conversation to the Shore Fire blog. Check out this satellite photo of the historic storm covering a good portion of the country yesterday:
In related news, I heard this story on NPR about a lake that is buried under 2 miles of ice in Antarctica, which may contain a “primitive and pristine ecosystem that has been untouched for millions of years.” Russian scientists are close to the end of drilling a 2 mile hole that would access the untouched waters. Of course this is no easy task and is not without some major risks.
I love these Antarctic dramas, and this one is right up there with some other great ones: the amazing story of Ernest Shackleton, Werner Herzog’s weird and twisted ‘Encounters At The End Of The World,’ and of course this one.
Encounters At The End Of The World trailer:
A “cliffs notes” version of Shackleton’s story:
Sound Opinions
January 25, 2011 By 1 Comment
WBEZ Chicago’s Sound Opinions has been in my podcast rotation heavily for the past few months and I just had to blog about it. I realize that I could be preaching to the choir here, but it is the best show ever!
Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis, regardless of whether or not you agree with them, talk about music in such a passionate way that it makes you want to listen to everything they discuss. The discourse is always engaging and frequently eye-opening. Plus their show affords them the ability to spend 5 or more minutes reviewing an album, with audio spliced in for context.
A breakdown of some of the stuff they’ve recently talked about on the show:
*A full show devoted to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Songs In The Key Of Life’ – Greg and Jim dig DEEP into this classic album and really made me appreciate it in a whole new way.
*Interview with ‘The Big Payback’ author Dan Charnas about how Hip Hop developed as an art and a business – a great conversation about the last 30 years of the music biz.
*A surprising Top 10 albums of 2010 list from Greg and Jim that drove me to finally check out the band Salem, and I’m glad I did.
*Summer Road Trip – interviews with music writers in some bustling music towns like Baltimore, Memphis and Portland about how fertile their local scenes are.
Set aside an hour of your week for these guys and subscribe to the podcast.
Happy Birthday Moses Asch
December 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Moses Asch was born Dec 2, 1905 and played an instrumental role in the cultivation and preservation of American folk music as the founder of Folkways Records. In honor of what would have been Moses’ 105th Birthday, Smithsonian Folkways has posted a free download of “Talkin’ Moe Asch,” a song by Ross Altman that honors “America’s great documenter” who “put this whole world on the record.”
Moses released 2,168 albums on Folkways.
Celebrate here.
Another One For Woody
November 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Another One For Woody, a benefit concert to celebrate the life of Allen Woody, took place at Roseland Ballroom last night and featured a short acoustic set from Warren Haynes, Gov’t Mule, the Allman Brothers, North Mississippi All Stars and an array of special guests. The event was held in honor of the Gov’t Mule founding member and longtime Allman Brothers bassist Allen Woody, 10 years after his passing and One For Woody, a benefit concert held in NYC in the fall of 2000.
Gov’t Mule kicked off a powerful set with “Railroad Boy,” featuring Warren on 12-string guitar. After a handful of Mule originals, the special guests started coming out, including Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artemis Pyle, Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson, Audley Freed, Moe’s Chuck Garvey, the Dickinson brothers and more. Savannah Woody, Allen’s daughter, sang “Soulshine” with Mule to close their set.
All of this great music and the Allman Brothers hadn’t even started their set! Watching Warren and Derek Trucks intertwine their soaring solos is always a treat. ABB dove into the classics – “One Way Out,” “Blackhearted Woman,” “Midnight Rider,” “Southbound,” “Whipping Post”…
Warren talks to AM New York about some of his memories of Allen here.
Watch Warren perform “I Shall Be Released” at the original One For Woody in 2000. He performed the song last night as well.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUBXCtBVelY]
Gov’t Mule w/Savannah Woody performing “Soulshine” last night:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbW0vcfQ-1Q]
TuneCore + Ministry
November 19, 2010 By 2 Comments
Ministry, the highly influential industrial metal band, and TuneCore, have teamed up for a really unique promotion that went live earlier this week. One of Ministry’s most famous songs, “Psalm 69,” is being given away by the band for a remix contest. Any artist can download the individual tracks (aka stems) for the song and remix in any way they want.
Through TuneCore, artists can submit (and distribute) their song and the contest will be judged by Ministry’s Paul Barker. The winner will get their remix of “Psalm 69″ included on ‘Fix – The Ministry Movie’ documentary soundtrack, which features Tool, Soundgarden, Skinny Puppy and others.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioeo3SapS1E]
November Gurls
November 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Nick Loss-Eaton and I caught Brendan Benson’s fall tour with The Posies in NYC last weekend at The Highline Ballroom. Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, of The Posies and Big Star, are performing in Brendan’s band on this tour and they put on an amazing show. It was a rousing, rocking 16-song set that dug into Brendan’s 4-disc catalog, including some of my favorites like “Good To Me,” “Tiny Spark,” and “Cold Hands.” The encore started with “Happy Birthday,” (Brendan was celebrating his) and closed with one of my absolute favorite songs, Big Star’s “September Gurls.” The shows on this fall tour are being recorded and made available on USB drives right after the shows. The tour goes through Dec 11.
a shot from the balcony:
Up Close and Personal
November 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Premier Guitar met with Warren Haynes’ (and Gov’t Mule’s) guitar technician, Farmer, for an up-close and personal look at Warren’s truly fascinating and awesome live gear rig before a recent Gov’t Mule show in Iowa. Warren’s one of the best, and this is a really neat look at his guitar collection, various string tunings, his massive amp rig and more. Check out those guitars…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hgaBKNGVDs]
Mule plays in NYC on Nov 22 at the Another One For Woody benefit concert and celebrates New Years Eve at The Beacon on Dec 30 and 31.
