Infamous Stringdusters

I've been needing to write for weeks.  Due to an onslaught of unfortunate circumstances one after the other I have failed to do so.  Today, I surmount that obstacle simply for the fact that I am on the verge of spontaneously combusting.  Both my faith in the Lord and love for raw, in-your-face live music have only grown stronger in the past 2 months.  As much as I complain about the traffic and sheer overcrowding of Atlanta, living here has provided me with so many wonderful opportunities to enjoy the sounds that soothe the ear and the mind.  Typically, in the past 2 months, its been all about  BLUEGRASS.  The music of Appalachia. The weapons of choice: the fiddle, five string banjo, mandolin, dobro, guitar and upright bass.  An original of American music.  Don't get me wrong, the blues is America's music, and Mississippi is the birthplace.   To that I have no objection, (it'd be hard to after going to school a short drive from Robert Johnson's famous [or infamous] crossroads.)  But Bluegrass was born in the Appalachians, reinforced and supported by the hymnals across the bible belt and continue to flow today throughout the country wherever an ear seeks a good ole fiddlin'.  I tweeted about seeing "the big 3" recently.  My residence in Atlanta has allowed me to see these smokin' hot bands reigning from Boston, Colorado and Kalamazoo, Michigan. They are 'The Infamous Stringdusters' (seen here at the Pink Garter in Jackson, WY)

this picture does no justice

The other 2 are 'Yonder Mountain String Band' (@The Tabernacle)   & last but definitely not least 'Greensky Bluegrass' (@Smith's Olde Bar)
More to come on YMSB & GSBG later 





Seeing the 'Dusters in Jackson was awesome, it set the stage and I knew what I was in for when I headed to Terminal West.
Listening to the Atlanta show right now via their website, I'm about to get up and do a jig.  They just have this crisp, resonating sound that makes you want to shake your body wildly until you burst at the seams.  The Dobro is the game changer.  It makes the crunchiest, bluesiest acoustic slide-guitar tone one could imagine.  To me, it perfectly bridges together the thumping bass line, the quick-picking of the banjo and the steady strum of the mandolin.  It comes together in perfect harmony and evokes a primal hoot-n-holler, all the while dancing away a bad memory or cheers'ing to better ones.  The crowd was a little stiff at the beginning of the first set.  I thought to myself, "Certainly the bass thumpers and young dubstep kids aren't gonna like these things with strings called instruments."  ICYMI Terminal West has an affinity for the "electronic music" popular of the day. Not my scene really.  That's why I was glad to see a stringband take their plunge into the thriving music scene at this great venue.  They played two steamrollin' sets containing several of my favorite tunes.  "Gettin Down the Road" "Steam-Powered Aeroplane" "Fork in the Road." One of my favorite parts of the entire show was a song in set 2. "Fire" A wahwah pedal induced jam that at times sounded like a more badass acoustic Phish song (much like YMSB's cover of 'Sand')  The song that followed was slow and drawn out in a good way.  "High on a mountain top, winds blowin' free, thinking about the days that used to be."  Sounding like a siren straight from Oh, Brother Where art Thou.  BTW the craft beers (in cans) were flowing like water at this point.  For me, this is all part of the bluegrass experience.  Great beer, great people, great music, this is what it's all about. They absolutely crush each and every song.  Individually, they are masters of their instrument. Collectively, they unite to bring a sound that's beauty can only be described or appreciated by using your ears, and embracing that sound we call music.  And finally, they played "He's Gone"
How ridiculously ironic.  Not only is it one of my favorite Grateful Dead tunes, but just having lost a VERY close friend of mine, this situation just made me close my eyes, look the sky, and say "thank you Lord."  Thank you for letting me live one more day on this Earth, Thank you for letting me be able to lift my spirits through YOU, AND through this wonderful music. Also, I said thank you to Nick.  I'm sure you had SOMETHING to do with this buddy.   "Nothin' left to do but SMILE SMILE SMILE."

So we listened, we sang, we grinned, we danced, we cried. It was freaking awesome.  Thank you to the Stringdusters.  I happily await our next meeting fellas.

I leave you with a link to the Stringdusters recording "He's Gone" Infamous Stringdusters - He's Gone

and another: Gettin' Down the Road

Bonnaroo 2012

home sweet home

ROO CREW

 the ROO

A music festival with 80,000+ people, in Tennessee, in June?  I'll pass.  That's what I used to say when the idea of Bonaroo came up.  I had been to Wakarusa a few years prior.  While that is still a relatively large gathering of people, 25 maybe 30,000 in the cool Ozarks in Arkansas.  It's not almost 100k sweaty dirty people in field with no shade in sight.  There you have it, Bonnaroo described.  Oh, did I forget to mention that thousands of people come to break with reality and let it all hang out for a weekend down on some ol' Tennessee farmland.  A decision was made within our ranks to rent, travel and live in an RV for the weekend.  Never undertaken something such as this, but after seeing the 35 foot monster, I decided we'd be alright.  Of course, I was elected to drive this white beast to the fairgrounds from west of 

Birmingham.  Our trip began like any other, except I was captaining a 35 foot house on wheels complete with a fridge, stove top and crapper.  The drive began and at first the RV seemed a bit sketchy.  "Let's just get through this traffic," Missy says.  Fortunately, we had Ana Lampton and Griffin Smith following close behind in the truck.  Each RV is allowed one companion vehicle.  When the call came to "Pull over, I think ya'll have a flat," I knew it was too good to be true.  A weekend of fun, freedom, and music beginning on Thursday afternoon suddenly took a turn to negative town.  We pulled off the interstate in Warrior, AL into thank goodness what was a large enough service station to accomodate us and this great white RV.  I crawl up under the vehicle on the hot pavement to discover the inner tire on the right side had been successfully blown to shreds.  Great! Now what?  We call the office of El Monte RV rentals but they've been closed for 45 minutes by now.  Here we are, in the middle of Alabama, in a huge RV with a blown tire.  Some local bikers took a look and said, "yea, ya'll ain't gettin' far with that."  I decided to call the number painted across the back of the vehicle.  Finally, we got hooked up with a wrecker service that would come help us out.  Thank God the RV had a spare underneath it.  Some good ol' boys got there after about an hour and a half.  2 guys, probably not older than 18 fixed her up real nice for us, and it only cost 100 bucks.  After the fiasco we hit the road hard and kept truckin' all the way to Manchester.  We pulled in at about 1:30 at night, thinking we'd go right through the gates.  Griff had since switched to be my co-pilot.  So we have two middle aged dudes with beards in an RV at 1:30.. A sheriff deputy motioned us to go ahead and pull towards him, away from all the other lines.  The other lines that were manned by members of WET.  The Work Exchange Team.  Also known as volunteers that work to pay for their tickets.  Deputy Dog approached my window.  "Alright boys this here is how Bonnaroo works.  We're going to search your vehicle no matter what.  We're looking for drugs, fireworks, weapons, etc.  We'll give you a chance to tell us if you have anything illegal in the vehicle, and if its not a big deal, we'll let you go with a citation.  So what ya'll got in here?"  I said, "nothing sir, we're clean as a whistle."  I then was directed to stand infront of the RV like a damn criminal while 6 sheriff's deputies proceeded to enter the RV and rifle through it like we were suspected terrorists.  The most unnecessary, invasive, violating thing I've ever been through.  They ripped through our backpacks, undid hammocks, threw clothes on the ground, opened prescription medicine, smelled Nalgene bottles, and even put a lady sheriff on the vehicle to tear through the girls' bags.  It was quite ridiculous.  After disrespecting all of our belongings, they were displeased that they didn't find 1,000 lbs of marijuana or any Weapons of Mass Destruction, or roman candles, or bath salts.  I just stood with a huge smile on my face.  As he drew a star on the windshield, I asked, "is that our star of approval?" Deputy Dog responded with, "Have a good Bonnaroo."  HA.  We then pulled through the gates and received our wristbands for the weekend.  The volunteers said, "Ya'll are the first guys we've seen not get a citation for drugs."  High Five!  Upon entering we rolled into our campsite for the weekend, a giant field filled with other RVs of all shapes and sizes.  Dingy pop-up campers next to $300,000 tailgating monsters.  Friday morning came and the heat started early, about 7 a.m.   The thing I love about festivals is the camping.  You get to see a wide array of people from as far as New York to upstate Washington.  Dreads and deadheads and weirdos and people that just like to have a good time.  And surprisingly a lot of good looking ladies.  Some with armpit hair, but hey who am I to judge.  The first day of music was great.  The bands play on a schedule, but that's the other thing I like about a festival, you can do whatever you want.  Go see a band, go drink a beer, sit in a field, buy something, jam out, sleep, lay in a hammock, meet new people.  It's great.  We got to see The Infamous Stringdusters on Friday.  Saw them in Jackson, WY at the Pink Garter this winter.  Great live show presence.  They love to get the audience going.  Bluegrass. Banjos in your face.  I loved it.  The main stage played host to Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.  Another favorite since seeing them at Double Decker in Oxford a few years ago.  Mostly soulful funky jams.  Great stuff.  Next up was quite unexpected.  But being from Atlanta I had to go see Ludacris at 4pm.  It was probably the wildest show of the weekend.  Never did I think I would see 40,000 people raging to "What's your Fantasy."  It was incredible.  They engaged the crowd like any of the best know festival bands would have.  Great light show as well, especially for a hip-hop show.  I am quite sad and ashamed to say that after a full day of music/driving/flat tires etc. we decided to take a nap, and in the process missed Radiohead.  I knew I would catch hell for this one.  Many friends of mine came to the Roo just to see Radiohead.  On a lighter note, we woke up to see Umphrey's Mcgee's set start at 2 a.m.  If you haven't seen them, I suggest it.  It's quite a production and their musicianship is unmatched.  Well, they started at 3 and played until 7:30.  Yes, that's a.m.  Absolutely awesome.  Saturday followed with Santigold.  Two girls butt-shaking like it's nobody's business.  Great for the main stage.  After a nap and some dinner.  (Hot dogs cooked over charcoal, pan fried scrambled eggs, mix in some black beans and salsa oh a perfectly assembled hippy-dinner.)  We left camp early to get a spot for the Chili Peppers.  Never seen them so I was excited as hell.  And they delivered.  Played a lot of old hits: Under The Bridge, Suck My Kiss, Give it Away,  as well as some stuff from Stadium Arcadium, which I enjoyed.  They had the audience's full attention.  Mine as well.  Sunday came, and with it came some welcomed cooler temperatures and light rain.  It wasn't enough to drive anyone away, just enough to keep you cool and damp all day.  Many left on Sunday, but that was counteracted with the surge of Phans coming in Sunday afternoon for Phish's 4 hour set to conclude the weekend.  Sunday was probably my favorite day.  We set up camp on some squishy foam mats we bought and just rode out the main stage most of the day.  The Beach Boys were awesome.  All the old people there during the weekend came out of the woodwork for the Beach Boys. Classics like Barbara Ann, Little Deuce Coupe, Surfin' USA, and Good Vibrations were songs that everyone could jam to, young and old alike.  It was wonderful.  Bon Iver followed.  Heard of them and heard their songs on the radio, and I really enjoyed it.  Perfect music to just kick back and enjoy the scenery.  Phish set the scene for the end to a perfect weekend.  More and more Phans descended on the main stage grounds to close it out with a bang.  Sometimes they play a lot of crowd pleasers but as a relatively new Phan, I was overjoyed.  Most of the songs they played: Possum, Tweezer, Rock & Roll, Rocky Top, The Moma Dance and Sample in a Jar were great for me.  Over the years I've heard these songs played by friends, seen them on a DVD, played in a bar etc.  They played like they meant it.  They knew everyone was there because all other bands sets were over so all eyes were on them and their final set to end the weekend.  All in all it was a wonderful weekend and I felt truly blessed to be able to be a part of it with the other 99,999 people that were there to enjoy the pure bliss that live music creates for the audience.  I HIGHLY suggest you add this to your bucket list.  Even if you're old.  A nice couple camped next to us, probably in their late 40's.  The husband was a doctor and his wife was an attorney.  Glad to have you folks.
td  

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