I love it when two musicians from completely different musical backgrounds come together and play music. This performance by Sam Bush and Jorma Kaukonen from High Sierra Music Festival on June 30, 2000 could be what influenced Jorma to record Blue Country Heart which is a masterpiece of roots blues and country featuring Jorma, Sam, Bela Fleck, Byron House and Jerry Douglas. The picking in this set is mind blowing and the synergy between Jorma and Sam is amazing. For some of the tunes, Sam plays slide on what he refers to as a ham can which is a National dobro mandolin. Jorma accuses Sam of being a “very disturbed man” for playing such an instrument. The rhetoric between these guys is hilarious. This is one of the favorite live shows in my collection and I hope you find it as much fun as I did. Its a 256kbps MP3 rip of a lossless soundboard and the sound quality is A+. Enjoy!

Jorma Kaukonen & Sam Bush

6/30/00

SBD>Tascam DA-30MKII>digital out>Sek’d Prodif plus soundcard >
Sound Forge>CD Architect>Plextor 8/20

Recording:
Ken “Easy Ed” Edwards
CD Mastering & Seeding:
Ken “Easy Ed” Edwards

01. intro by Wesley Robertson

02. Hesistation Blues

03. the roots of Rock and Roll and Bluegrass

04. Crossroads Blues

05. if you have any questions

06. Sally Where’d You Get Your Liquor From?

07. deeply disturbed

08. How Long Blues

09. my middle name

10. Mann’s Fate

11. favorite Jerry tune

12. Sittin’ on Top of the World

13. (applause)

14. 99 Year Blues

The Avett Brothers are playing La Zona Rosa next Sunday Nov 4. I saw these guys at this year’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival and they are a riot. I’ve heard them described as the Nirvana of the 1800s. See you there!

Its been a crazy summer with lots going on largest of which is that this bird has flown the coop! That’s right, cuckoobird.net is now coming to you from the live music capital of the world, Austin, TX! It’s been a long muggy, rainy, hot summer here in Austin but so far I’m loving it.

I’ve taken in many excellent shows which will be the subject of future posts. Some of those shows include:

• Sonny Wolf at Friends
• Erik Hokkanen at Flipnotics
• South Austin Jug Band at Threadgills

Austin City Limits Festival is just around the corner and I’m really looking forward to it. From this point forward, this blog is dedicated to all things Austin, music and otherwise. Thanks for reading!

Last month, the 34th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival was amazing and hosted one of the best lineups in years including Los Lobos, Alison Krauss, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet (featuring the angelic Sharon Gilchrist), Guster, Greensky Bluegrass, Jackie Greene, Yonder Mountain String Band, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Chris Thile, Sparrow Quartet , The Infamous Stringdusters, Crooked Still and tons more.

The Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet was what I might consider to be the best set I’ve experienced in 10 consecutive years of going to Telluride Bluegrass. I love Peter Rowan, but what he’s done is to create the ultimate musical atmosphere for Tony Rice to showcase his jaw dropping guitar. And I also think that Sharon Gilchrist is one of the most amazing new mandolin players on the scene. I’ve seen her play with Uncle Earl and Mary and Mars and its so great to see her up on the stage with two Bluegrass gods!


Jackie Greene was another highlight of this year’s festival for me. He’s such an amazingly talented young songwriter and he reminds me of a cross between Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. The combination of his songwriting and musical sensibility make him one of my favorite new acts. If you check him out, give his album Gone Wanderin’ a listen.

Crooked Still was another highlight of the festival that caught me completely by surprise. Their cello player, Rushad Eggleston is out of this earth doing things that I didn’t know could be done with the cello. Not to mention the sweet smooth vocal stylings of singer Aoife O’Donovan

I was delighted to see the Leftover Salmon reunion on the Town Park Stage. They were billed as Drew Emmitt, Vince Herman and friends but nobody was fooled, this was the first time that LoS has played the festival in three years so it was quite a treat and caused me to wax nostalgic a little

If you were at the festival and want to relive some of the fun or even if you weren’t, you stream or download Bela Fleck and the Flecktones entire set at archive.org. You can also stream or download Yonder Mountain’s set from Telluride Bluegrass 2007.

I was having so much fun that I only got to take a couple photos and none were of any of the performers. Fortunately flickr has got you covered!

Here is an excellent performance that Ryan Adams and his band The Cardinals did on The Henry Rollins Show. One thing that this video makes me realize is that Adams is a killer guitarist. (via)

Last night I got to see Todd Snider play at the Santa Fe Brewing Company. I arrived at 7:00, thirty minutes before the show was supposed to start and it was already packed. Somebody mentioned to me that Todd’s new album The Devil You Know was ranked 33 on Rolling Stone’s top 50 albums of 2006 list. Todd Snider is finally getting the kind of audience that he deserves. Every one of his albums is a masterpiece of songwriting inspired by such greats as John Prine, Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver and Kris Kristofferson.

Todd’s buddy from East Nashville, Pete Cooper opened the show. Pete is a clever singer songwriter with a very poignant song about Hank Aaron. Todd took the stage a little after 8:30 with his jumbo Epiphone and harmonica. With Todd solo acoustic in such a small place it made for a very intimate vibe. He played most songs of The Devil You Know and also reached into his older repertoire with songs like Missing You and This Land Is Our Land.

Some of the stories that Todd told between the songs had me rolling on the floor, especially the story about the inspiration for If Tomorow Never Comes. Apparently he stole the name of the song from Garth Brooks after the guy that wrote Garth’s version explained to him how he legally stole Beer Run from Todd.

Paintings by Todd’s wife Moleta Osheowitz-Snider were displayed all over the stage and presumably they were for sale. Below are some photos and a video clip that I took.

Update: I just found this excellent interview/performance with Todd in KUT’s Studio 1A.

I love this video…

I’ve been wanting to share this bootleg for a long time. The copy that my sister gave to me as a gift years ago is entitled Lonesome Prison Blues. This is Jerry Garcia playing acoustic with John Kahn on the bass in front of a small audience of inmates at the Oregon state penitentiary on 5-5-82.

The recording is decent with only a couple of flaws. Jerry was in great spirits this day and his playing reflects it. Jerry sounds much like he does on Run For The Roses, the last of his solo albums which was recorded around the same time. The Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie still brings a tear to my eye when I hear it.

Most deadheads will already have this in their collection and if anybody is willing to trade for the lossless soundboard version in circulation I’d love to get a copy. Here is the info from the etree db. As far as I know, this show has never been officially released and is under no copyright restrictions. So sit back, listen and enjoy!

Oregon State Prison, Salem, Or. (5-5-82)

1. Deep Elem Blues 2:30

2. Friend Of The Devil 5:45

3. Jack-A-Roe 4:39

4. Babe, It Ain’t No Lie 6:12

5. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry 5:33

6. Run For The Roses 3:45

7. Ripple 4:20

8. I’ve Been All Around This World 4:06

9. Valerie 6:32

10. Dire Wolf 3:43

11. Rubin And Cherise 5:50

Shooter Jennings is the son of the late great Waylon Jennings (for those why might not know) and his brand of outlaw music could be described as Waylon Jennings meets Led Zepplin. His brand of rock and roll kicks soooo much ass and asures us that outlaw music lives on! His most recent release Live At Irving Plaza 4.18.06 is a testament to that. His vocals sound scarily like his daddy’s and his style is very similar, but the biggest difference is that it has a heavier, more rock ‘n roll sound. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Shooter raises just as much hell as Waylon did. He looks just like a young Waylon too… You can see this in Shooter’s portrayal of his dad in the movie Walk The Line.

There is a great article on NPR about Hardly Strictly Blugrass Festival (complete with streaming audio) and how it got its start. Billionare investment banker (and claw hammer banjo player) Warren Hellman started the festival 6 years ago as a way to bring some free music to his home city of San Francisco in Golden Gate Park. Last year the festival entertained 300,000 people. One thing I found interesting in the article is that the festival was originally called “Strictly Bluegrass” but when Emmylou Harris played it with her band Spyboy who had a New Orleans sound, Hellman renamed the festival “Hardly Strictly Bluegrass”. Check it out!

Related Links:

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Lineup

StrictlyBluegrass.com