folk-blog.com

• Railroad Earth is fantastic live. They put out a phenomenal bluegrass-inspired wall of sound, and every member of the group gets ample opportunity to display his solo chops. Particularly impressive was the group's signature song, "Head" where the fiddler and mandolinist traded solo licks back and forth.
• Is it the beer? The marijuana? The 60s-inspired "summer of love" hippie clothing? What is it that makes people at jamband concerts do that twirling dork dance? You know the one. You can't get within a square meter of someone doing the twirling dork dance, usually in some Stevie Nicks-inspired gypsy outfit.
• Then there is the masculine version of the twirling dork dance, which is the spastic space-out, in which the guy stares forward into space, arms extended, and occasionally spasms (may or may not involve head bobbing) more or less in time with the music (usually less).
• First time I've ever been offered a hit. I declined. I must not have looked like I was enjoying myself enough, perhaps because I wasn't doing the spastic space-out or the twirling dork dance.
• Why must bar shows start so late? At both Little Brother's and the Newport, doors usually open at 8, so if you actually want to sit (instead of stand all evening), you need to be there at 8 (or for a really popular band, at 7:15 to wait outdoors). The opening band comes on at 9 and plays for an hour. So, now it's 10 pm, you've worked all day, you've been sitting for two hours, and you still haven't seen the band you came to see. Then there's a half hour to tear down the opening band and set up the main act, so the concert really starts at 10:30 pm. I don't know about you, but after working from 8 to 5, I run out of steam about 11:30, just when the band is really getting tight. I left the Railroad Earth concert at midnight, and the band was still going strong, simply because I was exhausted.
• May I just say that it is evil, evil, evil that Railroad Earth and Brave Combo were both playing in town the same night and that I had to choose just one of them? Not as evil as Art Modell and the Baltimore Ravens, but evil nonetheless.

Recent Adds

*Greg Brown: In the Hills of California - It's hardly a news flash, but it's worth saying again - Greg Brown is a great live performer. If you can't go see him, buy this two-disk set, recorded over the last several years at the Kate Wolf Folk Festival in northern California with backing artists including Nena Gerber, Karen Savoca, Pete Heitzman and Shawn Colvin. Excellent mix of classic Greg Brown songs and well-chosen covers and traditional tunes, several of which have never been recorded by Brown anywhere before. Profits go for a charity that exposes schoolchildren to live musical experiences.

*The Jones Family: From Earth to Heaven - Family group from Maryland that does an excellent job covering a well-chosen mix of traditional tunes and some surprising covers. Most family groups would not have the chutzpah to record covers by Leonard Cohen, Richard Thompson and David Byrne. It got my attention.

*Nancy K. Dillon: Just Let Me Dream - This is a really fine album of singer/songwriter fare with a bit of an old-timey feel in spots. I like this CD a lot. The songs are well-written, tuneful and intelligent.

*Soulscript: Bleeding on Paper - Nice folky rock and roll. A little more produced than most of the music I play, but I like it nonetheless.

*Colleen Geraghty: Deep Ravines - My apologies to Colleen. This disk got stuck in a pile of stuff for a couple months and I just found it recently. A little too thick with the new-agey spirituality for me in some spots, but there are several really excellent songs here.

Fairport Convention featured next week. Just got the Cropredy Box. Richard Thompson playing with Fairport on the old tunes - Choice!