Best Week Ever…

Wed night, I caught Jeff Tweedy (Uncle Tupelo, Wilco) for an intimate acoustic solo show just 5 minutes from my house at the NC Museum of Art. I’m not very familiar with his body of work, but I was very impressed by his command of melodies in his song. He paid homage to local blues player Elizabeth Cotton (who I was not familiar with) by playing a ragtime/piedmont blues type piece. There were times he reminded me of Dylan and McCartney, he was that good. In such a stripped down form, it is real apparent that he’s one of the best songwriters of our era.

Friday night was Herring/Rodgers/Sipe/Fountain at the Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill. I believe all the songs were strictly Bobby Lee originals, as I recognized most of them from Codetalkers live shows. During one of the songs, they lauched into Coltrane's Impressions-which was definitely a treat.

Herring was…well “Herring” and Sipe was just unbelievable. Sipe would get a mischevious look on his face and throw the band curveballs, changing the tempo, time, the entire foundations of songs…yet the band would just knock them right out of the park. Fountain was every bit as good as advertised and did remind me quite a bit of Oteil…

Now onto Saturday:

Unfortunately we didn’t get to the venue in time to see Oteil and the Peacemakers, I did hear Paul Henson singing as we were walking away from the venue (my buddy had a microscopic knife on his keychain). By the time we walked back, the band had finished.

We did manage to give ourselves plenty of time to see the Derek Trucks Band. I was curious to see how our boys would translate in a larger venue. From our 2nd row seats, I would answer very well.

It was my first show since the band came to the Lincoln Theatre sometime this past spring. I really haven’t been listening much to dTb this year…but they certainly did blow the roof away. The boys were beyond smoking…they exceeded my expectations, and I’ve seen the band upwards of 15 or 20 times. Key To The Highway was just incredible. So much energy in this one, I thought much more so than the Lincoln Theatre show this year. Then into a Greensleeves that would surely having Saint John Coltrane smiling and nodding from up above. I brought a friend with me that had never seen the DTB, and like much of the crowd, he has joined the fold. He vowed to not miss them again when they are around.

My thoughts, can any band top this?

During the break between the ABB and DTB, my excitement was boiling over…the dtb were just that good. In between the sets, they were playing Howlin’ Wolf over the PA…would it be some sort of omen?

We heard the crowd roaring, so we rushed to our seats. I happened to miss half of Hot ‘Lanta last year watching Mood Cultivation Project. After a quick hundred-yard dash, beverages in hand, we were standing about 10 feet from Warren. I like what how they’re now “swinging” into Done Somebody Wrong…very nicely done…It’s always great to get Revival. Can’t Lose What You Never Had threw me out for a loop, until Gregg started singing. Always nice to hear one that I’d never seen before.

During Every Hungry Woman, Warren broke a string and it threw a wrinkle in the performance.

I always enjoy singing along with Rockin’ Horse…this particular version was a bit heavier on the wah and featured a Voodoo Chile tease…at the end of the song, the person next to me suggested the next song would be Desdemona…normally I would agree, but I saw Warren put on a slide, Gregg started counting “1-2..”…I told him Statesboro Blues…This was easily my favorite Statesboro Blues ever…Warren’s slide just really spoke to me.

What I’ll remember most about the show will be watching Marc guide Yonrico Soctt during Come and Go Blues…giving him cues and signs as when to play and when not.

Ah and now for Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning…had it not have been for the Wannee disc, I would’ve not seen it coming. This one was groovin’ like none other.

A fellow coworker asked me this morning how long Liz Reed/drums were…I would have ventured to guess probably around 20 minutes…it ended up being 40 minutes…all the percussion players of the night were given chances to shine. There was also a quick Les Brers tease during Liz Reed.

The show ended at around 10:40 or so after an encore of Midnight Rider and One Way Out…I expected at least another song, but it was apparent Oteil was having difficulties with some of his gear. I wanted to hear Layla, since I still haven’t seen it yet (should’ve gone to Charlotte last year). I guess there’s always next year, unless of course I decide to snag a ticket this week for Va Beach.

So back to the question…can anyone have topped that DTB set? I’ll just say it was a nice way to put an exclamation mark on what has been an incredible week.