Eilen Jewell – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, maracas
Jerry Miller – electric guitar
Johnny Sciascia – upright bass
Jason Beek – drums, vocals, percussion

I’ve seen Eilen and her band perform nine times since late 2007 when I first discovered their music. They tour relentlessly, and it always amazes me how they’re consistently able to get on stage and play the same few dozen songs (fabulous repertoire though it is) with the same energy and enthusiasm every night. I’ve yet to see them do anything approaching a mediocre show. It also amazes me that they’re not much better known than they are by now, although it’s apparent they are building a very loyal following.

It had been a year since I saw them last, so when I found out they were playing in Hudson I decided on the spur of the moment to book a motel room in the area and make the 4 hour drive to go hear them. I called the venue a few hours before show time, and they were very gracious about allowing me to record the show after confirming I had Eilen’s permission. When I arrived 20 minutes before the doors opened, I found out that the newly relocated Club Helsinki hadn’t yet received their liquor license. This eventuality resulted in a small crowd of 150 or so patrons who were almost eerily quiet during the performance. While this was a little unnerving for the band, it made for ideal recording conditions. My mics were clamped to the rail on the 2nd level of the performance room about 20 feet from center stage. Eilen has a soft spot for Club Helsinki since they gave her her first break as a performer at their old location in Great Barrington, and the band played two long and very heartfelt sets. The sound system, acoustics and house mix were fantastic, especially the second set when Eilen’s vocals appeared to be mixed a little higher. Her sultry performance on Billie Holiday’s Fine and Mellow was a real highlight, and just check out the guitar solos in Back To Dallas by Jerry Miller, who was on fire all night. I felt extremely fortunate to be there to capture the evening!

It was also great to catch up with Eilen and the boys after the show, and I picked up a copy of their brand new Loretta Lynn tribute CD Butcher Holler which is all kinds of fun!

First Set
1. Instrumental
2. Lucky One (?)
3. Rain Roll In
4. Fading Memory
5. The Darkest Day
6. Heartache Boulevard
7. intro with cows
8. High Shelf Booze
9. band intros
10. Too Hot To Sleep
11. q and a
12. Deep As Your Pocket
13. Final Hour
14. the plan
15. Gotta Get Right
16. Twelve Gates To The City
17. Rich Man’s World
18. Fist City

Second Set
1. Where They Never Say Your Name
2. Sea Of Tears
3. the truth about this song
4. Boundary County
5. Back To Dallas
6. Fine And Mellow
7. Dusty Boxcar Wall
8. Thanks A Lot
9. The Flood
10. Blue Highway
11. the quiche in the socks story
12. I’m Gonna Dress In Black
13. Shakin’ All Over
14. acknowledgments
15. If You Catch Me Stealin’
16. what to play
17. Honky Tonk Girl

Stream the show from this link.
FLAC files can be downloaded from this page.
A zipped file of hi-fi mp3s can be downloaded from here.

A review of the show with some videos can be found here.

Recorded by Keith from NY
Milab VM-44 Link cardioids (DIN, 20′ from center stage) > Oade Concert PMD-661 @24/44.1 > PNY 16Gb SDHC
Cardreader > Adobe Audition/iZotope Ozone > CD Wave (tracking) > FLAC Level 8
Editing: mid-side adjustment, fades, gain, MBIT+ dither

House mix by Peter Lindstrom. Photos courtesy of Eilen Jewell and Ammuse. Many thanks to Eilen and the management of Club Helsinki for making this recording possible.

Support the artist and buy Eilen’s CDs and other stuff!

www.eilenjewell.com

Kathleen Edwards – vocals, guitar, violin, harmonica
Jim Bryson – keyboards, guitar, vocals
Gord Tough – guitar
John Dinsmore – bass, vocals
Lyle Molzan – drums, percussion

Kathleen has long been one of my favorite songwriters and performers, and her latest album Asking For Flowers was my #1 CD of 2008. She always puts on a kick-ass show when she brings a band on the road, and this show at The Stephen Talkhouse club on the east end of Long Island was no exception. The set featured several excellent unreleased songs which will presumably be on her next album – something to look forward to! Kathleen is very taper friendly but the venue turned down my request to record the show, so this was recorded from my seat a few feet from the stacks on the left side of the stage. Turned out pretty well, considering!

1. Summerlong
2. I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory
3. return to Amagansett
4. Empty Threat
5. Mint
6. In State
7. intro to Hockey Skates
8. Hockey Skates
9. Swimming Song
10. Six O’Clock News
11. Change The Sheets
12. false start to Run
13. Run
14. Goodnight, California
15. 12 Bellevue
16. Back To Me
17. From Hank to Hendrix
18. Asking For Flowers
19. Sister Golden Hair

Stream the show from this link.
FLAC files can be downloaded from this page.
A zipped file of hi-fi mp3s can be downloaded from here.

Recorded and edited by Keith from NY
Milab VM-44 Link cardioids (4′ from left stack, 12′ from center stage) > Oade Concert PMD-661 > PNY 16Gb SDHC
Cardreader > Adobe Audition/Algorithmix Red PEQ & LP SplitComp > CD Wave (tracking) > FLAC Level 8
Editing: +0.8dB midrange boost centered @1.1kHz, compression on kick drum, fades, gain, dither

Support the artist and buy Kathleen’s three killer albums and her other stuff!

www.kathleenedwards.com

for flac, use ftp to look in drive 1 for \ZPZ2010-06-14.flac16

The dreaded pat down at the door resulted in my return to my car to rethink another way to get everything in. Not to be denied, I figured what the hell, two strikes and your not out.  As I entered the Moore for the second time, the music had already started. I found my seat, and much to my surprise nobody was around me. My late arrival resulted in about 20 minutes of the show missing.

The show was fantastic. Dweezil and the rest of the band  were tight and ripped it up. Mostly music from the early years, it had the house dancing the whole night. Jeff Simmons happened to be in the audience and ended up on stage to play Wonderful Wino (Wino Man?) towards the end of the show.

I was only able to piece together a mini setlist, the tracks are long and filled with some great jamming and a lot of other songs, making it difficult for me to accurately split tracks.

As usual, help with the list is always appreciated.

ZOOM H4N > USB > Toshiba > Audition (Mix, Dither, Fades) > CDWave > TLH Level 8

01. <cut>
02. ?
03. Dweezil Jams
04. Daddy Daddy Daddy
05. Blessed Relief
06. Pick Me, I’m Clean
07. Big Swifty
08. Wonderful Wino *
09. Little House I used To Live In

Notes:
* w/ Jeff Simmons

See Zappa Plays Zappa Live you will never be the same
http://www.zappa.com/zpz/index.html

Dweezil Zappa - Guitar
Scheila Gonzalez – Saxophone, Flute, Keyboards & Vocals
Pete Griffin – Bass
Billy Hulting – Marimba, Mallets & Percussion
Jamie Kime – Guitar
Ben Thomas – Vocals
Joe Travers – Drums & Vocals

for flac, use ftp to look in drive 1 for
7Walkers2010-06-05.flac16

I alway love seeing Bill Kreutzmann whenever he comes to town. Beside the immortal position of being the drumming force of the Grateful Dead, I’ve seen him perform with BK3, Rhythm Devils, The Dead, and now as part of 7 Walkers. It has been great to see Bill still reaching and experimenting with his sound and tonight was no different.

A nice “Sugaree” to start the show as we all were expecting to hear a lot of “Dead” songs, but word on the street was there were some new Robert Hunter songs to be heard so we were all looking forward to hearing those as well. We enjoyed a real nice “He’s Gone” then a “Bertha” which fits “Papi’s” style well. Got to hear “7 Walkers” about half way through the set and it was nice to hear Robert Hunter’s work again. Second set was full of nice gems as well. A “New Orleans Crawl” then a nice “Evangeline” thrown in for a finishing touch. I really enjoyed the “Sue From Bogalusa > Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad” jam and “Mr. Charlie” was a great “set-ender”. The encore was kind of expected with “And We Bid You Goodnight”, but sent the crowd home with a smile and a reflection of a great night of music in Boulder at the Fox Theatre.

Highlights: Wharf Rat, 7 Walkers, New Orleans Crawl, and Mr. Charlie

Special thanks to Joshua Elioseff and DancerProductions.com for the photos

7 Walkers is:

• Papa Mali – Lead Vocals and Guitar
• Bill Kreutzmann – Drums
• Reed Mathis – Bass
• Matt Hubbard – Keyboards

7 Walkers
Fox Theatre
Boulder, Colorado
06/05/2010

*************************************************

Set 1

01. Sugaree
02. Death Don’t Have No Mercy
03. He’s Gone
04. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
05. Bertha
06. Wharf Rat
07. 7 Walkers
08. Bottle Up And Go
09. Drums
10. Deal

(Total Set Time: 79:32 Minutes )

Set 2

01. Turn On Your Love Light
02. New Orleans Crawl
03. Banter/Band Intro’s
04. Bird Song
05. Evangeline
06. I Know You Rider
07. Sue From Bogalusa > Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad
08. Mr. Charlie
09. And We Bid You Goodnight

(Total Set Time: 74:56 Minutes )

Cowboy Junkies originally inspired me to start taping concerts after I began following them in 2001 and remain one of my favorite bands today, so I wanted them to be represented among my recordings here on tapers.org. They’ve always been very friendly to tapers and have a number of long-time fans who have been recording them for many years. These guys were the first tapers I ever met, and the fact that they were able to capture the Junkies’ performances in high fidelity so they could be enjoyed any time completely blew my mind. Two of them in particular (known to fans as Roekbarnet and Crazy Ed) were instrumental in getting me started as a taper by means of their example and generous advice. Aside from being very taper-friendly, the band is unusual in the extent to which they engage their fans on their website and during their tours. Margo still comes out to say hello to anyone who wants to stick around after almost every show.

There are dozens of excellent recordings of the Junkies on the Live Music Archive, and these two are by no means among the best publicly available — in fact they’re not even the best recordings I’ve made of the band. But I think they do a very good job of capturing the unique experience of being at a Cowboy Junkies show from two very different sonic perspectives, and perhaps convey a little of why I keep going back to see them every time they come through the Northeast after more than 50 shows. Both shows were recorded from my seat, the first night from the center of the first row and the second night from the last row of the orchestra right in front of the board. I also taped the Old Saybrook show from the back of the theater (which has awesome acoustics) with a pair of AKG 483s on a stand about 9′ up, but a gaggle of drunken geese a few rows in front of the mics spoiled much of that tape. This fallback recording from my seat sounds surprisingly good considering the first row is rarely a good place to tape from – kudos to The Kate’s sound system and the engineers for exceptionally balanced sound at the front of the house.

These two performances featured a number of selections from the Junkies’ latest CD Renmin Park, a collection of songs largely inspired by bandleader Michael Timmins’ three-month visit to China in 2008. Like most of their albums, the new record is unmistakably Cowboy Junkies but also very different musically and thematically from anything that came before. If you like what you hear, I encourage you to check it out along with the rest of the impressive discography they’ve created in their 20+ year career at www.cowboyjunkies.com. The band’s seminal blues influences were also in evidence these two nights, with great performances of Shining Moon, Hard to Explain and Robert Johnson’s Me And The Devil (which literally lifts off the stage during the Old Saybrook show).

Margo Timmins – vocals
Michael Timmins – guitar
Alan Anton – bass
Peter Timmins – drums
Jeff Bird – harmonica, mandolin, percussion, melodica, samples
Aaron Goldstein – pedal steel, guitar


May 13
First Row at the Katherine Hepburn Theater in Old Saybrook CT

Disc 1
1. Common Disaster
2. Horse In The Country
3. the new album
4. Little Dark Heart
5. Sir Francis Bacon At The Net
6. Bea’s Song
7. Hard To Explain
8. Don’t Let It Bring You Down
9. Renmin Park

Disc 2
1. Working On A Building
2. Crescent Moon *
3. I Don’t Get It
4. Hold On To Me
5. I Cannot Sit Sadly By Your Side
6. My Fall
7. Moonlight Mile
8. Me And The Devil
9. band intros
10. Misguided Angel
11. Powderfinger
12. 200 More Miles **

* Margo left the stage to fix a monitor wire that hitched up the back of her skirt
** Pete took this song at an unusually slow tempo and at the end you can hear him winding down to a crawl as a prank

Stream the show from this link.
FLAC files can be downloaded from this page.
A zipped file of hi-fi mp3s can be downloaded from here.

House mix by Jared the sound guy
Recorded and mastered by Keith from NY

Milab VM-44 Link cardioids (5′ from stage DFC) > Oade Concert PMD661 @24/44.1
Cardreader > Audition 3.0/Ozone 4 (limiting on applause, EQ, compression < 180Hz, gain, fades, MBIT+ dither) > CD Wave (tracking) > FLAC Level 8


May 14
Last Row at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield CT

Disc 1
1. Escape Is So Simple
2. Hunted
3. Shining Moon
4. Little Dark Heart
5. My Fall
6. Sun Comes Up It’s Tuesday Morning
7. Hard to Explain
8. Moonlight Mile
9. Cicadas
10. Something More Without You
11. A Few Simple Words
12. Renmin Park
13. Don’t Let It Bring You Down
14. Me And The Devil

Disc 2
1. band intros
2. Lost My Driving Wheel
3. Powderfinger
4. Walking After Midnight

Stream the show from this link.
FLAC files can be downloaded from this page.
A zipped file of hi-fi mp3s can be downloaded from here.

House mix by Jared the sound guy
Recorded and mastered by Keith from NY

Milab VM-44 Link cardioids (60′ from stage DFC) > Oade Concert PMD661 @24/44.1
Cardreader > Audition 3.0/Ozone 4 (limiting on applause, EQ, compression < 120Hz, gain, fades, MBIT+ dither) > CD Wave (tracking) > FLAC Level 8

Photos by Jason Lent
Roses by Crazy Ed

Many thanks to the band, their crew and the staff at The Kate and Ridgefield Playhouse for their permission and assistance.

Support the artists and buy Cowboy Junkies’ CDs and stuff!

www.cowboyjunkies.com

for flac, use ftp to look in drive 1 for
jbb2010-04-08.flac16

The second band of the triple bill, John Brown’s body didn’t disappoint. Knowing I would not hear a two show set with a triple bill, The band would have to roll it all into one long set and they did!

Starting the set with a tribute to former band member Scott Palmer, “Be at Peace” is always a great song to hear. Slowly building momentum until they completely radiated over the crowd, each song just kept getting better as the set when on. This was the first time I heard the song “The Grass” and enjoyed every minute of it. “Bank Robber” was a nice twist to the original “Clash” song. The “remix” of “The Gold” is nice and I like the way it came out. I believe it was done that way on “Re-Amplify” by another artist and JBB liked it that way and adopted it for their own. “Zion Triad” brought out members of “Toubab Krewe” to add a complete new direction on a great song from the “Amplify” record. Great Set…Enjoy.

Highlights: The Grass, Bank Robber, The Gold, and Zion Triad

John Brown’s Body is:

• Elliot Martin – Lead Vocals
• Tommy Benedetti – Drums
• Nate Edgar- Bass
• Matthew “Kofi” Goodwin – Hammond B3, Clavinet, Synths
• Mike Keenan – Guitar
• Alex Toth – Trumpet
• Annakalmia Traver – Saxophone
• Scott Flynn – Trombone
• Jocko – Sound Engineer

John Brown’s Body
Fox Theatre
Boulder, Colorado
04/08/2010

*************************************************

Setlist

01. Intro
02. Be At Peace
03. Follow into Shadow
04. The Grass
05. Bank Robber
06. The Gold – Remix Style
07. Push Some Air
08. 33 RPM
09. The Ring
10. Resonate
11. What We Gonna Do
12. Zion Triad

(Total Set Time: 76:13 Minutes )

for flac, use ftp to look in drive 1 for
gpgds2010-04-08.flac16

I was definitely looking forward to this show when I saw the billing for the Fox Theatre. I’m a big John Brown’s Body fan and I have seen Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad open for them before and I knew it was going to be a strong night of music with this triple bill.

Knowing this was an opening act, I didn’t expect it to be a long set. About 43 minutes of music, but solid from the first note til the last. The crowd really love “On the Moon” and the band play “.45″ which is a new addition from when I saw them open a show for John Brown’s Body the last time around.

Highlights: Solutions, On the Moon, and .45

Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad is:

• James Searl: Bass, Vocals
• Chris O’Brian: Drums, Vocals
• Dylan Savage: Guitar, Vocals
• Aaron Lipp: Hammond B3 Organ, Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, Percussion, Vocals

Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
Fox Theatre
Boulder, Colorado
04/08/2010

*************************************************

Setlist

01. Healing
02. Nothing Comes Easy
03. Solutions
04. Seasons Change
05. On the Moon
06. Love You More
07. Best of Intentions
08. .45
09. Creation

(Total Set Time: 42:45 Minutes )

CD1
01. I Might Not Come Home At All
02. Can’t See the Forest for the Trees
03. Snatch It and Grab It
04. ?Twin Guitar Polka?
05. Run Red Run
06. Happy Birthday in G > Poontang
07. Blistered (Johnny Cash)
08. There Ain’t No Grave Deep Enough to Bury My Love for You
09. Mishapened Hillbilly Gal
10. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
11. Sittin’ and a Thinkin’
12. The Good Time Gal
13. If I Gotta Go I’ll Go Down Swingin’ (Porter Wagner)
14. I’m a Honky Tonk Nighttime Man
15. Introduction of Dave Bunker
16. Instrumental *
17. Caravan *
18. End of the Road
19. Beat Out My Love For You
20. Make Way For A Better Man
21. Lover Come Back To Me (Billie Holiday)
22. Sweet Sue

CD 2
01. I’m A Lover Not A Fighter
02. Hello Darlin’ (Conway Twitty)
03. I Never Cared For You (Willie Nelson)
04. Mexicali Rose
05. Mule Skinner Blues (Bill Monroe)
06. Crowd\Encore
08. El Cumbanchero
09. Boogie Woogie Feelin’ * (Merle Travis)

Notes:
* Dave Bunker on his Touch Guitar http://bunker-guitars.com/store/guitars/touch-guitars.html and http://davebunkerguitars.com/touch.html

Deke Dickerson, guitar, sax and vocals
Joel Paterson, guitar and vocals
Beau Sample, bass and vocals
Alex Hall, drums and vocals

Support the musicians, see them live, buy their music and merch.
Joel Paterson and The Modern Sounds
Deke Dickerson

Stream this show - Individual MP3 Files  -  Zip File

 Flac files, ftp to Tapers.org and look on drive 1 for \DekeDickerson2010-03-11.flac16

for flac, use ftp to look in drive 1 for
ss2010-02-26.flac16

Energy in the air on this particular night. We could feel it a we entered the Fox Theatre. The opening act, “These United States” gave us an opportunity to set the recording gear up, get our levels right, and grab a cocktail before Stockholm Syndrome came out to perform.

What we got was two solid sets and over 2 hours of music when it was said and done. The Show was strong from start to finish with a few covers thrown in to balance some great original music. Climax Blue’s Band “Couldn’t get it Right” opened the show and a nice heart felt tribute to Vic Chesnutt with the song “Flirted With You All My Life”

Highlights: Couldn’t Get It Right, Flirted with You All My Life, Apollo, and American Fork

Stockholm Syndrome is:

• Jerry Joseph – Guitar, Vocals
• Eric McFadden – Guitar, Vocals
• Danny Louis – Keyboards
• Dave Schools – Bass, Vocals
• Wally Ingram – Drums

Stockholm Syndrome
Fox Theatre
Boulder, Colorado
02/26/2010

*************************************************

Set 1

01. Couldn’t Get It Right
02. Empire One
03. Milk
04. In Your Cups
05. Songbird
06. Flirted with You All My Life
07. The Jacob Ladder

(Total Set Time: 56 Minutes )

Set 2

01. Apollo
02. Emma’s Pissed
03. American Fork
04. Spy
05. Crime and Punishment
06. Ray of Heaven
07. Wisconsin Death Trip

(Total Set Time: 66:30 Minutes )

Jim Fitting – harmonicas, mandolin and vocals
Sean Staples – mandolin, guitar, banjo, mandocello, field organ and vocals
Jon Bistline – bass, guitar and vocals
Billy Beard – drums, percussion and vocals
Ry Cavanaugh – guitar, mandolin, bass, banjo, field organ and vocals
Dinty Child – guitar, mandocello, mandolin, banjo, accordion, field organ and vocals

guest appearances by:
Merrie Amsterburg – guitar and vocals
Melissa Ferrick – guitar and vocals
Peter Linton – electric guitar
Rose Polenzani – vocals

Once again I had the privilege of capturing the intimate and free-wheeling holiday shows of this six-man musical juggernaut at Club Passim in Cambridge. It’s truly a joy to watch a group of superlative musicians who are so comfortable with their abilities and each other as they perform a dazzling variety of original compositions, folk and country classics, and the odd cover of Prince and Captain Beefheart. This recording represents excerpts from both the 7:00 and 10:00 shows.

Disc 1 - from 7:00 show

1. intro to early show
2. Diving For Gold
3. The Drivin’
4. Raglan Road
5. You’ve Got To See Mama Every Night
6. Lonesome On’ry and Mean
7. Kern River
8. wigs and robes
9. We Three Kings
10. our own tables
11. I Could Never Take the Place Of Your Man
12. Beertown
13. band intros and acknowledgments
14. Ice Cream Man
15. I Can’t Get Out

Disc 2 - from 10:00 show

1. intro to late show
2. Trinity
3. Another Night With the Boys
4. Something Heavy
5. Via Chicago
6. The Shape I’m In
7. Merry Christmas Baby
8. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
9. Santa’s Suit
10. What Are Those Things (Big Black Wings)
11. Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight
12. Nowadays a Woman’s Gotta Hit a Man
13. acknowledgments
14. Born Again
15. The Coalburner

Stream the shows from this link.
FLAC files can be downloaded from this page.
A zipped file of hi-fi mp3s can be downloaded from here.

House mix by Matt Smith
Recorded, mixed and edited by Keith Bergendorff

Milab DC-196 (Blumlein pair in front of stage) > Darktrain Silver cables > Oade Concert R-44 @24/44.1 > cardreader
SBD > Oade Concert PMD-661 @24/44.1 > cardreader > Voxengo r8brain (resampling to sync with R-44)
Mixed and edited with Audition 3.0/Ozone 4 (gain, mics/sbd mixdown, limiting, cuts, fades, MBIT+ dither)

Many thanks to the band and Club Passim for their permission and assistance.

Support the artists and buy Session Americana’s albums!

www.sessionamericana.com