![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captain_philThe trip began sometime around 3 or 4 Saturday Morning, I opted to take the I-77 route so it was across state I went. I stopped off at the Beckley Travel Plaza Starbucks for some much needed coffee, and then headed onward. It was a really uneventful trip other than the beautiful countryside along the way. I stopped at a gas station in Marion, VA for some fuel. When I went in to pay the guy working there had a really cool Ward Burton/Elliot Sadler accent,and that wasn't all he had. Back in the beer cooler was some of the ever so elusive Yuengling. Among a plethora of regional beers. I picked up a 6 pack (it was about 8AM) at the time, and headed on my way. I stopped at a Huddle House for breakfast and made my way on to Asheville. I showed up at the rri a bit before check in time, but they put me in one of the business king rooms for the same price as a regular one, I called ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ratherberidin12 , to see when they would be hittin town, then I napped briefly and went to town to do some sightseeing. The first sight I saw was Ed Boudreaux's Bayou BBQ. I went in for a bit of lunch, and was amazed with their menu and a 4 page beer list. I can't say enough good things about this place. After lunch and a couple of beers, I wandered around town for a bit, where I found The Mast General Store. very high on the coolness scale. After some more sightseeing, I met up with the rest of the crew and we eventually made it to the civic center and found some seats. As for the show. Emuler James Gibson really summed it up to a T.
The Order of things
Standard intro acoustic collaborations (Warren, Kevn Kinney, Audley Freed,
Mickey Raphael, Randall Bramblett, Robert Kearns, etc.)
John Popper Project
Taj Mahal Trio
Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives
N.O. Social Club
Dave Matthews (solo acoustic)
Gov't Mule
-The openers were pretty normal. Warren started with "Million Miles From
Yesterday" which he told us he started writing 10 or 15 years ago but only
finished within the last two years. Randall Bramblett and Mickey Raphael
came out for the next song, followed by all the rest for the third. Was a
little disappointed this was Audley's only showing of the night. Didn't
recognize the 2nd and 3rd tunes they did.
JPP was next. Really didn't like this at all. Only weak point of the
night. The bass parts were redundant, really sounded like JP just playing a
ton of notes over repetitive loops. Got better towards the end when Warren
came out for a tune and then Branford and I believe Danny Louis came out for
another. JP can play and sing, but their songs just weren't very good I
didn't think.
Taj Mahal Trio was really entertaining. The guy is a showman. His first
three tunes were all straight up blues (including "Mississippi Big Butt
Blues") and were the best part of his set. No guests. He played guitar for
all but one or two songs where he played keys. Really great to see a legend
like him and he's full of energy.
Marty Stuart and his band were just phenomenal. A four piece with Kenny
Vaughn on guitar (who was lights out). They played great hyper-billy kinda
stuff and Kenny and Marty just tore it up on their guitars. Marty also
played mandolin on two or three songs including "Where Did You Sleep Last
Night" and a gorgeous gospel tune. Warren and Danny closed out their set
with them on "The Shape I'm In" (traditional The Band arrangement). This
was just incredible. Marty is a truly gifted musician and he's really
entertaining to watch.
New Orleans Social Club really blew the roof off the place. They opened
with Look A Py-Py, played a bunch of other popular tunes like "New Orleans"
and covered "Fortunate Son." On that number, there were three harmonica
players sitting in, John Popper, Mickey Raphael and, yes, Taylor Hicks. All
three were great, Hicks included. TH did annoy me a little bit during the
course of the evening because he seemed to be hamming it up a little too
much (kinda looked like he was trying to steal the show) but his chops are
very good. NOSC was just the funkiest, most fun thing I've ever seen.
Branford Marsalis and Warren also sat in with them. They weren't incredibly
tight at the beginning, but when they hit their stride, they were all
hitting the note perfectly together. Funk, funk, funk, funk funky. Good
grief. George matters, people. And Henry Butler on piano was unreal.
Dave Matthews was really entertaining. Obviously tripping on something, his
stage banter was bizarre but his music was great. I remember opening with
Bartender, then Grace Is Gone and then other tunes including Grave Digger,
Crush Me and a few others. Just him and his guitar.
What happened next was really cool. Dave's entire set was him alone
standing in front of the full Mule setup. After his last song alone, he
called out Warren and Mickey Raphael to do Long Black Veil which was great.
Then Mickey walked off and Warren strapped on his electric instead of the
acoustic. The two did a little jamming and as they did, the rest of Mule
came out and they ripped into the most powerful Cortez the Killer I've ever
heard. Just raunchy. So intense. I told my buddy that it was the heaviest
I've ever heard the Mule sound post-Woody. A jazzy Watchtower with Dave and
Branford was really good. A few weak points of their setlists, I'm not a
huge fan of Reggae Soulshine or Unring the Bell (I think that outro jam is
wayyyyy too long) and I didn't care for Brendan Bayliss' playing on Sco-Mule
(way too many Yngwie Malmsteen/Eddie Van Halen licks) but the rest of the
Mule set was, as per the setlist, top-notch. Mule with sax was freaking
awesome and the two song encore was just great.
Another year, another jam, another great time had by all. To me one of the highlights was "Cortez The Killer". Andy, Matt, and Danny appeared out of nowhere it seemed. Oh and the surprise appearance bysummerlady's man Taylor Hicks. I started dozing off during "Unring the Bell", which is now my least favorite Mule song (I'm not a fan of reggae). So I walked around a bit before deciding to walk back to the parking lot and head back to the hotel. I slept a few hours, showered, and checked out, stopping at a nearby Cracker Barrel for breakfast and hit the road. I took rt 23 back home which was indeed a much better route. Not as much traffic, and about 45 minutes shorter drive time. I made note of that for next time, and as a very common quote goes... There will be a next time.
I'll post pics as soon as I get them off of the phone.
oh andratherberidin12, The show will be up for download over the next couple of days. One of the tapers posted to emule asking how people would prefer the show to be broken up.
ratherberidin12 , to see when they would be hittin town, then I napped briefly and went to town to do some sightseeing. The first sight I saw was Ed Boudreaux's Bayou BBQ. I went in for a bit of lunch, and was amazed with their menu and a 4 page beer list. I can't say enough good things about this place. After lunch and a couple of beers, I wandered around town for a bit, where I found The Mast General Store. very high on the coolness scale. After some more sightseeing, I met up with the rest of the crew and we eventually made it to the civic center and found some seats. As for the show. Emuler James Gibson really summed it up to a T. The Order of things
Standard intro acoustic collaborations (Warren, Kevn Kinney, Audley Freed,
Mickey Raphael, Randall Bramblett, Robert Kearns, etc.)
John Popper Project
Taj Mahal Trio
Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives
N.O. Social Club
Dave Matthews (solo acoustic)
Gov't Mule
-The openers were pretty normal. Warren started with "Million Miles From
Yesterday" which he told us he started writing 10 or 15 years ago but only
finished within the last two years. Randall Bramblett and Mickey Raphael
came out for the next song, followed by all the rest for the third. Was a
little disappointed this was Audley's only showing of the night. Didn't
recognize the 2nd and 3rd tunes they did.
JPP was next. Really didn't like this at all. Only weak point of the
night. The bass parts were redundant, really sounded like JP just playing a
ton of notes over repetitive loops. Got better towards the end when Warren
came out for a tune and then Branford and I believe Danny Louis came out for
another. JP can play and sing, but their songs just weren't very good I
didn't think.
Taj Mahal Trio was really entertaining. The guy is a showman. His first
three tunes were all straight up blues (including "Mississippi Big Butt
Blues") and were the best part of his set. No guests. He played guitar for
all but one or two songs where he played keys. Really great to see a legend
like him and he's full of energy.
Marty Stuart and his band were just phenomenal. A four piece with Kenny
Vaughn on guitar (who was lights out). They played great hyper-billy kinda
stuff and Kenny and Marty just tore it up on their guitars. Marty also
played mandolin on two or three songs including "Where Did You Sleep Last
Night" and a gorgeous gospel tune. Warren and Danny closed out their set
with them on "The Shape I'm In" (traditional The Band arrangement). This
was just incredible. Marty is a truly gifted musician and he's really
entertaining to watch.
New Orleans Social Club really blew the roof off the place. They opened
with Look A Py-Py, played a bunch of other popular tunes like "New Orleans"
and covered "Fortunate Son." On that number, there were three harmonica
players sitting in, John Popper, Mickey Raphael and, yes, Taylor Hicks. All
three were great, Hicks included. TH did annoy me a little bit during the
course of the evening because he seemed to be hamming it up a little too
much (kinda looked like he was trying to steal the show) but his chops are
very good. NOSC was just the funkiest, most fun thing I've ever seen.
Branford Marsalis and Warren also sat in with them. They weren't incredibly
tight at the beginning, but when they hit their stride, they were all
hitting the note perfectly together. Funk, funk, funk, funk funky. Good
grief. George matters, people. And Henry Butler on piano was unreal.
Dave Matthews was really entertaining. Obviously tripping on something, his
stage banter was bizarre but his music was great. I remember opening with
Bartender, then Grace Is Gone and then other tunes including Grave Digger,
Crush Me and a few others. Just him and his guitar.
What happened next was really cool. Dave's entire set was him alone
standing in front of the full Mule setup. After his last song alone, he
called out Warren and Mickey Raphael to do Long Black Veil which was great.
Then Mickey walked off and Warren strapped on his electric instead of the
acoustic. The two did a little jamming and as they did, the rest of Mule
came out and they ripped into the most powerful Cortez the Killer I've ever
heard. Just raunchy. So intense. I told my buddy that it was the heaviest
I've ever heard the Mule sound post-Woody. A jazzy Watchtower with Dave and
Branford was really good. A few weak points of their setlists, I'm not a
huge fan of Reggae Soulshine or Unring the Bell (I think that outro jam is
wayyyyy too long) and I didn't care for Brendan Bayliss' playing on Sco-Mule
(way too many Yngwie Malmsteen/Eddie Van Halen licks) but the rest of the
Mule set was, as per the setlist, top-notch. Mule with sax was freaking
awesome and the two song encore was just great.
Another year, another jam, another great time had by all. To me one of the highlights was "Cortez The Killer". Andy, Matt, and Danny appeared out of nowhere it seemed. Oh and the surprise appearance by
summerlady's man Taylor Hicks. I started dozing off during "Unring the Bell", which is now my least favorite Mule song (I'm not a fan of reggae). So I walked around a bit before deciding to walk back to the parking lot and head back to the hotel. I slept a few hours, showered, and checked out, stopping at a nearby Cracker Barrel for breakfast and hit the road. I took rt 23 back home which was indeed a much better route. Not as much traffic, and about 45 minutes shorter drive time. I made note of that for next time, and as a very common quote goes... There will be a next time.I'll post pics as soon as I get them off of the phone.
oh and
ratherberidin12, The show will be up for download over the next couple of days. One of the tapers posted to emule asking how people would prefer the show to be broken up.
