By almost any metric, 2009 was a bumper crop for great new music. With bands increasingly bypassing the record industry entirely and releasing albums, singles, live sets, and more themselves via download, there was almost too much fascinating, worthwhile music on offer this year. Still, better an embarrassment of riches than a thin harvest, eh? While the mainstream continued its seemingly inexorable tide towards machine-like homogenization – notwithstanding a Lady Gaga or Lil’ Wayne adding somewhat unorthodox wrinkles – musicians got down to making a lot of very personal, very beautifully constructed, downright fabulous music. And while the general belief that most artists will earn the bulk of their monies in concert from here on out is probably true, that doesn’t diminish the rise in quality we’re hearing in recent studio work.

Advances and price cuts in software and hardware are bringing expensive studio technology into bedrooms, garages and tiny private studios in ways totally impossible to imagine only a few years ago. Nothing will ever replace the warm hum of analog tape for some folks, but the tools and, perhaps more importantly, the means of distribution are becoming increasingly democratized. Brian Wilson’s “teenage symphonies to God” are being composed and sent into the world outside the parameters and red tape of an increasingly confused industry. And these same artists are hitting the road to present their unique, non-commercial wares (as “commercial” is defined by modern tastemakers like MTV, Rolling Stone, et al.) to anyone who will listen, building fan bases through social networking, word of mouth and an engaged blogosphere anxious to discover honest, unfamiliar music. There’s a healthy sense of creative boil that happily recalls rock ‘n’ roll’s initial 1950s boom, where hit singles were forged in record shop recording booths and local sensations found national and even international acclaim on the wings of a single release.

It’s too early to say where music making is going in the near future, but it’s clear that there’s a massive shakeup underway. Musicians need to figure out how to make this new freedom pay, and audiences that genuinely care about the people making the music they love will need to stop stealing it and pony up enough to ensure the continued bloom of this musical renaissance. Now is the time to support local talent and independent neighborhood venues, and drop a few coins into your fave band’s PayPal account. As the massively successful tours of still-vital giants like Bruce Springsteen, U2 and AC/DC, or the smaller scale rises of original new voices like Fleet Foxes, The Low Anthem and Of Montreal, indicate, people are listening now more than ever, ready for music that will enlighten and delight them.

-Dennis Cook

Patterson Hood – Drive-By Truckers

Albums

Patterson Hood

1. Bloodkin – Baby They Told Us We Would Rise Again
On the surface, no frills, meat and potatoes rock (and damn proud of it) but a closer listen reveals the finest songwriting all year as this 24-year-old band sings the horrifying tale of their trip back from the abyss and sees it through to a joyous life-affirming conclusion. It’s like that Leaving Las Vegas movie with a happy ending – unbelievable if weren’t true. Such well-treaded territory would suck if not for the magnificence of its execution. “Wild Rhododendrons” is the finest songwriting I’ve seen all year, and “The Viper” and “Heavy With Child” are just as good. Meanwhile “Easter Eggs” is the best song of man love I’ve ever heard (including “Bobby Jean” and “Angie”).

2. Bob Dylan – Together Through Life
3. Iron And Wine – Around The Well
4. PJ Harvey and John Parish – A Woman A Man Walked By
5. Girls – Album
6. M. Ward – Hold Time
7. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
8. The Dexateens – Singlewide
9. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
10. The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
I just recently caught up with 9 and 10 and they could well move up in coming months. I’m sure there’s several albums lurking out there that I will love just as much that I haven’t found yet. I’m always looking and listening so I’m sure the list will change up until next year’s.

-Best Reissue(s): The Jesus Lizard Reissues
-Favorite Song: “Wild Rhododendrons” (Bloodkin)
-Favorite Tracks: “Black Hearted Love” (PJ Harvey and John Parish) / “Belated Promise Ring” (Iron and Wine)
-Favorite Live Performance: Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings / Iron and Wine at No Depression Festival in Seattle this summer
-Movies I’ve Loved: Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up, A Serious Man, Where The Wild Things Are, Let The Right One In, Inglourious Basterds

Dave Schools – Widespread Panic, Stockholm Syndrome

Dave Schools

Albums

1. Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid

2. Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years

3. Polvo – In Prism

4. Numero Group (Reissue by Various Artists) – Light: On The South Side (2 LP + Book)

Shows

1. Jeff Beck – 04/23/09 – Fox Theater Oakland, CA

2. All Tomorrow’s Parties Nightmare Before Christmas – 12/04-12/06 – Butlins Holiday Centre Minehead, GB

-Curated by My Bloody Valentine. Standout sets include: Sun Ra Arkestra, Sonic Youth, Witch, My Bloody Valentine

3. Dinosaur Jr. – 11/05/09 – House of Blues West Hollywood, CA

Honorable Mention:

Dead Confederate & Meat Puppets – 09/20/09 – Hopmonk Tavern Sebastopol, CA

David Murphy – Sound Tribe Sector 9

David Murphy

Albums
1. Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream
2. Big Gigantic – Wake Up
2. STS9 – Peaceblaster : Make it Right Remixes

Shows
1. Ghostland Observatory | Ogden Theatre | Denver, CO
2. Grizzly Bear | Emo’s | Austin City Limits Festival | Austin, TX
3. Depeche Mode | Red Rocks Amphitheatre | Morrison, CO

Kyle Hollingsworth – SCI

Kyle Hollingsworth

Albums
1. Fiery Furnaces – Take Me Around Again
2. Gregory Alan Isakov – This Empty Northern Hemisphere

I enjoyed the This Is It compilation, but honestly, I have been overwhelmed by kid’s CDs like Ralph’s World and the kid’s Putumayo sessions.

Shows
1. David Byrne | Performing Arts Center | Denver, CO
2. Flight of the Conchords | Red Rocks | Morrison, CO
3. Rothbury weekend

Petter Ericson Stakee – Alberta Cross

Albums

Petter Ericson Stakee

1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
2. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

3. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm

4. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns
5. The Beatles – White Album (remastered) – I know this is cheating, but the job they did on all the remasters is stunningly beautiful and breathes new air especially through this classic.

Shows

1. Neil Young at Hyde Park, London

2. Blur at Hyde Park, London

3. Bonnaroo – especially Wilco’s set… truly inspiring.

Jon Gutwillig – The Disco Biscuits

Albums

Jon Gutwillig

Anything Joker put out in 2009. He’s making really awesome dubstep. He had a lot of remixes in 2009, as well as official releases, so I guess he gets all of my top spots for the year.

Shows
I played 100 concerts. Starkey at Camp Bisco (the namesake festival we founded and curate) was really cool. When Phish did the dedication at Hampton to Fishman’s dad and Marc (Brownstein, Disco Biscuits bassist) was sitting next to him that was pretty funny. Charlie P & M80 Dubstation (my dubstep project) jamming samples together in ATL was sickness! Benga on the world beat tip in Philly was ragin’.

Aron Magner – The Disco Biscuits

People To Watch In 2010

Electronic music has mostly in the past been about the party or setting the mood. As technology has improved there are many artists redefining the changing landscape of electronic genres.

There’s a new movement of young artists with equal parts musician, DJ, sound sculpture and producer that are re-shaping electronic music and how it is performed. I was blown away last week when I saw Alex B whack down the house for an official Disco Biscuits after party. This young lion has masterful control of his software that enable all of his original and banging tracks constant manipulation for live, almost improvised, computer performance.

Aron Magner

Also out of Colorado is the young Derek Smith (aka Pretty Lights). Derek took the changing climate of the music industry and used it to his direct advantage. In an new era where music fans feel more entitled to receive their music without paying for it, Derek said, ‘That’s cool, then here it is,” and released Filling Up The City Skies for free on his website, instantly catapulting his career to a new level and gaining multitudes of fans around the country almost overnight. The music speaks for itself. Deep electronic grooves with attention grabbing glitch and ear candy all with a type of soul not normally conveyed in dance music.

Eliot Lipp frequently runs in this same circle and performs with Alex B in the project Lipp Service. His 2009 release, Peace Love Weed 3D, almost feels retro-electro yet still pushed the boundaries of computer manipulation. His use of analog synth melodies lends a warm and engaging quality to his tunes. His songs evolve and have a story to tell from beginning to end.

Daedelus is more of an experimental musician frequently on bills with the artists above. He is unique as his main “instrument” is a rather insidious device know as a Monome. He is one of the pioneers of the Monome, which is nothing more than a matrix grid of unlabeled small buttons. They are all exclusively user programmable through very esoteric software enabling the end user to manipulate the parts of the tracks in a very unique way. He is the Clara Rockmore of this almost cryptic device.

And then there is Simon Posford, a revered producer and artist and pioneer in the electronic music world. He is also a very highly respected mentor of mine that I finally got to work with for the five tracks that he produced on our forthcoming album, Planet Anthem. Simon has a special ability to take an organic sound, be it a vocal or an acoustic guitar, and tweak it in such a loving way that it maintains the original feel that emanated from a human yet somehow still evolves into digital code. A delicate balance of real and surreal all masterfully placed over global beats with soundscapes that percolate your ears as if they were brain candy, all while providing for an incredible melodic and harmonic song structure. Check out one his projects, Shpongle‘s Tales of the Inexpressible and you’ll see what I mean.

Marco Benevento – Duo, Garage A Trois

Marco Benevento

Albums
1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
2. Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse – Dark Night of the Soul
3. Wilco – Wilco The Album
4. Nathan Moore – Folk Singer
5. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Shows
1. Medeski, Martin & Wood | December 2009 | Lupo’s | Providence, RI (Dec)
Billy, Billy, Billy – what an amazing drum solo

2. Marco Benevento Trio | June 2009 | Carnegie Hall | New York, NY
3. The Slip | August 2009 | Bowery Ballroom | New York, NY

Derek Vincent Smith – Pretty Lights

Derek Vincent Smith/PL

Albums
1. Jay Z – Blueprint 3
2. Gramatik – Street Bangers (Vol. 2)
3. Passion Pit – Manners
4. Blockhead – The Music Scene
5. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Shows
1. Justice | Ogden Theatre
2. Bonobo | Ogden Theatre
3. Phoenix | Bonnaroo

Bradford Cox – Deerhunter

Deerhunter

Albums

1. Privacy – Songs

2. Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy

3. Animal Collective – Fall be Kind EP

4. St. Vincent – Actor

5. The Breeders – Fate to Fatal EP

Shows

1. The Breeders at ATP Minehead

2. St. Vincent in Atlanta

3. Animal Collective at ATP NY

Reed Mathis – Tea Leaf Green, Papa Mali

Albums
1. JFJO – Winterwood
My last record with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is also my favorite. Brian, Raymer and I did basic tracks in March 2008, and I finished the mixes in January 2009. It was put up as a free download on www.JFJO.com, but I’m still hoping to press physical copies with awesome artwork and stuff. We’ll see. A gorgeous album, 15 years in the making!

2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
I definitely gave this one repeated listens. Amazing production. I like the song “Foreground.”

Mathis by Miller

3. Dorian Small – Newlyweds
Possibly my favorite musician out there.

4. Surprise Me Mr. Davis – ?????
Not sure if they even titled or released this, but it’s streaming on their website, and it’s absolutely crushing! Nathan Moore with the Slip – it truly just does not get any better. Thank the lord for Mr. Davis.

5. Medeski Martin & Wood – Radiolarian III
These guys played everything there was to be played, all before the year 2000, and they’ve been through the looking-glass ever since. The Radiolarian Series is their freakiest and most human stuff in a long time, much to my liking. They continue to sum up what I love about improvising.

Shows
1. Phish | 08.02.09 | Red Rocks Amphitheatre | Morrison, CO
My first Phish show, and my first Red Rocks show – quite an eye-opener. Watched the second set from side-stage, looking out at the sea of delighted humans. Kept thinking, “Hmmm…. not a bad band!”

2. Ornette Coleman | 11.08.09 | San Francisco Opera House | S.F., CA
My first Ornette show, one of my all-time heroes. Went with a very old friend. Ornette’s band was him, plus drums, and TWO basses. Yes, please!

3. Medeski Martin & Wood | 12.04.09 | Lupo’s | Providence, RI
My 20th MMW show. Watched from side-stage, then from the rigging up above the stage. I love getting music lessons! What benevolent musicians they are. Freaking cosmic virtuosos.

Olly Peacock – Gomez

Gomez

Albums
1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
2. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
3. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Up From Below
4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
5. Slaraffenland – We’re On Your Side

Shows
1. Andrew Bird | Radio City Hall | New York, NY
2. Frightened Rabbit | Whitehaven, U.K.
3. Fink | Belfast, Northern Ireland

Jake Cinninger

Jake Cinninger – Umphrey’s McGee

Albums
1. Mastodon – Crack the Skye
2. Slayer – World Painted Blood
3. Job for a Cowboy – Ruination
4. Robben Ford – Soul on Ten

Shows
1. Ugly Suit | St Louis, MO
2. Buddy Guy | Telluride, CO
3. Lamont Cranston Band | Minneapolis, MN

Ryan Stasik by Vann

Ryan Stasik – Umphrey’s McGee

Shows
1. Hall and Oates | Irving Plaza | New York, NY
2. Made in Iron | Burlington, VT
3. Marsha Stasik | Stand-up Comedy | Kalamazoo, MI

Brendan Bayliss – Umphrey’s McGee

Brendan Bayliss

Albums
1. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
2. Modest Mouse – No One’s First and You’re Next
3. The Beatles – Remastered catalog

Shows
1. Snoop Dogg | Lollapalooza
2. Paul McCartney | Shea Stadium
3. Lisa Lampanelli | Chicago, IL

Joel Cummins – Umphrey’s McGee

Cummins by Gordon

Albums
1. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night
2. Passion Pit – Manners
3. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
4. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
5. Pretty Lights – Passing by Behind Your Eyes

Shows
1. Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt | Ravinia | Chicago, IL
2. Andrew Bird | Schubas | Chicago, IL
3. Passion Pit | Treasure Island Festival | San Francisco, CA

Andy Farag – Umphrey’s McGee

Farag by Gordon

Albums
1. Jay Z – The Blueprint 3
2. J Dilla – Just Stay Paid
3. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night
4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Shows
1. Tool | Lollapalooza
2. Foreign Exchange | Chicago, IL

Keller Williams

Albums
1. Danny Barnes – Pizza Box
2. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
3. Zach Deputy – Sunshine
4. Power up the Planet

Keller Williams

A compilation of cool music with the proceeds going to providing solar power for folks with nothing. Great cause and the mix of songs is bitchin’.
5. The Pimps of Joytime – Funk Fixes and Remixes

Shows
1.Umphrey’s McGee | Summer Camp – Felix Pastorius and Les Claypool sit-ins. Massive fire works customized to the music.
2. Girl Talk | Rothbury – Late night show mentality
3. String Cheese Incident | Rothbury – Epic production.

Art Neville – Funky Meters, The Neville Brothers

Art Neville by Smith

Albums
1. BlakRoc – BlakRoc
2. Dr. John – City That Care Forgot
3. Cyril Neville – Brand New Blues
4. Mos Def – The Ecstatic
5. Paramore – Brand New Eyes

Shows
1. Dumpstaphunk | Tipitina’s | Jazzfest | New Orleans, LA
2. The Neville Brothers | Mawazine Jazzfest | Rabat, Morocco
3. Funky METERS | Fuji Rock Festival

Jason Isbell – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Jason Isbell

Albums
1. The Beatles – Remasters (Duh!)
2. Them Crooked Vultures – self-titled
3. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies
4. The Ting Tings – We Started Nothing
5. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

Shows
1. Wilco | Sloss Furnace | Birmingham, AL

2. Earl Greyhound | Turf Club | St. Paul, MN (with us)
3. The Mother Hips | The Doug Fir | Portland, OR (with us)

Jerry Joseph – Jackmormons, Stockholm Syndrome

Jerry Joseph

Albums

1. Richmond Fontaine – We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River

2. Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3

3. The Swell Season – Strict Joy (my wife made me put this… but she’s right)

4. The Mother Hips – Pacific Dust

5. The Revelations Featuring Tre Williams – The Bleeding Edge

6. Keith Jarret – The Koln Concert

Shows

As for shows, I live in NYC and never see anything… except:
1. The choir at St. Josephs on 125th

2. Thievery Corporation in Denver

Andrew Barr – The Slip, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, Land Of Talk

Andrew Barr

Albums

1. Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

2. Tuneyards – Bird-Brains

3. Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights

4. Nathan Moore – Folksinger

5. Mos Def – The Ecstatic

Favorite shows I played:

1. Carnegie Hall w/ The Marco Benevento Trio

2. FME music festival in Abitibi Quebec with Brad Barr

3. Montreal Music Festival in Ghent Belgium with Land Of Talk

George Porter Jr. – The Funky Meters

George Porter Jr.

Albums
1. John Scofield – Piety Street
2. Water Seed – Early for The Future
3. Diane Birch – Bible Belt
4. Alec Ounsworth – Mo Beauty
5. Jack Brass Band – self-titled

Shows Played
1. The Meter Men | New Orleans Jazz Fest
2. The Funky Meters | Tokyo

3. Runnin’ Pardners | 08.08.09 | Red Rocks Amphitheatre
4. Porter Batiste Stoltz | 10.30.09 | Tipitina’s French Quarter | New Orleans, LA (the band’s last gig as a band)

Joe Russo – Duo, Furthur, Gene Ween Band, Bustle in Your Hedgerow

Joe Russo

Albums (in no order)

1. Cass McCombs – Catacombs

2. Patton Oswalt – My Weakness Is Strong

3. Matt Trowbridge – Radio Soap Star Opera

4. Bob Dylan Christmas In The Heart

5. Sean Bones – Rings

Shows I Saw

1. Monte Good and The Honky-Tonk Heroes | 3/24/09 | Robert’s Western World | Nashville, TN

2. Dr. Dog | 6/27/09 | Prospect Park Band Shell | Brooklyn, NY

3. KISS | 10/10/09 | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY

Shows I Played

1. The Gene Ween Band | 3/22/09 | The Earl | Atlanta, GA

2. Benevento-Russo Duo (Acoustic) | 8/17/09 | Highline Ballroom | New York, NY

3. Furthur | 12/12/09 | Asbury Park Convention Hall | Asbury Park, NJ

Stanton Moore – Galactic, Garage A Trois, Dragon Smoke

Stanton Moore

I’ve been so busy this year I haven’t really gotten a chance to peep out anything outside of what I’ve been involved with. Here are my top picks for albums I appeared on in 2009.

1. Stanton Moore – Take It To The Streets (digital download)
2. Street Sweeper Social Club – self-titled
3. Diane Birch – Bible Belt
4. Alec Ounsworth – Mo Beauty
5. Garage A Trois – Power Patriot

Top Picks For Shows I Played in 2009
1. Galactic | The Fillmore | San Francisco, CA (with special guest Zigaboo Modeliste, drummer for The Meters)

2. Anders Osborne | Jazz Fest | New Orleans, LA
Introduced new band with myself, Robert Walter and Anders. We rehearsed all week at my house before the gig and are now finishing up a record with that new lineup.

3. Garage A Trois | DBA | New Orleans, LA
Power Patriot record release and Skerik’s birthday.

Skerik – Garage A Trois, Dead Kenny Gs

Albums

Skerik

1. Sunn O))) – Monoliths and Dimensions
2. Future of the Left – (most of) Travels with myself and another
3. Lightning Bolt – Earthly Delights
4. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Honorable Mention: McTuff – Volume 1, Dead Kenny Gs – Bewildered Herd, Garage A Trois – Power Patriot

Shows
1. Wayne Shorter Quartet | Zellerbach Hall | Berkeley, CA
Incredible, life making, spiritual event

2. Sunn O))) | Neumo’s | Seattle, WA
Attila incantations: unparalleled.

3. Sunn O))) Duo | Vienna and Prague
Simply the heaviest thing on earth.

Mike Dillon – Go-Go Jungle, Les Claypool, Garage A Trois

Albums

Mike Dillon

1. Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures
2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
3. Aceyalone – The Lonely Ones
4. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
5. Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics – Inspiration Information 3

Shows
1. Wayne Shorter Quartet | October 2009 | Zellerbach Hall | Berkeley, CA
2. The Secret Chiefs 3 | They killed everyone the Oddity Faire Tour
3. Aloke Dutta (solo tabla) | July 2009 | Blue Nile | New Orleans, LA

My Best Shows

1. Mike Dillon’s Go-Go Jungle | May 2009 | Dragons Den (late night) – Jazz Fest | New Orleans
2. Garage a Trois | December 2009 | The Independent | San Francisco, CA
3. Dead Kenny Gs | Jazz Fest ’09 | Megalmaniacs Ball | New Orleans, LA
4. Illuminasti Trio with Brian Coogan | Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro | New Orleans, LA

Eric McFadden

Eric McFadden Trio

Albums

1. Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures

2. The Dead Weather – Horehound

3. Spinnerette – Baptized by Fire

4. Vic Chesnutt – At the Cut

5. Sam Baker – Cotton
6. Tom Waits – Glitter and Doom

7. PJ Harvey and John Parish – A Woman A Man Walked By

Shows

1. Paul McCartney, Mastodon, Leonard Cohen, The Cure, X, Public Enemy – Coachella – April 2009

I was really impressed and amazed at all of these performances. Rarely have I seen so many sets of such high caliber at one festival… and this wasn’t even the extent of it. I should really just list this as “Coachella 2009.”

2. The Melvins – Grand Regency – San Francisco

3. Nels Cline Singers – Cafe DuNord, San Francisco, CA – September 3, 2009

4. Them Crooked Vultures – Fox Theater – Oakland, CA – November 2009

How can you go wrong with this lineup? Well, I guess they could if they tried… but they didn’t. Rock is alive.

5. Gov’t Mule – Apollo Theater – Barcelona, Spain – November 15, 2009

Best Mule show I’ve seen in a while, possibly ever. I even got to join them for a couple numbers.

6. The Pogues – Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA

Zack Smith – Rotary Downs

Albums

Zack Smith

1. Scrambler Sequill – Secret Passageways

2. Mastodon – Crack the Skye

3. Caddywhompus – EP

4. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

5. Big Rock Candy Mountain – Hey Kid

Shows

1. Rotary Downs | Halloween – October 31 | DBA, New Orleans, LA

Cmon, it was the best show of the year… glow in the dark, smoke machines n shit…cmon!

2. BROOKLYNOLA – Generationals, w/ the BKLNOLA All Stars | May 8 | Public Assembly, Brooklyn, NY

Simon Lott, Mike Gamble, Marc Friedman, Tony Barba, Bryce Wymer, Mitch Paone

3. Not So Super Super Hero Party 7 | February 21 | Hi Ho Lounge, New Orleans, LA
Featuring Brian Coogan/Simon Lott/Mike Gamble/Anthony Cuccia/Justin Peak

Cody Dickinson – North Mississippi Allstars, Hill Country Revue

Cody Dickinson

Albums

1. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You

2. Lucero – 1372 Overton Park

3. The Dead Weather – Horehound

4. Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns

5. MGMT – Congratulations

6. Paramore – Brand New Eyes

Shows

1. Dave Matthews Band (w/ Hill Country Revue) for 2 nights July 31 and August 1 at the Verizon Wireless Center in Noblesville, IN

2. Snoop Dogg at Bonnaroo

3. Hill Country Revue with 8 Ball & MJG on Halloween night at the Hi Tone in Memphis, TN

Todd Snider

Todd Snider

Albums (no particular order)

1. Robert Earl Keen – Rose Hotel

2. Phish – Joy

3. Robyn Hitchcock – Good Night Oslo

4. Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ – Great American Bubble Factory

5. Tim Carrol – All Kinds of Pain

Shows (no particular order)
1. Les Claypool | All Good Festival
2. Robert Earl Keen | Bonnaroo Music Festival
3. Great American Taxi | Telluride Bluegrass Festival

Ethan Miller – Howlin Rain

Ethan Miller

Albums
1. Omar Souleyman – Highway to Hassake

2. White Denim – Fits

3. Master Musicians of Bukkake – Totem One

4. Extra Golden – Thank you very Quickly

5. Pissed Jeans – King of Jeans

Steve Molitz – Particle, Phil Lesh & Friends, Playing for Change

Steve Molitz

Albums (no particular order)
1. Greg Giraldo – Midlife Vices
2. Paul F. Tompkins – Freak Wharf
3. Patton Oswalt – My Weakness Is Strong
4. Doug Stanhope – From Across The Street
5. Flight Of The Conchords – I Told You I Was Freaky

Shows
1. Jamie Cullum | 07.17.09 | Juan Les Pin | Antibes, France
2. Playing For Change with Special Guests Ziggy Marley & Toots Hibbert | 11.13.09 | Nokia Live | Los Angeles, CA
3. David Byrne | 06.12.09 | Bonnaroo Music Festival | Manchester, TN

Steve Gorman – The Black Crowes

Gorman by Weiand

Shows
1. The Zombies | Azkena Festival | Spain
2. Bleu | 3rd and Lindley | Nashville, TN
3. AC/DC | Sommet Center | Nashville, TN

Scott McMicken – Dr. Dog

This year feels like any year ever! Such beauty.

Albums
1. Floating Action – self-titled
2. Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid

McMicken by Grayson

3. Elvis Perkins In Dearland – self-titled
4. M. Ward – Hold Time
5. Pepi Ginsberg – East Is East
6. Alec Ounsworth – Mo’ Beauty

Shows
The Zombies | Azkena Festival | Spain

Man, as I start thinkin’ about it, I realize that the quality of any given show I see has so much to do with my willingness to experience the beauty of that particular moment. I’ve seen great shows I missed and I’ve missed great shows I’ve seen. My nephew jammed the toy room to tears!

Peter Moren – Peter Bjorn and John

Albums

Peter Bjorn and John

1. El Perro Del Mar – Love Is Not Pop
2. Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want
3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
4. Existensminimum – OK Boys
5. Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – self-titled
6. Girls – Album
7. Brothers Of End – The End
8. Anna Järvinen – Man Var Bland Molnen
9. Where The Action Is – LA Nuggets
10. Cass McCombs – Catacombs

Shows
1. Dinosaur Jr. | SXSW
2. Neil Young | Stockholm
3. El Perro Del Mar opening for us every night this fall tour

Harley Prechtel-Cortez – Red Cortez

Albums

Harley Prechtel-Cortez by Law

1. The Antler’s – Hospice

2. Various Artists – Legends of Benin

3. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

4. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

5. Leonard Cohen – Live at the Isle of Wight 1970

Shows

1. BLK JKS at SXSW – March 18 – The Paradise – Austin, TX

On par with South by Southwest chaos we lugged all our equipment from one block to another to make a show in haste and when we got there the BLK JKS were playing before us and it was absolutely captivating. It stopped us in our tracks and made us forget where we were – which is hard to do in those few fragmented days in March in Austin, TX.

2. Opening for Morrissey at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburg, PA – Saint Patrick’s Day 2009
The first Carnegie Hall ever built I believe and when we peeked inside it was like playing an old Opera Vaudeville place that was just majestic. Made us feel like we were teleported into another time. During soundcheck you see Morrissey on side stage watching us sing our songs of change and revolt, out of key and dissonant. Saint Patrick’s Day opening for Morrissey in that building was quite surreal.

3. Tallest Man on Earth – April 1 – Pabst Theater – Milwaukee, WI

I went through a rough time this year, a lot of personal and family sadness that eventually released the inner hibernating beast whilst simultaneously tricking the spirit inside the confines of my detuned heart. We did a lot of tour hopping in the spring all around the country – once we started traveling with Kristian (TMOE) I felt it serendipitous that I could watch him every night and vicariously live in each song. When he performs it is one of the most genuine things I’ve seen. I needed that right then and there.

Brian Venable – Lucero

Albums

Lucero

1. Skeletonwitch – Breathe The Fire
2. Baroness – Blue Album
3. Kylesa – Static Tensions
4. Black Tusk/ASG split CD
5. Coliseum – “True Quiet/Last Wave” 7-inch

Shows
1. Southern Discomfort Tour with Black Tusk, Kylesa and Skeletonwitch
2. Bison when they toured with Tombes and Kylesa
3. Backstage at Mastodon in Detroit!

Larry Herweg – Pelican

Albums

Pelican

1. Isis – Wavering Radiant
2. The Life and Times – Tragic Boogie
3. Satyricon – The Age of Nero
4. Converge – Axe to Fall
5. Jawbox – For Your Own Special Sweetheart reissue

Shows
1. Nine Inch Nails | Henry Fonda | Los Angeles, CA
2. Jesus Lizard | Metro | Chicago, IL
3. Sunny Day Real Estate | House of Blues | Anaheim, CA

Metric

Albums

Metric

1. Fever Ray – self-titled
2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
3. Bear in Heaven – Beast Rest Forth Mouth
4. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
5. Girls – Album

Shows
1. Them Crooked Vultures | Reading
2. Dirty Projectors | Brooklyn Pool Party
3. MGMT | Rock en Seine | Paris

Jeff Miller – New Monsoon, The Contribution

Albums

Jeff Miller

1. The Mother Hips – Pacific Dust
2. Levon Helm – Electric Dirt
3. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
4. Radiohead – In Rainbows
5. Railroad Earth – Amen Corner

Shows
1. Railroad Earth | The Fillmore | San Francisco, CA
2. The Mother Hips | 19 Broadway | Fairfax, CA
3. Mark Karan | Sausalito, CA

Zac Lasher – U-Melt

For me, 2009 was not so much about new music as it was about hearing some legends at a new peak of their career, with that in mind I submit to you my picks.

Albums
1. The Beatles – Abbey Road (remastered)

U-Melt

2. The Beatles – Revolver (remastered)
3. The Beatles – Rubber Soul (remastered)
4. The Beatles – White Album (remastered)
5. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (remastered)

It’s hard to compete with the best. The remasters sound absolutely amazing, and I for one was very happy to have a little bit of Beatlemania in my life in 2009.

Shows
1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band | 09.30.09 | Giants Stadium | East Rutherford, NJ

For night one of his five-night run to close the old stadium, Bruce opened with a brand new, never before played song appropriately titled “Wrecking Ball.” Over the course of the 3+ hour show they went through the Born To Run album in its entirety, which was one of the best things I’ve ever seen on a stage.

2. David Byrne | 06.08.09 | Prospect Park | Brooklyn, NY

David has a unique brand of genius, and when he teams up with Brian Eno, the results are unbeatable. The show focused on the many musical collaborations the two men have had over the years, and featured a lot of great old school Talking Heads songs. With the entire band (and three dancers) dressed all in white, Mr. Byrne’s artistic mind shone through in a wonderful way.

3. Steve Winwood | 01.16.09 | United Palace Theater | New York, NY

Every time I see Steve play he blows my mind. The amount of soul that he exudes when he sings, not to mention the fact that he doesn’t need a bass player as he is one of the greatest organists around. This night in January had Steve in top form.

Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller

Albums
1. Conor Oberst – Outer South
2. Mason Jennings – Blood Of Man
3. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
4. Mastodon – Crack The Skye
5. Pearl Jam – Ten (remixed)
6. Them Crooked Vultures – self-titled

Continue reading for more Best of 2009 Artist List…

Dan Lebowitz – ALO

Albums (in no particular order)

Dan Lebowitz

1. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

One day I was really craving some new music so asked one of my friends for an artist to type into Pandora. He said Phoenix. I loved the track that came up. Instead of listening to the Pandora station, I bought their new album and have been listening to it since. Fresh music found.

2. Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream

As Barack Obama said… “I may be the President, but this guy’s the Boss.” Sometimes the production can be thick, but these songs are genuine. The last song on the album entitled “The Wrestler” is one of my favorite songs of his whole career.

3. Brandi Carlile – Give Up the Ghost

One of my favorite new artists and in my opinion, one of the best female singers around today. Great songs, great tones, and a great band.

4. The Mother Hips – Pacific Dust

I’m thankful for every album these guys have released and this new album is no exception. These guys never cease to amaze me.

5. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin

I caught the last couple of songs of their set at the Outside Lands Festival in SF. The next day I got their CD and it’s great. I like to listen to it when I’m building things.

Shows (in no particular order)

1. Brandi Carlile – 10/21/09 – Fillmore, San Francisco

Brandi is a gifted artist and in a live setting you really notice it. They started the show with an a capella song and they sounded like angels. I was hooked from the first notes.

2. These United States – 7/5/09 – High Sierra Music Festival

I was on my way to meet a friend, and as I was walking by the Vaudeville tent I was drawn in by some great music. I loved it and ended up staying until the end of the set. I love surprises like this. Great energy.

3 ALO – 2/15/09 – The Mystic Theater, Petaluma, CA

To me, this show represents ALO at its finest. We were well warmed up and everything just seemed to flow in an effortless way. A great blend of songs and improvisations. After the show I remember thinking to myself… “This is why I play music!”

Steve Adams – ALO, Big Light

Albums
1. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

Steve Adams

2. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
3. The Mother Hips – Pacific Dust
4. Hiss Golden Messenger – Country Hai East Cotton
5. Chris Velan – Solidago

Shows Watched
1. Phish | 03.06.08 – 03.08.09 | Hampton Coliseum | Hampton, VA
2. Dr. Dog | 10.05.09 | Brookdale Lodge | Boulder Creek, CA
3. The Black Crowes | 12.06.09 | The Fillmore | San Francisco, CA

Shows Played
1. ALO | 02.15.09 | Mystic Theater | Petaluma, CA
2. Big Light, Skinny Singers | 02.28.09 | Gramble On Big Sur | Big Sur, CA
3. Dun Four, Newfangled Wasteland, Nicki Bluhm | 10.30.09-11.01.09 | Las Tortugas IV | Groveland, CA

Fred Torphy – Big Light

Fred Torphy

Albums

1. The Mother Hips – Pacific Dust

2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

3. The Beatles – Remasters

4. Dead Weather – Horehound

5. Nathan Moore – Folk Singer

Shows

1. The Mother Hips | 10.31.09 | Las Tortugas

2. The Mars Volta | 08.29.09 | Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival

3. Phish Hampton Reunion Shows

Jeremy Korpas – Big Light

Albums
1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
The best music in the country is still coming out of Brooklyn.

2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
This album proves that if a song has a strong melody you can do whatever you want underneath it.

3. Portugal The Man – Censored Colors
One of the best engineered and mixed albums I’ve heard in years.

Jeremy Korpas

4. The Antlers – Hospice
It’s a concept album about a man watching his lover die of cancer in the hospital. It’s heart wrenching to say the least.

5. U2 – No Line On The Horizon
I would expect no less from the biggest bad in the world.

Shows Attended
1. All six of the Dr. Dog shows that I’ve seen this year. From The Fillmore to the side of the stage at High Sierra, all the way out in Santa Cruz mountains, every show turned me into a clapper, a singer, a dancer, a fist-pumper, and all those things I wouldn’t normally do at a rock show.

2. The Mars Volta | Outside Lands Music Festival | San Francisco, CA
It was an all out musical assault. Cedric’s stage moves alone were enough to make the list. They proved they have the biggest dicks in the business

3. The Mother Hips | Las Tortugas IV | Groveland, CA
They just killed it that night! Plus they let me sing “Del Mar Station” onstage with them. First time I had stage fright in 10 years.

Shows Played
1. Big Light’s Late Night Camp Harry Set | High Sierra Music Festival
“I moved to California looking for something. I found it at Camp Harry.” Swordfish

2. Green Tag Sale | Phanphest Music Festival
We played a late night indoors set that was just off the hook. 120 degrees and a packed house is exactly what the TRON calls for. But on Sunday we played the tiny solar tent at 4 p.m. and played our best show to date!

3. Paperback Radio | The Saint | Asbury Park, NJ
It felt great to play my favorite songs with my favorite band again!

Bradley Bifulco – Big Light

Bifulco by Smith

Albums
1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
2. Mastodon – Crack The Skye
3. Dead Weather – Horehound
4. The Mother Hips – Pacific Dust
5. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Shows
1. The Mars Volta | Outside Lands
2. The Mother Hips | Halloween | Las Tortugas IV
3. The Second Annual Golden Gate Gramble | San Francisco, CA

Brian Haas – Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Brian Haas

Albums
1. Riceboy Sleeps – Jonsi and Alex
2. Baaba Maal – Television
3. Bela Fleck – Throw Down Your Heart
4. Vieux Farka Toure – Fondo
5. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE

Shows
1. Rashied Ali | Zinc Bar | New York, NY
2. Panda Resistance | Soundpony | Tulsa, OK
3. Of Montreal | Williamsburg Theater | Brooklyn, NY

Josh Raymer – Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Josh Raymer

Albums
1. The Doldrums – Mirth & Songs
2. Dead Sea Choir – Thin One The Red One
3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
4. Bullion – Pet Sounds in the Key of Dee
5. Panda Resistance – self-titled

Shows
1. NYC Winter Jazz Fest
2. Nola Jazz Fest/Skerik’s saucefest!
3. Tractor Tavern with Bill Frisell

Chris Combs – Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Chris Combs

Albums
1. Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue
2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
3. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
4. The Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
5. MF Doom – Born Into This

Shows
1. Of Montreal | Williamsburg Music Hall | Brooklyn, NY
2. Private party in New Orleans during Jazz Fest where JFJO played with Kirk Joseph, Zigaboo Modeliste, John Speice and several other NOLA badasses.
3. Moodswing Orchestra and JFJO at Le Poisson Rouge, and then late night with Steven Bernstein sitting in with Bonerama at Sullivan Hall, New York, NY

Matt Hayes – Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Matt Hayes

Albums
1. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE
2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
3. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
4. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
5. The Flaming Lips – Christmas On Mars soundtrack

Shows
1. Punch Brothers | Fayetteville Performing Arts Center | Fayetteville, AR
2. Of Montreal | Music Hall of Williamsburg | Brooklyn, NY
3. Wilco/Tortoise | UIC Pavilion | Chicago, IL

Russell Pollard – Everest

Pollard by Krolick

Albums (no particular order)
1. Built To Spill – There Is No Enemy
2. Kurt Vile – Constant Hitmaker
3. Wooden Shjips – Dos
4. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
5. Wu-Tang Clan – Chamber Music

Shows (no particular order)

1. Black Dub | 10.15.09 | Troubadour | Los Angeles, CA
2. Monsters Of Folk | 10.18.09 | Greek Theatre | Los Angeles, CA
3. Neil Young w/ Everest | 04.21.09 | Kelowna, BC (had to do it)

Cris Jacobs – The Bridge

The Bridge

Albums
1. Steve Earle – Townes
2. Bill Frisell – Disfarmer
3. Levon Helm – Electric Dirt
4. Smooth Kentucky – A Few More Miles
5. Danny Barnes – Pizza Box

Shows
1. Kelly Joe Phelps | Nightcat | Easton, MD
2. Anders Osborne | Rams Head Live | Baltimore, MD
3. The Dead | The Spectrum | Philadelphia, PA

Dave Simonett – Trampled By Turtles

Trampled By Turtles

Albums
1. Charlie Parr – Roustabout
2. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
3. The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank – Traveling Show
4. Now, Now Every Children – Cars
5. Pert Near Sandstone – On a Spree

Shows
1. Homegrown Music Festival | Duluth, MN
2. Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion | Bristol, TN
3. 10,000 Lakes Festival

Pete Shand – The New Mastersounds

Pete Shand by Martinez

Albums
1. Thievery Corporation – Radio Retaliation
2. Matisyahu – Light
3. Breakestra – Dusk til Dawn
4. Sly and Robbie – Movin On
5. Karl Denson – Brother’s Keeper

Shows
1.Thievery Corp
2.Pretty Lights
3.Sly and Robbie
4.Pnuma Trio

Joe Tatton – The New Mastersounds

The New Mastersounds

Albums
1. Pharoah Sanders – You’ve Got To Have Freedom
2. Thievery Corporation – Radio Retaliation
3. A Beautiful Mind original soundtrack

Shows Played
1. All Good Festival
2. Osaka Monaurail with Marva Whitney
3. Bear Creek Music Festival

Paul Donoghue – Glasvegas

Glasvegas

Albums
1. Florence and the Machine – Lungs
2. Kasabian – West Pauper Lunatic Asylum
3. Muse – The Resistance
4. U2 – No Line On The Horizon
5. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Shows
1. Supporting U2 at Croke Park, Dublin in July
2. Kasabian | The SECC | Glasgow, Scotland
3. Florence and the Machine | Brixton Academy | London

Chairlift

Chairlift

Albums
1. Telepathe – Dance Mother
2. Violens – 2009 Winter Mixtape
3. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
4. Dirty French – Dirty French Psychedelics (Compilation)
5. Amazing Baby – Rewild
6. Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us
7. Depreciation Guild – Dream About Me
8. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
9. Fever Ray – Fever Ray
10. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Telepath

Telepath

Albums (no particular order)
1. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
2. Jay-Z – Blueprint 3
3. Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon
4. Muse – The Resistance
5. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night

Shows (no particular order)
1. U2
2. Muse (opening for U2)
3. Nas and Damian Marley | Camp Bisco

Zach Deputy

Zach Deputy

Albums
1. Michael Jackson – Off The Wall
2. Ryan Montbleau Band – Stages Vol. 2
3. Bela Fleck – Throw Down Your Heart
4. The Motet – Dig Deep
5. The Derek Trucks Band – Already Free

Shows
1. Wormtown | Greenfield, MA
2. Bear Creek Festival | Live Oak, FL
3. Bonnaroo | Manchester, TN

Matthew Whipple – Cymbals Eat Guitars

Read More » Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Live Wires November 25th, 2009 | No Comments By: Dennis Cook As you dig into the story behind the jams, check out these sweet tracks from the Live Anthology now: “Nightwatchman” from 6/30/81, The Forum, Los Angeles, CA “Here Comes My Girl” from 3/6/80, Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” from 9/21/06, Stephen C. O’Connell Center, Gainesville, FL Tom Petty by Steve Wilson “I’m Tom Petty and behind me are The Heartbreakers. We’re going to have a good time tonight. I promise you that.” These words were spoken before more than 60,000 people in the early minutes of Petty and The Heartbreakers’ jaw-dropping Bonnaroo performance in 2006, but they might well have been said at any time, on any stage in this band’s 33-year journey. This is a rock & roll unit that delivers the goods time and time again in concert, and if one ever needed empirical proof of their enduring live potency it’s right there on The Live Anthology (released November 23 on Warner Brothers), spread out over four thoughtfully chosen and sequenced discs that offer compelling glimpses into the group’s history on stages from 1978-2006 (plus a DVD of their 1978 New Year’s Eve show in Santa Monica, CA is included in the swanky Collector’s Edition), where they have consistently fulfilled the promise of a good time. “I want us to do that, and I also want us to have a good times ourselves. If we aren’t then nobody else is gonna. But I’m selfish that way. I want to get up there and have a really good time,” says Benmont Tench, keyboardist and co-founder of The Heartbreakers. “[Live Anthology] was a daunting task. You’re looking at 30 years of performing to find the definitive live versions of songs. Organizing and finding all the tapes was a year’s work, and then finding the best takes was probably another year,” says guitarist-songwriter-co-founder Mike Campbell, who selected the material on Anthology with Petty. “It was Tom’s idea at the beginning to not go chronologically. We just wanted to find the best performances despite what year they might be. And we didn’t want to overlook anything, so went over everything. Over time we narrowed it down. If there was a problem with the sound or the band wasn’t really on fire we’d just move on to the next take. It became so overwhelming to listen to things that we got to a point where we’d mostly focus on the vocal. Usually if the vocal was in the game then the band was right there with him. That’s how we play; we play off of Tom’s singing.” One of the real pleasures of the newly released anthology is the bumper crop of primo cover tunes including Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well,” Thunderclap Newman’s “Something In The Air,” Booker T & The MG’s’ “Green Onions,” Van Morrison’s “Mystic Eyes,” Bo Diddley’s “Diddy Wah Diddy,” Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil,” Dave Clark Five’s “Any Way You Want It,” J.J. Cale’s “I’d Like To Love You Baby,” The Byrds’ “Ballad of Easy Rider,” and the James Bond Goldfinger theme. To call the mix eclectic hardly seems adequate, and it speaks to their depths both as musicians and ardent fans of other’s work. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers by Steve Wilson “When I heard we were putting out a live record I was really afraid [laughs]. Because with live records, traditionally, you might get a cover or you might get an obscure song but basically it’s going to be the hits played live. We don’t change the arrangements a lot on the hits, sometimes, and I think we’re much better as a live band than a recorded band but still,” observes Tench, trailing off with a worried tone. “Then, I found out they were going through everything and Mike and Tom were getting excited about what they were hearing and wanted to do a comprehensive live set that covered the rhythm sections we’ve had – Howie [Epstein] (bass) and Stan [Lynch] (drums) (1982-1994), Howie and Ferrone (Steve Ferrone, drums) (1994-2002), Ron [Blair] (bass) and Stan (1975-1982), and Ron and Ferrone (2002-present). And I was excited that it had the crazy stuff like ‘Any Way You Want It,’ and especially that it had [boffo Petty rarities] ‘Driving Down To Georgia’ and ‘Lost Without You’ on it. What we have on Live Anthology is what the band sounds like to me. A recording is a brief experience; it’s a brief period of time. The real band is the live shows and the jams and the rehearsals.” “Covers are always fun, and there’s so many great songs out there. At rehearsal someone will have heard something and we’ll play it just for fun, and if it sounds good we’ll put it in the show,” says Campbell. “We did find quite a few live gems, and we wanted to include that because I think it shows a depth to the band that maybe people haven’t seen before. It’s fun and it shows our influences and inspirations. It just adds more depth for the listener, I hope.” “We grew up all listening to the same radio, except for Steve Ferrone [who is British and a former member of the Average White Band that began playing with Petty during the Wildflower sessions in '94]. It’s a total trip because there’ll be songs that were hits on both sides of the Atlantic but another band will have had the hit in England. So, we’ll start playing a song and he’s playing it the way he heard it by some other band when he was a kid. But we all grew up with a love for the same kind of music,” says Tench. “We all love country music – real country music, not this awful, awful, awful mockery they put out today. They should be ashamed, and what they call R&B today has NOTHING to do with R&B; it’s disgraceful. But, we all grew up with a love for country, bluegrass, psychedelic music, three-minute pop songs, and by ‘pop song’ I don’t mean candy type pop. The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Zombies and The Who’s early singles were ‘pop’ as in ‘popular’ music but they rock! Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, we all loved that stuff. And what’re you gonna do about Bo Diddley!?! There’s everything right there.” The extremely reasonable price tag ($24.98 list) of Live Anthology – a four CD set with an extensive booklet of essays, song-by-song commentary by Petty, and a cool online Super Highway Tour companion site full of pics, band commentary and behind the scenes info – is indicative of a career-long dedication to holding down costs with their fans in mind while still offering a quality product. “We’ve always kinda fought for keeping ticket prices down. It’s our responsibility I think. I always put myself in their shoes. It costs a lot of money to go to a concert, and we certainly don’t need to gouge the people that love us,” says Campbell. “There’s built-in inflation. Tours now are more expensive, so there’s the balancing act of trying to get the production costs taken care of without sticking it to the punter. We do the best we can.” Continue reading for more on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers…   What we have on Live Anthology is what the band sounds like to me. A recording is a brief experience; it’s a brief period of time. The real band is the live shows and the jams and the rehearsals. -Benmont Tench   Photo of The Heartbreakers by: Dennis Callahan The Root of Things There is a strong sense of history and tradition in Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, where one doesn’t need to guess at their lineage. You can hear the primal hip shake and country and blues roots of rock & roll in their music. Tom Petty by Kevin Scanlon “There was a wonderful thing going on in the ’60s, where everything hadn’t been homogenized. There was a lot of discovery. Us white kids in the South were getting most of our knowledge about the blues from hearing the first Bluesbreakers album with Eric Clapton and then reading him talking about B.B. King and going out and getting Live At The Regal [1965] and going, ‘Holy cow!’ Or it maybe was hearing The Rolling Stones talk about Howlin’ Wolf or The Beatles talking about Carl Perkins and then checking that stuff out,” says Tench. “That’s what was great when you hear people talking about the ’60s, all this stuff was crossing and people were really excited and enthusiastic about it and finding their own way to do it. And it’s going on now, though I don’t really think it’s happening on radio from the little I hear. I have a lot of young friends in their twenties who give me mix tapes that have great stuff I’ve never heard from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. The Internet and file sharing now works the way radio used to work when it had this great cross-section of stuff in the Top 40.” “So, that’s where we all came from. I was lucky enough to walk into a room and meet Tom and Mike and have them show me songs by so & so and me show them songs by so & so,” continues Tench. “For instance, we all loved this band named Daddy Cool, an Australian group that was just fantastic and obscure as you can get. One of the first times I went to Tom’s house he said, ‘Check this out,’ and put on this Daddy Cool record. It was something I’d heard a couple weeks before on the college radio station and was blown away but didn’t know who it was. And I’m sitting there with Tom and thinking ‘Okay, this is good. This will work.’” In a nutshell, the Petty and The Heartbreakers sound hums with the Southern overtones of gospel, bluegrass and country but all infused and morphed by a profound love of ’60s British Invasion acts. As much as critical darlings Big Star, Petty and The Heartbreakers fused the sturdy bones of American traditional music with the rebellious, pleasantly experimental gusto of The Beatles, The Zombies, etc. “That’s exactly what we are. We grew up in the South around a lot of bluegrass and real country music. And for Tom and the rest of us, when The Beatles and the Stones came along that was our time and it influenced us greatly. I notice when we play that we draw from both of those worlds,” says Campbell. “If you really dig deep, especially the Stones but The Beatles too, were drawing from American blues and R&B, so it all kinda ties together.” Benmont Tench by Dennis Callahan Though many see Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers as the epitome of heartland Middle American rock, the majority of the band hails from Gainesville, Florida. A college town filled with small venues, Gainesville is a fertile breeding ground for bands, and as recently as 2008 Blender Magazine named it the “Best Place to Start a Band in the United States.” It is a place with a strong black/white racial mix and a history that touches on the state’s first citrus boom in the 1800s, the Civil War, and more. “Well, the Allman Brothers were from Daytona Beach and Skynyrd was from Jacksonville. Ray Charles went to the St. Augustine School for the Blind. Stephen Stills went through [Gainesville] to go to the University of Florida, as did Faye Dunaway and Bernie Leadon [Eagles co-founder]. It’s a wonderful place Gainesville,” says Tench. “To this day there’s a lot of music. When I walk up and down the main street on late night walks there are all these little storefront clubs or record stores that have bands playing after hours. When I was growing up it was like this too, but when The Heartbreakers came back to woodshed in the disco ’70s it seemed pretty bleak. But it’s certainly thriving right now.” When it’s suggested Gainesville’s sort of widespread communal engagement with shared live music is vaguely European, Tench quickly responds, “Actually it’s very American. Before there was radio and TV people sat around the house and played. Everybody knew how to play an instrument; it was part of being a well-rounded person in every walk of life. That was entertainment, friendship, relationship, all that stuff. My experience in the last couple years is it’s coming back. I live in Los Angeles, where everybody should be in it for the deal, like as a guy I met at a pickin’ party pointed out, it’s usually people getting together and asking, ‘How much are you going to pay me to rehearse?’ Well, I’ve fallen in with a crowd of people who like to just get together and sit around the house and play. It’s great. Mike Campbell comes over to my house to play, Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Sean and Sara Watkins [Nickel Creek] – it’s marvelous. It’s not for the sake of anything other than for the sake of playing. It’s not a career move.” “My favorite stuff that The Heartbreakers do is at sound checks and rehearsals. Heartbreakers rehearsals are 75-percent sitting around and playing stuff and 25-percent playing what we need to learn to play. So, it’s always been about that, to me, and it’s really wonderful that I’ve found people who think like that today, people who sit around and play acoustically; things I don’t know,” continues Tench. “Tom Leadon from Mudcrutch is one of those people. When he’s around he and Campbell are a crazy scene with the numbers that they know. They’ve sat around on a Sunday with me and played songs and it’s just so cool! Tom Petty will bring in some old thing he knows or just found and show it to us. That’s the deal: Our band is not stagnating by any means. Everybody always learns something new and brings it in.” Continue reading for more on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers…   We’ve always kinda fought for keeping ticket prices down. It’s our responsibility I think. I always put myself in their shoes. It costs a lot of money to go to a concert, and we certainly don’t need to gouge the people that love us. -Mike Campbell   Photo of Mike Campbell by: Dennis Callahan Some Things Change, Some Stay The Same Live Anthology offers a nice perspective on how The Heartbreakers have changed as a live band over the years, as well as highlighting what a consistent bunch they’ve been through the decades. Tom Petty by Susan J. Weiand “There’s a through line with Tom and Mike and I, and the great thing is we have Ron [Blair] back. When Howie left, before he passed away, Ron had come back, so we again had someone who had grown up in Gainesville. He’s one of us, and that’s really important,” says Tench. “We now have Scott Thurston [rhythm guitar, harmonica, synthesizer, backing vocals], who loves the music and he’s a really brilliant musician and a wonderful singer. The main difference is the feel. Ferrone’s feel is entirely different than Stanley’s, and his way of thinking is entirely different than Stanley’s. So, that’s been an adjustment and it’s forced us to pay attention in different ways to how we play and how we interlock the grooves. Steve is a marvelous, stupendous drummer, so it may be subtle to people watching us, but as a musician it’s absolutely shaken things up. Stanley is who I grew up playing with. He’s from Gainesville and he plays back and listens in a certain way. He rides with the rest of us and doesn’t say, ‘Here’s the beat.’ He says, ‘I’m with you guys,’ and Ferrone says, ‘The beat’s over here.’ That’s just a different mindset. Ferrone listens but it’s a different thing. I’m really glad you get both of them on [Live Anthology].” “Well, I think we’ve grown in maybe our finesse [laughs]. When we were young we were maybe a little inexperienced but there was still a lot of fire and I was pleasantly surprised by the musicianship [when I listened to tapes]. We’ve improved and aged and all that, but it was really good for what it was. We were just really happy it didn’t suck,” says Campbell. “This band is based around the singer and the song. We try to serve the song, and as we’ve played out there’s some songs where we can allow the musicians to jam or stretch out. We can do that as well as most bands but it’s not what we focus on the most. We’ve always played around a song. That’s what we enjoy and that’s what gets us off.” Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers By Michael Zagaris “What we grew up on was Elvis, The Beatles, the Stones, The Beach Boys, where the song was always the main thing. As it got into the ’70s it became more about the drum solo or the guitar solo, which is fine for what it is, but we’re kind of from a different ilk,” says Campbell, whose phenomenal guitar work reflects this focused, economical approach. “If you listen to a Beatles record, the guitar does its thing and then gets out of the way of the vocal. Ideally, you come up with a line or a sound that compliments the song and doesn’t distract from it. That’s the challenge. It’s a lot harder than just noodling along.” “The problem we have now with the catalog is with shows at an hour and a half or two hours we can’t get to it all. So, we try to pick enough things from the old catalog that people feel like they got their money’s worth and then give them a few surprises to take home with them,” says Campbell. “If I go to see a band I like and I’m going to buy a ticket and park and walk and take four hours out of my life to give to this experience, then I’d kind of like to get what I wanted, which is to hear the songs I like. So, we look at it that way – these people are there for us and we owe it to them to give them what they paid for. And part of what they paid for is the songs they’re familiar with. That’s our responsibility. I also think it’s our responsibility to give them a little bit extra – a cover or take a song and stretch it out a bit musically and take it to a place it wasn’t in the recording – and if you can do both then you’ve put on a good show.” “We take the setlist and the pacing of a set very seriously. We want it to be a journey that builds to certain peaks and valleys, so it’s kind of like – I hate to use the analogy – sex, in a way, so you really get off all together in a certain way,” explains Campbell. “Once we have a set that works and does that, if you start throwing things out too much it might upset that. We can inject new songs along the way as long as they don’t upset the journey.” One shift with the studio work over the years is more and more of producing has been done by Petty and Campbell instead of outsiders. “Producing is kind of like directing. I’ve always played with tape recorders and I’m very tuned into the recording process. I’m totally addicted to it and I love it. As the records went on it seemed like Tom and I would tend to look to each other for input on how the records were taking shape. So, we became co-producers just because that’s basically what we were doing, and that’s just kind of how we work now,” says Campbell. “It’s just mutual respect; I trust him and he trusts me. If we both like something then usually it’s on the right track. In a perfect moment we get what we wanted [on tape]. It’s a mysterious and wonderful thing to do, recording music and writing it and trying to make it sound timeless. It’s a challenge but it’s really rewarding when it works out.” “Our love of our craft is way beyond anything any industry could touch. It’s a religious thing with us. It’s what we love and what we live for,” says Campbell. “We don’t do this just for the money. When we started out we didn’t have any money and I’d still be doing it even if I didn’t make a living at it because that’s just what I’m born to do. If that’s who you are then it makes it easy to take it that seriously. If you’re someone who’s out to be a rock star or make a bunch of money then you might get stuck.” Continue reading for more on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers…   Our love of our craft is way beyond anything any industry could touch. It’s a religious thing with us. It’s what we love and what we live for. We don’t do this just for the money. When we started out we didn’t have any money and I’d still be doing it even if I didn’t make a living at it because that’s just what I’m born to do. -Mike Campbell   Photo of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers by: Dennis Callahan Mudcrutch In 2007, Tom Petty, Campbell and Tench decided to revisit their pre-Heartbreakers group, Mudcrutch. The group is rounded out by Randall Marsh (drums) and Tom Leadon (guitar, vocals). After a 30-plus-year delay, Mudcrutch put out their self-titled debut in April 2008 followed by a short, deliriously enjoyable California tour (see JamBase’s review of their Santa Cruz gig here). Despite their many years in the business, the relaunch of this formational band carried a lively, back-to-the-garage spark that’s nearly irresistible. Mudcrutch is the sound of men tapping into the things that made them pick up instruments and devote their lives to rock ‘n’ roll in the first place. Mudcrutch by Martyn Atkins “Oh yeah, exactly! That was the band I quit school to play with. I quit college and faced the wrath of my dad to play with Mudcrutch,” says Tench. “My dad was a formidable guy, a very smart and wonderful guy with a great command of the English language. It was like facing – not in terms of physical size or anything – Orson Welles, in terms of his eloquence. Tom [Petty] helped with him not throwing me out of the house.” “When you first start playing you set up in a room with amps and guitars and say, ‘Do you know ‘Johnny B. Goode’ or ‘Honky Tonk Women’? Let’s see if we can play that.’ There’s that joy of discovering, ‘Wow, we sound like a band. We can do this. Let’s write our own songs.’ And Mudcrutch was our first band, so it was really fun to rediscover that germ,” says Campbell, who is center stage in a rare extended psych exploration on Mudcrutch’s “Crystal River,” one of the standouts on the album. “I like that one a lot, and it was a one take, spontaneous recording. [The Heartbreakers] don’t do that too much so I’m glad we got that one on tape to show what we can do. It’s always a lucky thing when that happens.” “I love doing that [Mudcrutch] stuff. I love that band. I really, really love the sound that band makes. I was a fan of theirs before I joined, so I hope we do more,” says Tench. “As far as I hear, we’re going to do more.” There’s a new Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album in the works, hopefully seeing the light of day next year, and the Mudcrutch experience has spilled over a bit into the new sessions. “The Mudcrutch album was basically cut live-in-the-studio and this has the same approach. Honestly – and I know everybody says this – we’re so excited about this record. It’s a different record than anything we’ve done, a different flavor and a step up,” says Campbell. “It’s all live, which is really great. And Tom is so good. He’s always got great characters and believable, pure music. He’s a badass.” Dylan Trench, Campbell & Petty by Preston Perhaps the only time The Heartbreakers have ever really strained onstage, at least in this writer’s experience seeing them, was their legendary world tour with Bob Dylan in 1986-87, where at times it seemed like the musicians, while playing great, were in a form of sonic battle. “Sometimes it was. Playing with Bob was really special. Sometimes it was really bad and sometimes it was transcendent. For me it was transcendent way more than it was bad, but sometimes it wasn’t good,” recalls Tench. “Sometimes it probably was a battle because he wanted us to be on his foot, and judging by his autobiography, he wasn’t in that good a space then. We were trying hard though! There were moments with him that were… death defying. And there were moments where I don’t know if we necessarily dodged death [laughs]. There was a ‘Lay Lady Lay’ there once or twice that was pretty funny. But there’s nobody as good as Bob.” “[His songs] are not musically challenging the way you’d think. It’s beautifully played, or if you hear just Bob play something on piano or guitar it’s just beautiful,” says Tench. “Anytime I’ve worked with Bob in a recording studio and he’s started to show me something on piano, it doesn’t matter how hard I try it always winds up with me saying, ‘You’re going to play piano on this one, Bob.’ He’s got a special way he plays piano, and he’s got a spectacular feel on the guitar. It’s one of those things where a line goes back to old folk players and blues players before that, and he actually carries the line down the way with a certain feel and rhythm. So the thing about playing Bob’s songs is a lot of it is about the feel and for God’s sake don’t start playing a bunch of notes! If you’re going to play a bunch of notes you better be Norman Blake, Mike Bloomfield, or Mike Campbell. You better play the right notes, and you can’t be Mr. Lead Guitar unless it’s the right thing. Charlie Sexton always does that. And every time I’ve seen Bob in the last 15 years his bands have been right.” Fame And The Future In 2002, Petty and the band were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers by Piper Ferguson “It’s a great honor. You’re put into an echelon of artists a lot of whom we looked up to and made us aspire to be musicians. To be put into the same club is quite inspiring,” says Campbell. “My son had the best take on it. When we got into the Hall of Fame, he said, ‘Once you’re in they can’t kick you out, right? You’re in for life?’ I said, ‘Yeah, you’re in for life’ [laughs]. It’s something you want to be part of, and it’s cool that members vote on who gets in. They send you a ballot every year with ten choices and you pick the five that you think deserve to be in, and from those votes they choose the candidates. So, it’s cool that it has built-in artist protection.” Still, even with the big titles not much has really changed internally for the men making this grandly embracing rock. “We just do what we do. [Tom and I] have always played together for as far I can remember, and we’ve always been able to reach the same groove and compliment what each other is doing, Benmont, too. It’s an instinctual thing that we do,” says Campbell. “When I do sessions with other players I notice that instinctual compliment of music is missing. Maybe it’s because we grew up together, but even now as we’re working on this new record, he hits a chord and I do something that goes with it. We’re definitely blessed.” “The thing I want us to be able to do is invite people along instead of getting up there and being showbiz-y about it,” says Tench. “I saw Ray Davies [The Kinks] perform the other night and he was so charming and inviting and engaging that you were with him from the first second. And if there was a sing-along it didn’t feel like, ‘Oh God, they’re having a sing-along.’ You wanted to sing-along, and to me that’s the best kind of show, where you just know you’re ALL going to have a really good time tonight.” “I am a fan of the band, and if I think we don’t play well or do something hokey or I feel like we don’t hit a groove then I get mad, like I would if I was seeing my favorite band and they blew it,” says Tench. “It’s really important to me that we do it and we do it well. And I think we do most of the time.” “Ultimately, the focus should be on entertaining the audience as opposed to entertaining yourself. Truthfully, if they’re entertained that entertains you more than anything you could play to satisfy yourself,” says Campbell. “We take it very seriously that they’ve come there to sit and listen, and we want to give them what they deserve.” Check out the Super Highway Tour at tompettysuperhighwaytour.com. JamBase | Runnin’ Down A Dream Go See Live Music! Read More » Newport Folk Festival | 08.01 & 08.02 | RI August 11th, 2009 | No Comments Words by: Bear Connelly | Images by: Jim Brueckner Newport Folk Festival :: 08.01.09 & 08.02.09 :: Fort Adams State Park :: Newport, RI Newport Folk Fest 2009 The Newport Folk Festival is one of the longest running music festivals in America, and this year she celebrated her 50th anniversary (the festival did not take place from 1971-1985) with a huge array of artists spanning generations, countries and languages. The deep historical context of the festival resonates highly with the artists that play here, making it quite a destination for musicians and fans of the greater folk world. Dylan went electric here and Joan Baez played the first ever festival in 1959. NWFF is located at Fort Adams State Park, a defunct Naval base nestled in the harbor of the sailing mecca of Newport, Rhode Island. The festival has three stages, the main stage sitting right in front of the fort overlooking a huge lawn that leads to the ocean, and two tents containing smaller stages also along the water. Thousands of people attend each year, setting up blankets and lawn chairs and basking in the sunshine and music for two days every August. Due to the location, boats are encouraged to pull up close and drop anchor and listen to the music while swimming and playing in the water. This is truly a festival you need to see once in your life, if not many times. As always there were so many great bands playing that I kind of felt like a chicken running around with his head cut off in order to see them all. For some artists, I only caught a couple songs, like folk legends Baez (whose voice has sadly lowered in register over the years) and Arlo Guthrie (who is an amazing storyteller) to Joe Pug (a young working class, Dylan-esque folkie from Chicago belting tunes like “My Father’s Drugs” with a Midwest snarl). With a festival as diverse as Newport – acts range from Mavis Staples to Brett Dennen, 23-year old John McCauley (Deer Tick) to 90-year old Pete Seeger – there was something for everyone. Here are some of the highlights from this year’s event, and you can also listen to all these sets at npr.org. Ben Kweller The Avett Brothers :: NFF 2009 As I walked in to the festival I headed straight for the first music I could hear. I stumbled in to the Harborside Tent to find Ben Kweller playing with a stripped down version of his band. There was Ben, decked out in a sleeveless NYC t-shirt, jeans and boots (which reminded my of that classic John Lennon pic) with a drummer and a dobro/pedal steel player. Kweller cranked through tunes like “13,” which was apparently written about a night out in Block Island, an island off the coast of Rhode Island, and “Gypsy Love” with a great sense of enjoyment at being at this historical festival. He even tried out tunes that he normally plays on piano in the spirit of guitar driven folk music. The highlight of his set was a crowd sing-along version of “Falling” dedicated to Kelly, a girl who worked at the festival that asked if he would play it, despite the lack of a piano on stage. The Avett Brothers I haven’t really listened to The Avett Brothers but with the electricity of their live shows you don’t really need to in order to enjoy them. The North Carolina natives brought their brand of psych-emo, energetic folk-grass to the festival for the second time in as many years. The band ran through live staples such as “Paranoia in B flat Major” and “Ballad of Love and Hate,” along with new tunes off their upcoming album I and Love and You like “Kick Drum Heart” with little disparity for a newcomer. Read: their new tunes kick as much ass as their old ones. Tom Morello/The Nightwatchman Given the fact that Tom Morello is a Harvard educated, political junkie, effects infused shredder, I was perhaps most curious to see what he had in store for a folk festival. Morello, armed simply with a nylon string guitar (that had “Whatever It Takes” scrawled on it in black marker) and his rustic baritone voice played songs such as “Dogs of Tijuana” and “One Man Revolution.” Morello also mentioned how excited he was to play at the same festival as the legendary Pete Seeger. He dedicated his tune “The Road I Must Travel” to Seeger, who Morello believes is “a living body of justice-ness and righteousness,” and is glad that “in a world of passport carrying jackasses there are people like Seeger to balance it out.” Gillian Welch Gillian Welch :: NFF 2009 Fan favorite Gillian Welch delighted the main stage crowd yet again (in the three years I’ve been, she’s been there every time) with a nice mix of songs from her entire repertoire. Apparently she and her partner, Rhode Island native Dave Rawlings, had to get a police escort from Boston just to make their set after a five-hour flight delay at LAX. Welch joked that she felt “Like Mirabelli getting escorted to the Sox game in order to catch Wakey a couple years back,” referring to Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli’s return trip to Fenway after being reacquired mid-season. Although sleep deprived and unkempt, they didn’t let the jetlag stop them from delivering angst melting tunes like “Orphan Girl,” “My First Lover” and “Look at Miss Ohio,” the latter featuring a blistering solo from Rawlings, who is perhaps the tastiest guitarist in Americana music today. Midway through the set, she debuted her haunting version of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” to the crowd’s enjoyment. Mavis Staples One of the more historical acts at the festival was the gospel stylings of Mavis Staples and her energetic band. Staples’ set included a rousing rendition of The Band’s “The Weight,” which she sang at The Last Waltz with The Staple Singers 30 years ago, and “Why Am I Treated So Bad,” her father’s song written after a conversation with Martin Luther King, Jr. The Low Anthem Hometown heroes number one (Deer Tick being number two) played their first set of presumably many to come at Newport after a whirlwind summer that saw them playing all over the world, including sets at Bonnaroo, Hyde Park and Roskilde Festival (read about Roskilde here). Since releasing Oh My God Charlie Darwin on Nonesuch (and Bella Union in Europe) the band has been touring relentlessly and it shows. The once awkward folkies that could barely play their secondary instruments – there is a clarinet, French horn, upright bass, drums, organ, acoustic and electric guitars and crotales on stage, with all three members rotating between them for each song – have tightened their sound to captivate the audience, which overflowed the small Waterside Tent they played in. The band played some new, unreleased tunes that held water alongside older gems like “Ballad of Broken Bones” and “To Ohio.” The highlight for me came with their take on the traditional “Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around” that featured guitarist/singer Ben Knox Miller on drums, Jeff Prystowsky on upright bass and clarinetist Jocie Adams showing off her electric guitar chops, all of which showcased the band’s growing versatility. Iron & Wine Fleet Foxes :: Newport Folk Fest 2009 Sam Beam played a solo acoustic set on Saturday afternoon to a packed Harborside Tent. Beam, whose wispy vocals and percussive yet intricate guitar picking was a perfect soundtrack for a sunny afternoon on the water. He started his set off with a cover of Postal Service‘s “Such Great Heights” that quickly turned into a group sing-along after he forgot the words to the chorus. Next came the stomping “Woman King,” which induced some of the crowd (mostly seated) to dance. Beam had great stage presence, talking about how “beautiful but distracting” the view from the stage was and handling catcalls like a woman in the crowd who yelled, “I want to live in your beard… because it seems like a warm place to sit,” with a quick wit. Beam closed his set with the fan favorite (and Twilight soundtrack hit) “Flightless Bird, American Mouth,” which left the audience standing and cheering for an encore. Beam sheepishly walked back on stage to deliver “Sunset Soon Forgotten,” a wonderful finger picking tune off Our Endless Numbered Days. Fleet Foxes I was really interested in checking out the Fleet Foxes, one of the past two years’ biggest hype bands. I really like their harmonies and arrangements on the album and wanted to see if they could pull it off live. Well, they killed it. Unfortunately, their small discography lead to them basically playing their album and EP in their entirety. However, getting a main stage slot at Newport is quite a feat for such a young band. Songs like “White Winter Hymnal” and “Oliver James” oozed lush melodies and dispersed waves of their “baroque harmonic pop jams” amongst the festival-goers and aquatic onlookers. The Decemberists The Decemberists :: Newport Folk Fest 2009 Saturday’s headliner (other than Pete Seeger, who closed both nights as more of an honorary guest) brought their literary folk rock to the main stage for the first time. Armed with a plethora of vocalists and rare instruments (like the hurdy-gurdy), the band ripped through a greatest hits set – they’ve been playing their folk opera, The Hazards of Love, in its entirety most nights this tour – including “The Crane Wife Part 3″ and upbeat closer “Sons and Daughters.” Mid-set the band’s Decemberists Family Players acted out a scene from the Festival’s storied past – the day Dylan went electric. Four people represented festival founder George Wein, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and a squirrel to act out a scene inspired by Seeger’s famous comments after hearing Dylan go electric (“Damn it, if I had an axe, I’d cut the cable right now”) referring to shutting down the sound system. Dave Rawlings Machine For those of you who don’t know, David Rawlings Machine is just him and Gillian Welch but with reversed roles. They play his songs instead of hers and he sings lead vocals to her harmonies. These two are amazingly captivating with just two guitars and voices. Rawlings, known as a producer and session guitarist mostly, ran through wonderful cover songs ranging from Bright Eyes’ “Method Acting” to Dylan’s “Queen Jane Approximately,” Ryan Adams’ “To Be Young (Is to be sad, is to be high)” (which he co-wrote) to “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” The set was so fierce that the late morning crowd called for an encore, which is usually reserved for headlining acts. Dave answered the call with a foot stomping, hand clapping cover of Johnny Cash’s “Jackson.” Neko Case Neko Case :: Newport Folk Fest 2009 Also known in the indie world for her work with the New Pornographers, Neko Case has been churning out great alt-country albums on her own for years. Supporting her latest, critically acclaimed album, Middle Cyclone (JamBase review here), Case played the main stage on Sunday. She barreled through songs from her whole repertoire including “Wish I Was the Moon,” “Hold On Hold On” and her roaring new single “This Tornado Loves You.” Not only does Case have one of the best lovesick howls in the business but her backing singer Kelly Hogan (who has also sung with Andrew Bird, The Minus 5 and Edith Frost) provided a nice layer on which Case could stray more and show off her pipes. After a standing ovation from the crowd, who spent her set in lawn chairs, Case ripped through a stellar version of The Shangri-La’s “The Train from Kansas City” as an ode to female groups of yesteryear. Deer Tick The second hometown favorite of the festival was the fast-rising Deer Tick. The band took the stage while leader John McCauley III stated, “I don’t know what an acoustic guitar is. Give me one and I’ll try to plug it in. Let’s do it like Dylan did!” before launching into the raucous “Easy” off the band’s latest album, Born on Flag Day. Before their second tune, “Little White Lies,” a fan from the mostly seated crowd asked, “Can we stand up? We just want to dance.” After the okay from security, chairs were moved out of the way and the littlest tent of the festival gave birth to its biggest dance party. Deer Tick plowed through their songs showcasing new, full band arrangements to previously mellow acoustic songs on their albums. Even when the solo song “A Song About A Man” was played the rest of the band sang three-part harmonies, where the last time I saw them they just left the stage. After a guest spot from singer Liz Isenberg on “Friday the XIII” and a cover of John Prine’s “Aimless Love,” the band brought down the house with a rockin’ take on “La Bamba,” which seemed very genuine and relevant despite coming from a 23-year-old white kid from North Providence, RI. Elvis Perkins in Dearland Pete Seeger :: NFF 2009 Playing the festival for the second time, the singer-songwriter and his energetic, multi-instrumentalist band (they all play horns and some other primary instrument) closed down the Harborside Stage on Sunday. Half the band attended Brown University and his bassist was from Newport, so there was kind of a homecoming vibe to Dearland’s set. Despite suffering some tragedies within his own family (his dad, actor Anthony Perkins died from AIDS, while his mom was on board one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center), he is able to sing positive, “live in the moment” style songs that shine bright lights on to the dark zones of the human mind. Perkins, who understands the gravity of playing at such a storied festival, treated the crowd to his own gems like “Chains Chains Chains” and “Shampoo” while mixing in covers like “Weeping Mary” and “Four Strong Winds.” Set closer “Doomsday” had Elvis singing: “Man, I went wild last night…/ I don’t let doomsday bother me/ Do you let it bother you?” Pete Seeger It’s a rare opportunity to see a living legend these days. I felt this way when I saw Ray Charles. Pete Seeger IS folk music. Marking both his 90th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the festival he helped create, Seeger treated the crowd to a sing-along set that started with the help of his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger. Pete played “Turn Turn Turn” and “Midnight Special,” saying the lyrics before each line was to be sung so no one in the crowd had an excuse to not sing. It was great to hear the stories behind all these songs – this man knows who wrote the songs we all know as “traditional”! Midway through his sunset set, Seeger invited “every musician who played today” on stage for huge group versions of “Guantanamera,” “If I Had a Hammer” and the obvious closer, “This Land is Your Land.” Never again will I see Colin Meloy singing with Tom Morello, Ben Kweller sharing a mic with The Low Anthem’s Jocie Adams or Seeger himself singing with Gillian Welch and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. It’s moments like these that make the kinship, history and stature of this festival what it is today. Final Song led by Pete Seeger featuring everyone! Continue reading for more pics of Newport Folk Festival 2009… Joan Baez Arlo Guthrie Sam Beam – Iron & Wine Del McCoury Brett Dennen Campbell Brothers Guy Clark Dala The Low Anthem Joe Pug Tom Morello/The Nightwatchman Dave Rawlings Machine Deer Tick Elvis Perkins in Dearland Tao Rodriguez-Seeger Final Song led by Pete Seeger featuring everyone! Final Song led by Pete Seeger featuring everyone! Final Song led by Pete Seeger featuring everyone! 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