#moonalice

Archival “Unbroken Chain” Captures Phil Lesh & Friends at 2005 Apex

Despite more than 100 musicians passing through its revolving doors over a quarter-century of concerts, Phil Lesh & Friends were an “Unbroken Chain” anchored by their namesake former Grateful Dead bassist.

Released in wake of Lesh’s Oct. 25 death, an audience-shot video of the Oct. 9, 2005, lineup performing “Unbroken Chain” in New Jersey illustrates and soundtracks Lesh’s counterintuitive wisdom.

With Barry Sless on lead guitar, John Molo manning the kit and Mookie Siegel on keys, the band (with Larry Campbell and Chris Robinson playing electric and acoustic guitar, respectively) nails the “Chain”’s tricky tempo changes and polyrhythmic instrumental sections with the tightness of a seasoned group of players.

Lesh sings his composition passionately, while both holding down and pushing along the song with his inimitable style of bass playing. It serves as a reminder of the new ground Lesh continued to explore in his post-Dead career and stands as another reason to thank the folks who spent decades recording Lesh’s exploits so the rest of us may revel in them for decades more.

Song Review: Oteil & Friends - “Dreams” (Live, Oct. 22, 2024)

Though violin was not part of the original, Jason Crosby’s heartfelt solo during a recent Oteil & Friends version of “Dreams” made the performance special.

Namesake bandleader and former Allman Brothers bassist Oteil Burbridge was wise to shine the light on Crosby, who takes an otherwise-anticlimactic rendering to an early climax.

The balance of the 11-minute, pro-shot video finds singer Lamar Williams Jr. trying a little too hard to channel Gregg Allman, while guitarist Tom Guarna plays a technically solid, though not particularly inspired, solo over accents from fellow axeman Steve Kimock and keyboardist Melvin Seals.

It’s refreshing to hear Burbridge - who also plays with Dead & Company - step away temporarily from the Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia songbook for this lumbering ABB blues. It’s a song that could easily become an O&F monster, though on Oct. 22 in New York state, it was more of an ogre.

Grade card: Oteil & Friends - “Dreams” (Live - 10/22/24) - B

“Drummer Extraordinaire” John Barbata Dies at 79

- Musician played with the Turtles, CSNY and Jefferson Airplane/Starship

Drummer John Barbata, whose career took him from the Turtles to Jefferson Starship, has died at 79.

Best Classic Bands first reported Barbata’s May 8 death without providing the cause; the surviving members of Jefferson Airplane confirmed it on social media.

“Rest in peace, John Barbata,” the Airplane wrote, calling the drummer “legendary” and an “exceptional talent.”

Barbata kept time for the Turtles from 1966-’69 before joining Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in time to appear on 4 Way Street. When CSNY went on hiatus, Barbata continued working with the principals on their respective solo albums.

At the suggestion of David Crosby, Barbata joined the final Airplane lineup, appearing on two LPs, and was subsequently a co-founding member of Jefferson Starship, where he remained until a 1978 car crash ended his tenure.

“Goodbye, John, old friend and …drummer extraordinaire,” Jefferson Starship co-founder Pete Sears said. “See you down the line a ways.”

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Day Two, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Calif., Oct. 5, 2024

It was strictly bluegrass to kick off Day Two of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass as the Dry Branch Fire Squad offered stories about HSB founder Warren Hellman and songs of the Civil War and death and Jesus alongside instrumentals on the Banjo stage. There were no amps during the day-opening set that found the quartet playing and singing into shared mics and telling slow-to-develop tales with good humor.

Later in the day, Moonalice would grace the Towers of Gold audience with the second “White Rabbit” of the festival - following Molly Tuttle’s Oct. 4 version - and Tuttle would return with Golden Highway to back Steve Earle for a set that included a surprise appearance from Emmylou Harris on “Goodbye” and a rare festival encore of “This Land is Your Land” to end Oct. 5 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

As a warm morning turned to a sweltering afternoon that found festivalgoers gathering in shady areas and leaving sun-drenched stretches of grass empty, Jobi Riccio and her rhythm section created a stripped-back, Hejira-era Joni Mitchell/Harris hybrid for the Rooster-farians, as the emcee called those gathered at Rooster stage. Playing during Buddy Miller’s daylong Cavalcade of Stars, Riccio surely earned some new fans.

Showcasing their new How to Make Mistakes LP, Fruition entertained the Swan stage shade-seekers as the quintet with multiple lead singers and multi-instrumentalist members took a a Bandian approach to 21st-century Americana with faux-blood harmonies buttressing ballads like “Still on My Mind.”

Following immediately on the adjacent Towers of Gold, Moonalice - with drummer John Molo, guitarist Barry Sless, singer Lester Chambers, bassist Pete Sears and others - turned in a hugely entertaining and soulful set that included the front-line trio of female vocalists leading the large band through such covers as Marvin Gaye’s “You’re all I Need to Get By” the Grateful Dead’s “Bird Song,” “(Turn on Your) Lovelight” and the aforementioned Airplane number.

Back on the Rooster for the ongoing Cavalcade, former Carolina Chocolate Drop Dom Flemons played bones, harmonica, guitar and quills on traditional songs to demonstrate what being an American Songster is all about. As he performed Elizabeth Cotten’s “Freight Train,” on guitar and “Brown Skinned Girl” on harmonica, Flemons proved himself the rare solo-acoustic performer who could hold a field full of festivalgoers in rapt (near) silence.

But he also had assistance from the Red Dirt Boys - who’d previously played a rich-gumbo show of their own - on original country and western songs from Traveling Wildfire and an old-timey rendition of “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,” as he danced with rubbery legs of joy. A couple of false starts added to the spontaneous nature of this surprise mini-set.

Carlene Carter provided midafternoon lunchtime country music as the Sound Biteses prepared for Mavis Staples on the Banjo. And she did not disappoint, cooling down the afternoon with such hopeful numbers as “I’m Just Another Soldier,” “Handwriting on the Wall” “Respect Yourself” and “Freedom Highway” as she declared the healing power of music and her gruff, joyful laugh.

“We come to bring you some joy, some happiness, some inspiration - we want you to feel good,” Staples said.

And she made people feel just that though it was disheartening to see the 85-year-old American treasure needing to sit during a portion of her show, which she did not do in Ohio several months ago.

Earle, Tuttle & Golden Highway ended the day with 75 minutes - HSB’s longest performance - and opened with “Warren Hellman’s Banjo.” The show was a little under-rehearsed but a prime example of live music without a net with songs from the Del McCoury-Earle joint the Mountain, a cover of Little Feat’s “Willin’” and perhaps the most-emphatic version of “Copperhead Road” to date.

“This turned out exactly the way I wanted it to,” an exuberant Earle said with a comment that summed up Mr. and Mrs. Sound Bites’ day perfectly.

Read Sound Bites’ HSB Day One coverage here.

Peter Rowan Leads Phil Lesh & Friends into the Woods on “Clubhouse Sessions”

- Big band includes Stu Allen, John Molo, Barry Sless, Holly Bowling, Elliott Peck, Jason Crosby and Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz

Peter Rowan came to the Terrapin Clubhouse and took Phil Lesh & (a large group of) Friends into the country and bluegrass.

With the octogenarian - but not in the way - Rowan and Lesh at the helm, a stellar band of relative whippersnappers featuring guitarists Stu Allen, Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz and Barry Sless (pedal steel); singer Elliott Peck; drummer John Molo; fiddler Jason Crosby; and pianist Holly Bowling added respectful modernity to songs from Old & In the Way, Rowan and the Grateful Dead.

Though this was a one-off band for Episode 4 of Lesh’s “Clubhouse Sessions,” it couldn’t have been more tight but loose on “Dupree’s Diamond Blues,” which peaked as first Bowling, then Crosby and Sless transformed the studio into a dusty, Old West saloon. It’s a magical bit of musical inspiration made possible by players adept at picking their spots, Molo’s agile, light-touch drumming and a sonic approach that left room for Lesh’s bass to gurgle to the surface.

There’s not a wasted second in the 40-minute performance video, bookended as it is with a version of “Midnight Moonlight” that nods slyly to “Throwing Stones” and a “Dire Wolf” that finds Sless recalling Workingman’s Dead-era Jerry Garcia on the sit-down guitar.

Peck sings “Ripple” beautifully with Lesh taking over as the band crosses the bridge and Rowan reminds listeners he can still yodel on “Land of the Navajo.”

Beyond grateful for this magical offering.

Read Sound Bites’ coverage of the previous “Clubhouse Sessions” here.

Song Review: Moonalice feat. Ray Benson - “Am I High?”

The question is rhetorical. But Moonalice leaves no doubt as to the answer on “Am I High?”

The stand-alone single features Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson as the band gets a jump on 4/20:

Am I high?/my mouth sure is dry/I just keep laughing til I cry/asking myself, ‘am I high?’

Though the lyrics suggest a novelty, the music - languid, swinging-like-a-pendulum jazz - suggests otherwise. The composition is utterly serious making the words that much sillier.

But as ridiculous as it is, “Am I High?” is a tightly rolled number every listener should light in to.

Grade card: Moonalice feat. Ray Benson - “Am I High?” - A-

Go Ask Alice: Is Jack Casady Really 75?

Let’s get together right down here and wish Jack Casady a happy 75th birthday and many more to come.

Born April 13, 1944, the co-founding Jefferson Airplane bassist and long-time half of Hot Tuna with his longer-time friend Jorma Kaukonen is still making music as he meets the three-quarters-of-a-century mark.

Though he’s the silent type, Casady has made plenty of untraditional sounds with his bottom-end instrument while playing on LPs by and/or touring with the likes of David Crosby, Warren Zevon, Jefferson Starship, Moonalice and others over his long career.

But Kaukonen is Casady’s main musical man and the adage is as true today as when it was first slapped on a T-shirt decades ago: “If you don’t know Jorma, you don’t know Jack.”