Sweet Talk’s Bonnaroo 2007 Part Three (God Bless The Flaming Lips)

Sweet Talk’s Bonnaroo 2007 Part Three After waking up “early’, I dragged my aching soles to the Sonic Stage, my favorite venue on the farm, for the first live music of the day.  It’s always refreshing when your musical expectations are surpassed and the Brooklyn Salt Mines super group, American Babies, did just that and then some.  The Hamilton brothers (Brothers Past) and Joe Russo (Benevento Russo Duo) recently solidified their fledging band by adding guitar whiz Scott Metzger (Rana, Particle, Project Logic) which allows them to translate their soaring and exquisite Gram Parson’s steeped Americana blues to the stage. ...  read more

Telluride Bluegrass Festival (Where have you been all my life?)

Yes, I know I am only on day two of my Bonnaroo posts but listen dear reader, I seem to live three full lives every year at that piece of fertile soil in the western Tennessee Valley and much like Jack’s famous whiskey distilled in the same county, you just can’t rush these things.  There plenty more to come from the farm, but currently I am at 8000 some odd feet in what is arguably the most eye popping piece of Colorado, listening to some of the most ear popping bluegrass floating from the heavens.  This is indeed the cradle...  read more

Sweet Talk at Bonnaroo Part Two (When The Levee Breaks)

So where did we leave off.  Oh yeah the Roots vieing for the title of hardest working band in show biz.  To prove the point, as soon as ?uestlove left the stage he went back to the Holiday Inn to rehearse with Ben Harper and John Paul Jones (yes, that John Paul Jones as in Led Zep) for the annual Bonnaroo Superjam.  Sometime after the witching hour the trio took the stage in the Other Tent to a thunderous reception.  It was a hair on your arms standing up kind of ovation, even before the first chord was struck, but...  read more

Sweet Talk’s Bonnaroo 2007 Part One (the Journey of a 1000 miles…)

Once again your intrepid traveler has survived another Bonnaroo.  You’d think after four years I’d have this place dialed, but that’s the beauty.  Just as soon as you get comfy....POW right in the kisser.  Time To Plug into Bonnaroo 2007 Land in Nashville, jump into the fire engine red Monte Carlo, go the secret back way to the grounds. no speeding ticket this year. Good.  all the more to tip my favorite bartender.   Listen to a gomez / radiohead mix from last years b-roo.  lots and lots of lightning bugs.  Pull into Holiday Inn where all the State Troopers are...  read more

Happy Flag Day Everyone

I am a stars and stripes kinda guy.  I even own a 1990 pair of American Flag, Chuck Taylor, Converse All Stars Hi-Tops. Out of respect to old glory, I only wear them twice a year, every year, without fail, once of fourth of July and once on my favorite holiday, FLAG DAY. Many moons ago, I was looking for an excuse to blow off my job as a bar waiter in small Maine town so I could go to the local rope swing, drink warm Olympia Light, and listen to my new mix tape. To remedy the situation, a...  read more

Summer Lovin’ Had Me a Blast; Bonnaroo; Telluride Bluegrass; Newport Folk etc.

For most people, summer means water skiing on the lake, basking on the beach and reading trashy paperbacks. But to the growing throng of insatiable musical omnivores summer means glow-stick wars, ravaged road maps, silent discos and midnight Mardi Gras parades with American Idol reject William Hung singing Ricky Martin’s “She Bang” on a monstrous Mr. T float. In other words, it’s Festival Season. While the touring/concert industry—entombed in its gentrified amphitheater sheds—flails like a senile cat thrown into a kennel of starving puppies, the musically enlightened frolic in vast sonic playgrounds built specifically with the live-music experience in mind....  read more