Upcoming Reno-Tahoe Music Rundown by Steve Holzer

HIGH SIERRA MUSIC FEST REVIEW

Another festival, another absolute blast!! Ninth year at High Sierra in a row and I’ll NEVER miss it if they have to get me there on a gurney with a respirator. Life’s about what you’ve got, not what you don’t, so even though the line-up wasn’t laden with big bands that have been there before like Panic, moe., Mule, Yonder, Railroad Earth, Robert Randolph, KDTU or the North Mississippi Allstars (no less Phish, String Cheese, Phil and Friends), all 27 shows I went to were either excellent or superb! Adding in almost perfect weather, a great camp site and camp-mates, the always excellent vibe and the incredible beauty of the fairgrounds and Quincy, I thought this was one of the best years.

My favorite set was Bonerama late night in the Vaudeville Tent the first night. It was actually one of the best sets I’ve ever seen, period (out of literally 1000s of sets). I was deliriously happy (and sweaty) and the entire large crowd raged the entire show! The Pimps of Joytime and Lubriphonic sat in, so at one point there were 14 peeps on stage, including five trombones, sax, trumpet, two guitarists, two bassists. They ended with Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

The Funk playshop in the Music Hall was also insanely fun with the same line-up early the next afternoon. Bonerama’s main stage show a bit later was one of the best outdoor afternoon shows I’ve seen there. Many bands and the hot, tired crowd have been pretty blah in that spot, but not these guys or that crowd!!

Galactic main stage on Saturday and late night the last night were superb, as always, even though I could barely stand and it hurt to move any part of my 49 year old body before they even started late night. Dozens of women got on the main stage and danced up a storm!

Cornmeal/Travelin’ McCourys/Lee Boys late night Saturday was fabulous, as was the Lee Boys’ Big Meadow set. First times I saw the McCourys and Lee Boys. Am now a huge fan!

Tea Leaf Green (Big Meadow) and Guitarmageddon (Josh Clark, Lebo, Sean Leahy, Jeff Pevar, Simon Kurtz from Poor Man’s Whiskey) never disappoint. Pevar blew up Guitarmageddon.

Disco Biscuits main stage on Sunday rocked! Couple of tunes were a too techno-y (repetitive and droning) for my taste and they didn’t kick royal ass like the Crystal Bay Club show a couple of months ago, but the CBC is much smaller, it’s indoors and the sound is the best I’ve ever heard anywhere.

ALO’s main stage show was lots of fun! Another band that always brings it.

Greensky Bluegrass was fabulous both Big Meadow shows. Not Yonder or HBR, but still supremely talented!

Del did High on a Mountain Top and Vincent Black Lightning 1952, two of my favorite songs. Bluegrass doesn’t get much better than Del’s band!

Del and Ronnie McCoury and Jason Carter sat in for much of Leftover Salmon on the main stage. Always a party wherever Vince is!

The Devil Makes Three blew it up on the Big Meadow stage. They’re quickly and deservedly becoming rather popular.

Poor Man’s Whiskey, one of my favorite relatively “new” bands, played wearing barrels their entire 10 a.m. set at Big Meadow and drank a bunch of Jameson’s someone next to me in the crowd handed to them after they sang Whiskey in Heaven. They’re always one of the most fun bands to watch and hear. Great way to kick off a long day!

Dusty Rhodes and the River Band is another excellent up and coming band I love. High energy and intensity, great songs, singing and musicianship, ridiculously cute fiddler. Ended with a kickass cover of Creedence’s Fortunate Son.

Marco Benevento Trio main stage. Hard to go wrong with Marco, Reed Mathis and Andrew Barr (from The Slip)! All instrumental and kinda out there fusion, as fully expected.

Umphrey’s McGee main stage was real good, but not one of the best I’ve seen of theirs by a longshot. Sorry I missed late night, but I was real drained after dancing and sweating my ass off at Bonerama.

The Wailers main stage was fun. Hard to go wrong with Marley tunes as a change of pace, late Sunday afternoon show!

Vieux Farka Toure main stage. Great guitarist, good vocals and the only African band there. Well worth checking out!

The Fest was so good and there were a few nasty scheduling conflicts, such that I didn’t even see the top three headliners — John Butler, Ani DeFranco and DeVotchka (didn’t care for their music anyhow) — or Steve Kimock’s Crazy Engine, Fareed Haque, The Slip and a few playshops (Stanton Moore, Benevento/Skerik, Kimock/Mathis). I was also too tired to make Leftover Salmon late night.

Not surprisingly, since High Sierra my site has had the busiest day (310 page views and 179 visitors) and several of the next busiest days since I started it last May. I, the bands and venues on my site, etc. appreciate the support!

NEW SHOWS ON THE LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR

Still a ridiculously busy summer, starting with Izabella for free at Great Basin Brewery this Thursday, a free New Monsoon/Jellybread show this Saturday at the Crystal Bay Club and a $5 New Monsoon show on Sunday at Brew Brothers in Reno!

I added these shows to the calendar since the last Update on 6/12/09. Please check the calendar for literally dozens more shows than these and the venue, time, cost and links to all the pages on the Internet regarding the bands. If you’ve never heard of a band on the calendar, do yourself a huge favor and click on the links to listen to their stuff! I promise you’ll be glad you did even if you don’t go to the show!! You may very well find that your favorite bands are ones you haven’t even heard of yet, which was true of whatever your favorite bands are now at one point!

• Jelly Bread (7/15, 7/16, 7/18, 7/25, 7/30, 8/14, 8/16, 8/21)
• Anders Osborne/Clarence Bucaro/Johnny Sansone (7/16)
• Eric McFadden Trio (7/20)
• Arc Angels (7/21)
• Loose Cannon (7/22)
• Ten Mile Tide (7/23)
• Saddle Tramps (7/23, 9/2)
• Wanderlust Festival (7/24-7/26) – Spearhead, Gillian Welch, The Mutaytor, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Kaki King (no relation to Dap)
• Bourgeois Gypsies (7/24, 7/25, 8/30)
• Eclipse (7/25)
• Mojo Green Project (7/25, 8/1)
• The Iguanas (7/26)
• Cosmic Wobble (7/29, 8/28)
• Paul Thorn Band/Montana Slim String Band (7/31)
• Lake of the Sky Fest (8/1): Delta Nove, Ten Mile Tide, Something Different, Coming Soon, Chip Chop, Chango, Emily Tessmer

• Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson (8/16)
• Les Dudek (8/23)
• Izabella (8/27)
• Hot Club of Cowtown (9/3)
• Todd Snider/Chelsea Williams (9/12)
• Gov’t Mule (in Reno! – 9/17)
• Southern Culture on the Skids/Los Straitjackets (9/17)
• John Brown’s Body/Black Seeds (9/23)
• Telepath (9/30)
• Poor Man’s Whiskey (8/3, 8/4, 8/20)
• The Fantods (8/1, 8/29)
• Widespread Panic (in Reno! – 11/10)

NEW PHOTOS ADDED SINCE 6/12/09

A bunch of the shows have more than one page. It’s way less time-consuming to place the photos in the order I took them than by how good I think they are, so MANY of what I think most people would agree are the best pix are on the second or third pages. Please either click on “NEXT GALLERY” or ALL the links below to check them all out! Thanks! By the way, you CAN download any photo: left click on a thumbnail image, release and drag the mouse over the large default image (which should now be the same as the thumbnail you clicked on) and right click “save image.”

• ALO @ Great Basin Brewery 7/28/06 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/alo_great_basin_7.28.06_p1.htm & http://www.musicphotographics.com/alo_great_basin_7.28.06_p2.htm)

• Hot Buttered Rum @ Great Basin Brewery 6/12/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/hot_buttered_rum_great_basin_6.12.09_p1.htm & http://www.musicphotographics.com/hot_buttered_rum_great_basin_6.12.09_p2.htm)

• Jimmy Herring Band @ Crystal Bay Club 6/16/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/jimmy_herring_band_crystal_bay_club_6.16.09.htm)

• Mojo Green Project @ Cantina Los Tres Hombres 6/11/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/mojo_green_project_cantina_6.11.09_p1.htm & http://www.musicphotographics.com/mojo_green_project_cantina_6.11.09_p2.htm)

• Neville Brothers @ Crystal Bay Club 6/26/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/neville_brothers_crystal_bay_club_6.26.09_p1.htm & http://www.musicphotographics.com/neville_brothers_crystal_bay_club_6.26.09_p2.htm)

• Tea Leaf Green @ High Sierra 7/2/06 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/tea_leaf_green_high_sierra_7.2.06.htm)

• Yonder Mountain @ Crystal Bay Club 4/14/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/yonder_mountain_crystal_bay_club_4.14.09_p1.htm, http://www.musicphotographics.com/yonder_mountain_crystal_bay_club_4.14.09_p2.htm & http://www.musicphotographics.com/yonder_mountain_crystal_bay_club_4.14.09_p3.htm)

• Yonder Mountain @ Crystal Bay Club 4/15/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/yonder_mountain_crystal_bay_club_4.15.09_p1.htm & http://www.musicphotographics.com/yonder_mountain_crystal_bay_club_4.15.09_p2.htm)

NEW PHOTOS – HIGH SIERRA 2009

I took 1266 pix at the 27 sets I saw at High Sierra this year. I whittled those down to about 1000, which I’m slowly but surely posting on my site. These are the shows that are up so far:

• ALO Main Stage 7/2/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/alo_high_sierra_7.2.09_p1.htm & http://www.musicphotographics.com/alo_high_sierra_7.2.09_p2.htm)

• Dusty Rhodes & the River Band Big Meadow 7/5/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/dusty_rhodes_&_the _river_band_high_sierra_7. 5.09.htm)

• Galactic Main Stage 7/4/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/galactic_high_sierra_7.4.09.htm)

• Greensky Bluegrass Big Meadow 7/2/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/greensky_bluegrass_high_sierra_7.2.09_p1.htm & http://www.musicphotographics.com/greensky_bluegrass_high_sierra_7.2.09_p2.htm)

• Leftover Salmon Main Stage 7/4/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/leftover_salmon_high_sierra_7.4.09.htm)

• Poor Man’s Whiskey Big Meadow 7/4/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/poor_man’s_whiskey_high_sierra_7.4.09_p1.htm & (http://www.musicphotographics.com/poor_man’s_whiskey_high_sierra_7.4.09_p2.htm)

• Tea Leaf Green Big Meadow 7/3/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/tea_leaf_green_high_sierra_7.3.09_p1.htm & http://www.musicphotographics.com/tea_leaf_green_high_sierra_7.3.09_p2.htm)

• The Disco Biscuits Main Stage 7/5/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/the_disco_biscuits_high_sierra_7.5.09_p1.htm & (http://www.musicphotographics.com/the_disco_biscuits_high_sierra_7.5.09_p2.htm)

• The Wailers Main Stage 7/5/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/the_wailers_high_sierra_7.5.09.htm)

• Umphrey’s McGee Main Stage 7/3/09 (http://www.musicphotographics.com/umphreys_mcgee_high_sierra_7.3.09.htm)

NEW GRAPHIC ART

• Abstract Art (http://www.musicphotographics.com/abstract_graphics_p5.htm)

NEW VENUE (http://www.musicphotographics.com/reno_area_venues.htm)

• Beck’s Brewhouse, Reno, NV

ADDING FACEBOOK LINKS FOR BLUEGRASS BANDS & MUSICIANS

Over the next couple of weeks I’m adding a slew of links to all the Facebook pages (profiles, fan pages and groups) Bluegrass Bands and Musicians have. I’ll post which bands’ and musicians’ links have been added on my site’s home page and under “Recent News” on my musicphotographics.com Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60563099618). Click on the links, join a group, become a fan, add a musician as a friend, show ‘em some love!!

As always, please forward this Update to everyone you know and join my Facebook group; moreso, pretty please SHARE my group with all your friends so they can get these Updates directly and support the music scene to the greatest extent possible as well! Love for music and the arts is infectious, so spread it far and wide!!

Hope to catch you at a show and that you continue to have a wonderful, fun-filled summer!!

Peace, love and hippieness!

Steve Holzer

Music Information Courtesy of musicphotographics.com (Thanks Steve)