Don't Wake the Scarecrow

Just got a review from Inforoo member baconus66 of a Lucinda Williams show.  Enjoy

Lucinda Williams – Rialto Theatre at Tuscon, AZ 5/29/09
This was my third time seeing Lucinda and a really good show overall. Even though I got there a little later than I was hoping I was able to get on the rail far house right, which worked out perfect because Rialto had setup some monitors on the sides of the stages helping with the sound quality issues that sometimes occur near the front.

The show started of strong with the new Buick 6, for all those reading the negative reviews about the new band all I can say is reserve judgment until you see them. They are different then they were with Doug but they are still a great band and Eric does a great job and most importantly is seeming to fit in with the band and have a lot of fun. The band is a little less country/blues and a little more psychedelic/surfer but the still get down on all the old tunes too.

There were some issues with “Metal Firecracker” due to a misread capo position, but once they figured it out the song worked fine. “Steal Your Love” was a major highlight for me, it was the first time I’ve seen it live and had a really cool vibe. “Side Of The Road” was another highlight for me and it worked really well with just acoustic and electric guitar.

At some point around “Little Rock Star” a women 7 or 8 people to the left of me passed out or something. Her boyfriend/husband didn’t want to leave and tried propping her up for a few songs which distracted Lucinda during the beginning of “Little Rock Star” prompting her asking if everyone was alright. Eventually, during “Essence”, the man decided that he had to get off the rail and took his sleeping girlfriend with him. Once they were gone Lucinda commented it was nice to see everybody in front was alive and it was very distracting to see this women and it caused a few slip ups. See included some hilarious mime of the women being propped up and falling back down and concluded she should be more of a Ann Coulter and called the man out right away. She used her anger from this incident to create an exceptionally angry “Come On” which was when the show started to really get rocking. Every song after this point was as good as it gets. Unfortunately, as always as always at Rialto the crowd rushed out the doors after the first encore meaning “Angel” was scratched.

After the show I was lucky enough to get Eric’s setlist, which I have included. When I got it the security guy told me if I sold it in the parking lot I could probably get $50 for it, but I would never do that.

Overall great show and I am excited to see her again tonight in Phoenix. I am really hoping to get “Can’t Let Go” and maybe “Angel” if the crowd sticks around tonight, but I am happy with anything. 

If you’ve got any show reviews from ANY artist and would like to share them please e-mail them to dontwakethescarecrow@gmail.com.

Awesome songs from awesome artists…….enjoy this week’s Friday Five.

Fleet Foxes -- White Winter Hymnal

Little Feat -- Fat Man in the Bathtub

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

Michael Franti and Spearhead -- Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong

Todd Snider -- America’s Favorite Past Time

Here’s a great review from our friend Digger over at Takethisbread.blogspot.com. He caught Simone Felice’s new project The Duke & The King at Union Hall in NYC. 

Faith Rewarded: The Duke & The King – Union Hall 5/20/09
About 100 or so hardcore fans, friends and family of the Duke and the King watched the debut performance of the band at Union Hall in Brooklyn. They came to the show, mostly, without having any idea what the band would sound like, what kind of songs they would play. The fans came mostly, because they had faith in the artist. The Duke and the King did not dissapoint. For those who worried that the music might take on too much of a melancholy live show, there is nothing to fear.

This band, while still playing some beautiful ballads, rocked the house. They opened with one of Simone Felice’s finest songs, “Dont’ Wake the Scarecrow”. The rendition was probably the best i have heard yet. Simone introduced it as a “Hudson River Song” , and delivered a searing performance, which was capped off by a shocking vocal coda by Robert “Chicken” Burke, which raised a few eyebrows in the Hall for those who had never heard his amazing voice. They followed that with their new single “If You Ever Get Famous” , which was pretty faithful to the version on the record. Simone then introduced the next song by bringing the audience back to the very early days of the Felice Brothers, when they played the Subways of New York City. He explained that “we sucked” and that there were songs that they learned to get people to stop and sing a long and hopefully, give some money. There were others, like “Waterspider”and “Going Going Gone”, that people just walked on by as they played it. He said they wrote Water Spider for Harriet Tubbman (which he has said before) and also about Ghandi, and John Lennon, and Martin Luther King, and laughing he said “prince” and “Mike Tyson”. Very nice version and great interplay with the crowd.

The King, Chicken Burke, then left the drum kit for the only time all night for lead vocal on the funky slow jam, “Suzanne”, Chicken had a nice little breakdown in the middle of this song in which he talked about how loneliness is a big part of the rock and roll life . Simone followed with a long meandering spoken word rap about “Beware of the Beast called Man” which had the audience hanging on his every word and then just at its most anxious moment he called out “Pharoah, My Pharoah, my girlfriend is dead….” of “The Devil is Real” . Some artists sing songs, some paint great landscapes , and some rare individuals, emote art through every pore of their skin.

Simone Felice, like John Lennon, is totally incapable of being uninteresting. What he says you may or may not understand or agree with, but you will be entertained. There are no bathroom breaks, cause you never know what you might miss, what he might say, because his filters are off and his words are like James Dean’s car careening recklessly down a winding road. This version of “Devil” was outstanding. They followed that with “Union St”, a reminiscence of perhaps a simpler America. “Lose Myself” had a nice speech in the middle by Simone, about a sinful world, and how we all gotta use love and music and each other to find shelter from the bad world as he referenced Bob Marley and Eminem. An excellent live number with an excellent drum fill at the end by Chicken Burke. Simone then called the King “a Bad Motherfucker” in the “Country of Stank” and said the next song “Your Belly in My Arms” “Me, Ian and James recorded this song when we first started to play, and it was ah..a fictional song then, and well, its taken on a whole different meaning now”. Very intense performance with nice harmonies by the King. One of my favorite lines is “Woke up with the driver crying “Birmingham” , kinda transports you to that place.

Simone then told a story about the early days of the Felice Brothers when James wanted to buy a keyboard, but was told by Simone and Ian, “fuck you, every thing has got to be made out of dirt and wood and meat and barbeque” but he said they finally relented, and then explained why they used a electronic beats for “The Morning that i Get to Hell” . There was a lot of singing along in the crowd for this new song. “Mercy” followed, perhaps the best ever version of this song as it ended with two shots of heavy metal thunder.

The band proved to be very tight for a new outfit and a big part of that was Chicken Burke driving the show skillfully through the set. After Mercy came crashing back to Earth, Simone gave a heartfelt tribute to his brother Ian, with stories of listening to music, dreaming and writing poetry together, with “American Song” about down on their luck characters in the post Gulf War Bush Years. Radio Song was improved with Burke’s Charlie Watts channeled beat, making it sound like garage rock from the Stones Tattoo You era. Burke again went Van Morrison vocally on “Annabelle, You Blow My Mind” on the outro to Radio Song.They ended the show with a rousing rendition of the Beatles “Don’t Let Me Down” complete with Simone Felice hurling himself into the fray of the audience, twisting his legs and swinging his Fender around dissapearing amongst the fans then to crawl back to the stage and deliver the lyrics with every morsel of strength he could muster.

When fans of the Felice Brothers see this show they will no longer be sad that Simone is not touring with the band. They will see an artist of this ability needs more leg room to display his considerable talent, and fans get a lot more out of it.

Not surprisingly, Simone greeted fans after the show with hug and kisses and many met Chicken Burke for the first time and he is a very charming fellow.

The Duke and The King-Belly In My Arms

What’s that? A NEW Phish song? That’s right. Phish just released a new track titled “Time turns elastic” which is set to appear on their new studio album. The song was recorded in NY and produced by Steve Lillywhite (producer of Billy Breathes). It’s currently available on iTunes.

This is the second new track that Phish has debuted since reuniting this year for a new tour. The first is called “Backwards down the Number Line” and can be viewed below:

Phish -- Backwards down the Number Line

The second annual Rothbury music festival has announced additions to their lineup. The initial lineup was strong enough as it is, especially for only the second year of the festival’s existence, but these new artists make it even better. Taking place in Michigan on Fourth of July weekend, the people behind Rothbury promise a very special weekend that transcends just music. It’s all about a great experience and only good things have been said about last year’s debut fest.

The following artists have been added:
Keller Williams
Umphrey’s McGee
The White Buffalo
The Parlor Mob
Reed Thomas Lawrence
Wendy Darling
Big Gigantic
Lynx 

This year’s headliners are Bob Dylan, The Dead, and The String Cheese incident. Tickets are still available at Rothburyfestival.com. Click the image below to view the full lineup.

Sad news today – Jay Bennett, former guitarist and multi-instrumentalist from Wilco, passed away early Sunday morning in Urbana, IL, according to a spokesman for his family. Jay was part of the band Wilco from 1994 to 2001 and his influence on the band’s growth was great. He was with the band since the A.M. tour and left the group in ’01 when Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was in the process of being released. The exact cause of death is still undetermined and an autopsy is underway. Below is an excerpt from the Chicago Sun Times:

Born in the Chicago suburb of Rolling Meadows, Bennett began playing in bands as a teenager. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earned multiple degrees in secondary education, math and political science. In between, he co-founded the Replacements-like power-pop band Titanic Love Affair, which released three albums during the alternative-rock heyday between 1991 and 1996, when it was dropped from its label.

Bennett was working at a VCR repair shop in Champaign when he was tapped to join Wilco as it toured in support of its first album, “A.M.” A talented arranger and versatile musician who could play virtually any instrument he picked up, from mandolin to Mellotron, Bennett formed a fruitful partnership with Wilco bandleader Jeff Tweedy. His contributions over a seven-year period were key to the albums that resulted in the band’s national breakthrough, including “Being There” (1996), “Summerteeth” (1999) and “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” (2002).

source: Chicago Sun Times 

Wilco’s publicist released the following from Jeff Tweedy: “We are all deeply saddened by this tragedy. We will miss Jay as we remember him — as a truly unique and gifted human being and one who made welcome and significant contributions to the band’s songs and evolution. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends in this very difficult time.”

RIP Jay Bennett 1963-2009

Little bit of old….little bit of new. Stay tuned to the site for more updates! Lyrics, setlists and more news coming soon. Enjoy the Friday Five.

Rilo Kiley -- The Frug

MGMT -- Electric Feel

Passion Pit -- Sleepyhead

American Princes -- Real Love

Neil Young -- Heart of Gold

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