There’s an evenin’ haze settlin’ over the town
Starlight by the edge of the creek
The buyin’ power of the proletariat’s gone down
Money’s gettin’ shallow and weak
The place I love best is a sweet memory
It’s a new path that we trod
They say low wages are a reality
If we want to compete abroad
Continue reading June 10: Bob Dylan – Workingman’s Blues #2, Vienna, Austria 2008 (Video)
“Just as rock & roll is loud and proud, so is Farm Aid. Farm Aid’s greatest accomplishment, I believe, is in the spirit. It’s the fact that we represent the spirit of the good fight, to keep something good happening. It just keeps getting stronger and stronger….”
– Neil Young
Farm Aid was started by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in 1985 to keep family farmers on the land and has worked since then to make sure everyone has access to good food from family farmers.
Farm Aid celebrates it’s 30-year anniversary this year, and they have had a lot of great music through the years. Today we’ve picked a very fine set from Neil Young in 2008. Enjoy!
Continue reading September 20: Neil Young at Farm Aid in 2008 (full set, videos)
The best way to remember Levon Helm is to enjoy his music.
Today we have searched the cellars of YouTube and found a shining gem: The Levon Helm Band at The Newport Folk Festival in 2008.
I think we got the full show (but not sure). Levon Helm and his band went on stage second to last on the final day of the festival. They gave a tremendous show that confirmed their influence from folk music and they were a fitting act to play at a folk music festival.
Levon Helm was one of the finest drummers and most soulful singers in music history! …and the set list has some traditional songs, some solo stuff and quite a few songs from The Band era. The Band songs are so fresh and fits this band so well, they sound amazing.
Highlights: Chest Fever, Got Me A Woman plus Anna Lee from my favorite Levon Helm album, Dirt Farmer, Long Black Veil and The Weight with guests, Jake Shimabukuro, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
We also get some very special guests:
Set list:
Ophelia
Deep Elem Blues
Ashes of Love
Anna Lee
Chest Fever
Love Played A Game
Long Black Veil
Got Me A Woman
Rag Mama Rag
Fannie Mae
The Same Thing (incomplete)
The Shape I’m In
The Weight
The Levon Helm Band live at The Newport Folk Festival 2008:
Continue reading August 03: The Levon Helm Band at The Newport Folk Festival in 2008
“That man I shot, I didn’t know him
I was just doing my job,
maybe so was he”
Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is the seventh studio album released by Drive-By Truckers. It was released on January 22, 2008 in the United States. Recorded during and after the acoustic Dirt Underneath Tour, the album features a more stripped down, and country based sound not seen since their sophomore releasePizza Deliverance.
A Ghost to Most (official video):
The album’s title is taken from a line in a Mike Cooley song entitled “Checkout Time in Vegas”. Wes Freed once again provided the album artwork. According to guitarist Patterson Hood, the band’s decision on the name of the album was greatly influenced by the Freed’s artwork. Hood also said that the album was recorded with much ease and did not require compromises.
Continue reading Jan 22: Drive-by Truckers released Brighter Than Creation’s Dark in 2008
“The way I was singing the songs was jazz”
– Van Morrison
I have changed my mind, I do that from time to time (all the time actually…). My favorite Van Morrison album has been Moondance for years, but now it is Astral Weeks. I’ve always loved Astral Weeks, it has been third on my list of his albums (the live album, It’s too late to stop now, had the second spot).
As of today it is officially on top, I get it now, I can truly see the greatness. I have played it to death these last weeks and it goes beyond pop/rock music, it is in a genre of it’s own. I know I’m ramblin’, but bear with me, I’m just an exited convert.
I went on YouTube to see if I could find some good versions of the songs, what I found was Morrisons’s fantastic live re-enactment of his masterpiece. I collected what I found, it is amazing!
On November 7 and 8, 2008, four decades after the release of the classic Astral Weeks, Van Morrison revisited the album live in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl, and delivered a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring performance. Van did not simply re-create what he did 40 years ago in a NY studio, but instead took the songs to a dramatically higher contemporary level. The Jazz-rooted compositions of Astral Weeks are poetic stories of young love and the quest to find one’s place in life. They were, and remain, ideal source material for musical improvisation that gives way to the sense of wonder for which Morrison has always striven.
– Amazon.com
Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl: The Concert Film is the second official DVD by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released May 19, 2009. It features the songs from his 1968 classic album, Astral Weeks. The live performances on the movie were filmed on two concerts by Van Morrison at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California with a fourteen member band.
Morrison has also released an album on CD and vinyl on February 24, 2009 entitled, Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl with material from these two concerts.
UPDATE: Please read the comments from Andrew Robertson for a more comprehensive (and more correct) account of the two concerts.
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks / I Believe I’ve Transcended:
I play in a free-form, inspired style; I have no choice but to change it up according to the vibe. The new record was recorded live; what [you hear] is what was played in its raw form. There was no mixing, no tweaking, no post-production at all, and I like that raw and edgy sound in real time. It’s got a lot of boom to it! I really like listening to live records, it’s my new thing. Real and alive, the life is not taken out of it like a studio produced record can and very too often, does. My motto right now is post mixing kills.
– Van Morrison (to Paste Magazine)
Van Morrison – Beside You:
Van Morrison – Slim Slow Slider / I Start Breaking Down:
Van Morrison – Sweet Thing:
Van Morrison – The Way Young Lovers Do:
Continue reading Concert film: Van Morrison – Astral Weeks live 2008