It was a long winter for all of us, especially with Eastbound Jesus in hibernation, dedicated to working on their third studio album, Hollerin, set to drop this weekend. Eastbound Jesus spent the cold days at Edie Road Studio in their hometown of Greenwich, NY with producer/engineer Marc Fuller to bring fans the best sounds of their northern rock music to date. The 10 track album captures the essence of an EBJ live rowdy performance as well as representing a more mature sound. Hollerin features special guests musicians Chris Carey (Sean Rowe, Rodeo Barons) and Lowell Wurster and Jaime Armstrong (Lucid) helping to elevate the jamgrass fusion.
The album begins with blaring guitar rifts, beloved banjo strumming and rebellious lyrics from “Keep on Hollerin” that Eastbound Jesus is known for. Showing a softer side is “Better Things” more of a romantic ballad with an upbeat melody and gracious harmonious with a steady rhythm. “Shoes” features fast string picking, splashing tempo and flowing vocals with a erupting brass solo that is sure to be a crowd favorite. “Cold and Snow” perfectly captures the winter season in Upstate New York with a howling harmonica, diesel rhythm and bitter lyrics such as, “There’s nothing like the cold and snow to make you feel at home.” Hollerin has themes of the simple life about working hard and playing hard, with tales of heartache, good friends and the weather always playing a key role. Their music feeds to your frustrations of the world, forcing you to clap, stomp and howl with grand joy and relief. Get ready to holler for more!
Eastbound Jesus will be throwing one heck of album release party this Saturday May 30 at Putnam Den in Saratoga Springs with special guests, Lucid. Tickets are available online (click here) for $12 and will be $15 at the door to the 18+ event with a showtime of 9:00pm. Be sure to catch Eastbound Jesus this summer as they will be touring all over Upstate NY to promote their new album.
Key Tracks: Keep on Hollerin, Shoes, Better Things
You can stream “Keep on Hollerin,” their first single off of Hollerin via soundcloud.
Tim Herron, a noteworthy musician in the Upstate New York area, blends folk, blues and hints of country on his latest album Sentimental Blues. The album might suit the listener for both a porch rockin’, lazy afternoon or a night spent home alone pondering where life will take you next. The music can feel as easy as the summer breeze, though lyrically it challenges questions of self-worth, life’s moments of repetition, as well as finding solace at the bottom of a bottle.
“Conversations” is an immediate attention grabber, with an easy-listening aesthetic perfect for a day spent driving around town. “Building An Army” takes a political stance towards the military functioning and possibly interfering in children’s educational systems—something that Herron is clearly not a fan of. It’s a stance towards freedom of choice and accepting that children usually might not know what they want to do when they grow up at such a young age—making it easier for the high military powers of the country to suck them in to something they really might not want to do.
In the second track “Hate To See Them Go” Herron copes with a bad day and notes how all the shuffling around can get him down, while having to say goodbye to those he hates to see go. It’s a heartfelt expression of loss and confusion of place, which propels the listener to question their own troubles, while finding comfort in the breaks of lead guitar that smoothly soar with the rhythm guitar in a clash of melodies.
Later on in the second half of the album, Herron explores the darker aspects of life with “Wanting Isn’t Needing” and “As You Were Young.” “Wanting Isn’t Needing” acknowledges that everyone suffers and that although life isn’t always easy, there’s a difference between truly needing something versus simply wanting. The song has beautiful string melodies in between verses of vocals that echo vast country land.
“As You Were Young” tells of a young death coming on a cold fog night. The song tries to accept that everything we love will eventually leave us, and those left standing must find ways to deal with past love and lovely times that can haunt through your present nostalgia. It seems that Herron has found his cure, and that for him is through the relatable and limitless expression that maybe only music can offer.
Key Tracks: Conversations, Sentimental Blues, Hate To See Them Go
There may come a time when your favorite bands become older and stop performing live or for whatever reasons. In order to hear those special songs in a concert setting again, you may need to go see a tribute band to get that nostalgic feeling back.
You know, the music that you can just close your eyes, listen, and fall in love with all over again. Most tribute bands do a great job at replicating the signature sounds and production of the original act they promote, and one band in particular that is at the top of the list is Brit Floyd. This group is named as the ‘World’s Greatest Pink Floyd Tribute Show’ and now, I can see why.
On May 20, Brit Floyd brought their 2015 Space & Time World Tour to the Crouse Hinds Theater in Syracuse and hammered the walls down, figuratively speaking. This world tour commemorates the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd and features music from their catalog along with tunes from the Syd Barrett era. The production of this show was nothing short of spectacular, featuring the arc lighting rig with the infamous circle rig in the middle, inflatables, smoke, projection screens, lasers, and much more.
There aren’t really enough words to describe how incredible this performance was. Tho, the highlights of the night, in my opinion, are as follows. The evening’s performance started off with a silent, dark audience paying full attention to a “Speak to Me” video compilation similar to that used by Pink Floyd in the mid 1990s.
The band covertly walked on stage, strapped in and slid into “Breathe,” segueing with “On the Run” into the ever popular ‘Time,” featuring Damien Darlington on vocals. For the next song, Angela Cervantes who is one of the backup singers, performed an intense, emotional version of ‘The Great Gig in the Sky” with Damian on Lap Steel guitar and Tom Ashbrook on Piano. Bringing “See Emily Play” from Floyds’ early days was a great treat for the crowd, as well. Closing out the first set was a polished version of Sheep, from the album Animals.
After a brief intermission, Brit Floyd hustled back to stage, eager to give us their all, and started with “One of These Days,” before playing “Louder Than Words” from the 2014 album The Endless River. Ian Catell on bass, locally from Syracuse, brought back some “Money” featuring some sexy Saxophone solos by Marcus Sholar, for his hometown. Soon came “Wish You Were Here” with Bobby Harrison leading the way on acoustic guitar. Warming the hearts of everyone present, the passionate crowd sang along to the words as if each person had written the words themselves. The band then gave introductions, including an intimate speech by Ian to his close friends and family in attendance. To end the set, came an enormous “Comfortably Numb” sang by the bass player.
‘The Show Must Go On’ kicked off the multi-song encore, paving the way for an incredible “In the Flesh” and “Run Like Hell.” To top off their performance in Syracuse, Brit Floyd gave an invaluable rendition of ‘Waiting for the Worms,’ ‘Stop,’ and “The Trial.” But before bidding adieu, the group assembled together in a row for a soft “Outside the Wall.”
In a nutshell, Brit Floyd is the next best thing to Pink Floyd themselves. The production and overall show they bring to fans is simply amazing and worth far more than what their tickets cost. They’re currently in the beginning of their world tour and hopefully we can catch them back around Syracuse in the next few years. If you haven’t seen them before nor made it to this show, you can order a copy of their Live at Red Rocks DVD from 2013, filmed in front of a sold out venue.
Set 1: Speak to Me, Breathe, On the Run, Time, The Great Gig in the Sky, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V), See Emily Play, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Another Brick in the Wall (Part II), Keep Talking, On the Turning Away, Sheep
Set 2: One of These Days, Louder Than Words, Money, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Have a Cigar, Wish You Were Here, The Final Cut, Band Introductions, Comfortably Numb
Encore: The Show Must Go On, In the Flesh, Run Like Hell, Waiting for the Worms, Stop, The Trial, Outside the Wall
The 117th annual edition of Rochester’s Lilac Festival was nothing short of a resounding success. Blessed by near perfect weather, a killer musical lineup, and actual flowers in bloom for once – it was a far cry from the past few years that were plagued by rain and unseasonably cold temperatures.
The Lilac Festival always has all the typical amenities one would expect in a festival atmosphere – beer tents, kid activities, face painting, fake tatts, deep fried freaking everything, and of course, the ubiquitous barricaded off 100 person deep line for kettle corn. Seriously, do they sprinkle crack on that stuff or what?
However, what makes Lilac Fest truly special are the little extras. The giant food tent filled with local vendors offering everything from “Bacon Bomb” sandwiches to Rochester’s own heartburn special – The Garbage Plate. The brand new “big top” tent that offered a string of activities throughout the week including a wine and chocolate tasting and a brew fest. The weekend based arts and crafts exhibit that moved a block over to Reservoir Drive this year – a great idea that truly helped the traffic patterns. And of course, lots of lilacs!
This years music lineup, brought to you by the Springut Group, had a little bit of everything from country to reggae to bluegrass to good old shreddy rock and roll. Monday brought in a (too) rare appearance from Pennsylvania’s Dr Dog. Wednesday’s headliner, Blues Traveler, seemingly had the biggest crowd in Lilac Fest history with a virtual sea of people watching harmonica master Jon Popper giving them the “Run Around.”
Friday brought Austin’s Mingo Fishtrap back to town for their third visit in the past year. The last day featured one of Rochester’s hottest up and coming bands – Danielle Ponder & The Tomorrow People. Like a musical super hero, Danielle is a lawyer by day and a stunning soul singer by night. Surrounding herself with some of the areas best musicians, The Tomorrow People are started to grab some huge crowds and will continue to grow.
Sunday’s festival closer, Ana Popavic, seemed to be unknown to most I spoke to that day, but will now be implanted in their brains as the sexy lady in the red dress who also happens to be a female master of the blues. This girl simply melted every face on the lawn ending a close to perfect week with mouths agape.
Props to this years organizers and all who put together such an amazing free time for the good people of Rochester. NYSMusic will be back next year – check out several photo galleries from the week below.
Adam Ezra, Dr Dog and Lilacs
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Davina and the Vagabonds, Blues Traveler
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Mingo Fishtrap
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Danielle Ponder & The Tomorrow People, Ana Popavic
This weekend New Jersey will put on its party beads and partake in some New Orleans themed eats while dancing to some of the southern music capitol’s greatest sounds. Michael Arnone alongside his Crawfish Krewe has been putting on the Crawfish Fest in New Jersey for a soon-to-be 26 years. Sussex County’s fairgrounds span 130 acres and will play host to four stages of funk, RnB, brass, rock and zydeco music.
The lineup is topped with legends like Dr. John, George Porter Jr. and Kermit Ruffins, but also has newer artists like Marc Broussard, Anders Osborne, and Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds that keeps a variety of sounds churning out of this yearly melting pot. Local boys From Good Homes will play the festival for the second time since reuniting in 2009 after a 10-year hiatus and will be sure to pack some heat with their hick-pop sound. Campers will get private Friday performances from the Stooges Brass Band, The Lost Bayou Ramblers and the New Orleans suspects, while on Saturday they will enjoy late-night performances from Samantha Fish, John Papa Gros Band and The Heard.
Aside from the mouth-watering lineup, the food at Crawfish Fest is just as important. Every meal is under $10, and spans choices of boiled crawfish, (oyster, shrimp, catfish and hot roast beef Po-Boys), crawfish bread, jambalaya, crawfish etouffee and red beans and rice. When you’re inside the gates, you’ll be busy filling your stomach with food and ears with music you may or may not have encountered before. If you’re looking for an authentic New Orleans music and food experience in the North, there’s no competition.
Kicking off their Radio Cinematic Tour this past week, Jonathan Jackson + Enation will be making their way to the Westcott Theater, on June 1 for their first time performance in Syracuse. Although it’s their first time playing in this area, this trio of musicians although new to some of us, have certainly earned their stripes in the entertainment business in both film and music.
Jonathan Jackson + ENation
Jonathan Jackson + Enation consists of brothers Jonathan and Richard Lee Jackson together with long time friend and musician Daniel Sweatt. Many of you may already know Jonathan from his current role on ABC’s hit series, Nashville as Avery Barkley. You may recognize Richard in his roles in both film and television. These two brothers together with musician and friend Sweatt, have taken the country by storm with their recent release, Radio Cinematic, their fourth album to date. This album, really showcases their essence of sound and personalities in their music.
Richard took a moment out of his really hectic schedule prior to the start of the tour to speak with NYSMusic about their musical careers, making of the new album, and life in Nashville.
Kathy Stockbridge (KS): Hi Richard, so nice to talk with you and thank you so much for agreeing to speak with our readers. We’re really looking forward to having you up this way to the Westcott Theater in Syracuse. Have you played up this way before?
Richard Lee Jackson (RJ): The closest we’ve played in Upstate, NY would be Rochester. So we haven’t actually played yet in Syracuse.
KS: I feel like I’m late to this party. You guys have been making music now for quite a few years and I’m just now discovering you. I love your sound by the way. It’s really unique and cool. You and your brother started playing music together at a young age. Talk to me a little about how that came about. Was it something your family fostered, or was it something you just picked up?
RJ: Well my brother and I started music when we were pretty young. I started playing drums when I was in first grade, and Jonathan started guitar when he was 8-years-old. So we were both very young. Our family is very musical. My dad was a country music singer for a while, kinda semi-professional. So we would play with him in concerts, and be his special guests. So we grew up around music in that sense. But we really didn’t know we were going to do it as a band until we got to be teenagers. We lived in Los Angeles at the time, and we started playing at clubs on the Sunset Strip, like The Whisky A Go Go, The Roxy Theater, and The Viper Room.
KS: Wow, those are great venues to start playing in.
RJ: Yeah, they were great. We were so young, Jonathan I think was 14 and I was 17 when we started doing that. So we couldn’t drink as we were too young, but we had a great time. The band, Enation formed not long after that when we met up with Dan (Sweatt) our bass player, and we started playing together.
KS: Now was Dan a family friend or how did you come to find Dan?
RJ: Our friendship revolved around music as we were in the same group of friends. We found out that he was a guitar player, so he originally started playing guitar for us, but moved to bass a couple of years after. We just started playing together, and there was this chemistry between the three of us, from the bands we listened to and the music that we liked, it was kind of natural communication and friendship that developed around it. It’s been really strong, and really fun. We’ve been doing this now independently for about eight to 10 years, but then this last year we finally got signed and took it to another level.
KS: Yeah I see that as I was researching that you have been doing this now for years; this isn’t your first album. So do you find that your father’s influence and musical taste influenced the direction you guys went, or did you develop your own direction based on those influences and musical likes you had at the time growing up?
RJ: I think we were more influenced by the music we listened to. Back in the early ’90s and the mid ’90s we were all very much in to the alt rock scene. I guess U2 and REM are not quite alt rock, but Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead kinda met with U2, REM, and Peter Gabriel and somewhere in this anthemic rock we had an emotional experience attached to the music and it sort of infiltrated our perspective. Our dad sang a lot of country, but he and his brother grew up listening to a lot of rock and roll and southern rock. So we grew up around Led Zepplin and that type of music as well, and that also has a place in our music as well.
KS: A lot of times when writing about a style of music and describing it to our readers I tend to categorize the sound and I give examples of artists they may sound like. With your music though I can’t pinpoint it to a specific sound because it’s so unique. You have a distinct unique sound, an awesome sound. And it’s one of those things that people will say they sound like “you” we sound like Enation.
RJ: Thank you. That’s a huge compliment. That’s great of you to say.
KS: I must add also, I cover a lot of shows and I notice that music tends to be categorized in a specific genre of a sound. Then there’s those break out artists that go out on their own and develop a new sound, like the hair bands of the ’80s or grunge sound of the ’90s. I find your sound is distinctive and pleasing, and I can see it as a break out sound to be emulated by others.
RJ: I don’t know how that comes to be, but for a long time we’ve been searching to be genuine and authentic and who we are. I think when you are a young band you have to imitate in some ways, because you’ve never done it before. But pretty soon we started to realize that imitation isn’t that great. So we are always trying to find that sound and feel that is most genuine to us. So maybe that’s part of where it comes from.
KS: Exactly. You’ve been in the business for a long time now, not just with music, but with acting as well. Talk to me a little about that journey and do you feel that one calls to you more than the other? Or does it satiate your soul by being able to do both and pursue both avenues?
RJ: I think that being in the acting and film making world has helped us in some ways as artists. It gives you kind of an idea of building an emotional story and relating to an audience on an emotional level, because a lot of what you’re doing as an actor is trying to communicate something in that story that touches people and communicates emotionally. Especially Jonathan as the front man of the band, he is a very fine actor, he has a real strong sense of how to relate something from that emotional place and how to experience something like music, concerts, the album. So it’s not enough for us to just play our music we’re always trying to figure out, is there an emotional moment that we can pinpoint that might take this music to the next level. It could be visual, it could be a song, a theme, lyrics… So from an artistic standpoint I think it’s very complimentary. From a business standpoint, logistically you have to gauge where your going to put your time and energy. So for us right now, Jonathan is working on the tv show for about nine months out of the year. So that creates some logistical complications, but it also gives us an audience to communicate with. So there are pluses and minuses at being in both worlds. Ultimately though, we look at it as something that complimentary.
KS: You just recently moved to the Nashville area. This must give you more time in the studio, as you are right there all together at the same time now. Is that what drew you towards Nashville, or is it that Nashville is just a really cool musical scene right now that you just wanted to be out there?
RJ: Nashville is a great city in and of itself for sure, but the main draw for the band to relocate here is because this is sort of where the center of our music team is. Our management is here. A lot of the meetings that we have are here. Of course Jonathan’s working here right now on the tv show. But the studios, and the producers, and just kind of the whole atmosphere is so exciting and makes life a lot easier to be in one place. You know, we lived in LA for a long time, and of course there’s a great artistic community there, but there is something unique about Nashville that it just seems very communal. Very community oriented. You’re not afraid to really reach out and develop relationships and often times people are real friends, they’re just not business acquaintances.
KS: It’s that southern hospitality.
RJ: It is. It definitely is.
KS: For most of those coming to the show that may never have heard your music before, they may assume it’s country. What would you categorize your music as. Indie, New Rock?
RJ: Well, when I’m explaining it to people I usually say it’s like U2, Pearl Jam, and Bob Dylan adopted a baby boy and left it to fend for itself. In terms of a genre I like to say it’s alt/rock/pop because it’s really all three of those things. If someone wants to call us indie, then that’s totally fine. On iTunes we’re just under rock or alternative. But iTunes has big umbrellas so if I was going to have an expression of our music it’s a little bit nuance, I would probably say alt/rock/pop. If I was to have a blanket statement I would say indie or alternative.
Jonathan Jackson + ENation
KS: You’re touring right now for Radio Cinematic, your fourth album released back last November. Talk to me a little about this album, making it, some things you want our readers to take away after listening to the album.
RJ: We made the record with our co-producer Greg Archilla who worked on Matchbox 20 and some Collective Soul stuff. He’s someone we met in town, and he got really excited about working with us after seeing our live show. One of the goals we have in making Radio Cinematic was trying to capture the sense of what our band is like live. And it’s a difficult thing to do, transitioning from one type of outreach of music to the other. But we felt that Greg really got that after coming to our show. So we were really excited to work with him. We demoed about thirty to forty songs over the course of two years and then narrowed down to the final twelve songs on the record.
You never know exactly what’s going to happen when we go in, but as the canvas formed and the paint started to get thrown on we kinda started seeing this picture of wanting to explore music as something cinematic. So juxtaposition of radio cinematic has to do with a combining of the audio and visual of an artistic expression, and wanting to tell a story in a way that really brings out an emotion in our story. In terms of a theme of the record, I would say that it kind of comes down to of a sense of ..we’re born and we live in a sense of wonder as children and along the way we sort of lose that as we get older. And so one of the songs leads off with how do we get back to that. The record sort of explores these ups and downs of our emotional journeys from childhood to adulthood, and how do we find that sense of joy again in life. Maybe it’s a fact that we’ve been a band for a while but whether it’s a band, or a friendship, or a marriage, or even a business partnership, you sometimes loose that lust for life. And we explore those themes in our songs on how do you renew and refresh and get back that sense of wonder in life.
KS: I can’t wait to see you live. I loved what I’ve heard. Now do you all write and add to the songs? Is it a group collective process?
RJ: It’s a very collaborative process with us. Jonathan is the lyricist, I’ve written a couple of songs with him, one on this album. But Jonathan has 99% of the songs structured already when he brings them to us. So he has the basic structure, and then the band will get together and sometimes the songs will take on a completely different life when we’re playing them, and sometimes our aim is to execute something that Jonathan’s already brought. But it’s a very collaborate process. That’s why we put that this album was co-produced by us because every piece of it was all of us “all hands on deck” to figure out how best to tell the story.
KS: One of the things I came across when preparing for our interview was you recently accomplished a 1/2 marathon. That is quite an accomplishment as I am a runner, okay a brisk walker, and I really want to congratulate you on that accomplishment. You raised a lot of money for St. Jude Research as well. How did you get involved with this, especially with your hectic schedule, how did you fit something like training for something like that in there?
RJ: I’ve always been a little bit of a runner in that I ran a few miles here and there but never more than three or five miles. I was inspired by a couple of my friends who run like that, and I thought if they can do it, I can do it. It’s fun to set goals, and I thought a little bit about wanting to be in great shape before the tour. Then while signing up I realized that St. Jude Research was involved so I was really happy about that, that I was able to put a little bit of a buzz out there to help them out. I can’t believe that the race that day helped them raise over two-million dollars. That was an amazing thing. Yeah, the hectic schedule is definitely there, but you kind of have to make it priority and once you do, you do your best to stick with it and hope everything goes well on the race day.
KS: Well congratulations on the race, on the tour, and we can’t wait to see you here in Central New York.
As I hung up from my interview with Richard, I couldn’t help but think how down to earth this young man was and how creative this band is in their interpretation of music. He nailed it with his description of the love child of U2, REM, and Peter Gabrielle. Their sound is a mixture of all my favorite sounds from several ’80s, ’90s, and millennium bands that blend so perfectly to make their own unique sound. Like I was saying to Richard, I try to give a description to readers so they know what they can expect, however with ENation, it’s something you must listen to, to appreciate. Trust me that this not a country band by any means. Although I love Jonathan’s character and musical renditions on the show, Nashville, it’s a pleasant surprise to see him in a new context that showcases his musical abilities and creativity of the band. If their album is anything close to their live show, I will guarantee you will not be disappointed. Hope to see you there. Tickets can be purchased online.
Jonathan Jackson + Enation
Tour Dates:
5/22 – 3rd & Lindsley – Nashville, TN
5/23 – Vinyl Room – Atlanta, GA
5/24 – Double Door Inn – Charlotte, NC
5/28 – Madison Live – Covington, KY
5/29 – A&R Music Bar – Columbus, OH
5/30 – The Broadberry – Richmond, VA
5/31 – Hard Rock Café – Pittsburgh, PA 6/1 – The Westcott Theater – Syracuse, NY
6/11 – Expo Five – Louisville, KY
6/18 – The Nick – Birmingham, AL
6/19 – George’s Majestic Lounge – Fayetteville, AR
6/20 – Outland Ballroom – Springfield, MO
6/21 – Atomic Cowboy – St. Louis, MO
6/22 – Knuckleheads – Kansas City, MO
6/24 – McGonigel’s Mucky Duck – Houston, TX
6/25 – Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill – Dallas, TX
7/1 – The Hi-Fi – Indianapolis, IN
7/2 – M.I.K.E Stage on the Green Space – Sheboygan, WI
7/25 – Jefferson Park – Chicago, IL
The final day of Summer Camp featured some of the largest acts on the lineup and two regular contributors to the festival: Rain and wind. Even with the beautiful weather the past few days a little rain was expected, if not needed. A strong storm cell blew through around 1pm, causing minor delays in the music while cooling down the festival grounds and erasing the dust that had been ever present during the weekend. Strong winds tested the strength of tents and EZ-Ups, with gusts barely ceasing until fans began to load out on Monday. After three days of near-perfect weather, it was a refreshing change of pace.
moe.’s rain-delayed set with Bruce Hornsby featured “New York City” and five Grateful Dead songs: “Sugaree,” “Loser” and the trio “Help on the Way” > “Slipknot” > “Franklin’s Tower.” Bruce then came out with The Noisemakers for his own set of originals and classics. Steve Miller Band treated an enormous crowd to a slew of hits, including “Jungle Love,” “Abracabadra” and the less well known “Sugar Babe.” It was hard to find anyone not singing along to or bobbing their head to these classics.
On the Sunshine Stage, Yonder Mountain String Band treated fans to a set that highlighted new member Allie Kral (Cornmeal) who sang lead on “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Jolene” before closing with an enthusiastic “Casualty.”
Widespread Panic’s eagerly anticipated sets were nothing short of fantastic and treated first-timers to impressive jamming of songs that typically got a more standard treatment. Opening up with a jam that worked into “Little Kin” and represented tighter segues than in past years, especially from “Action Man” > “Pleas”. The second set opened with “Junior” > “Second Skin” and a monster jam during “Rebirtha” and the newer song “Honky Red.” Widespread Panic could be in the middle of a band renaissance, due in part to Duane Trucks’ presence behind the drum kit for the past year. John Bell thanks the rain gods for holding off during their set, which may have tipped the gods off because shortly afterwards, the skies opened up once again to cool the hot night down.
The Starshine Stage featured the progressive jamgrass of Greensky Bluegrass, who tore through Traffic’s “Light up or Leave me Alone” with a jam of “Tweezer Reprise” in the middle. Meanwhile at the Moonshine Stage, Big Gigantic brought the house down with an impressively loud set, similar to Griz’s set on the Sunshine Stage. If you needed a bit more moe., there was plenty to be had during their final set from 12:30 am to 2 am, highlighted by “Do or Die” featuring breakout group Here Come the Mummies joining the band onstage.
On the VIP stage, Twiddle invited Scott Hannay of Mister F to sit in during “Apples,” to which keyboardist Ryan Dempsey cartwheeled off stage. Hannay sat in later that night with Twiddle, along with Dan Shaw from The Werks on keys at the Campfire Stage during “Mamunes the Faun”.
The final set of the night to check out was North American Scum, an LCD Soundsystem cover band who might be the best band to close out Summer Camp. Members of the group are formerly of This Must be the Band, a Talking Heads band from Chicago, who have traditionally played one of the final sets at Summer Camp. This incredible two hour set featured the entire Sound of Silver album and, because everyone else was playing Grateful Dead songs, a spirited version of “Scarlet Begonias” to cap the night.
Monday morning came and the campgrounds were half abandoned with dreary and exhausted looking fans milling about their sites, packing up tents, deciding what property would be left behind to make the trip to the parking lots easier. By late Monday, Three Sisters Park was vacated and the cleanup beginning in earnest. With all the memories from this year’s festival, one full year until Summer Camp 16 doesn’t seem too far away.
Check out our coverage of all four days of Summer Camp 2015
The band Swampcandy truly lives up to its name, with its music being like candy to your ears. It’s hard to believe that this band consists of just two musicians, Ruben Dobbs on guitar and Joey Mitchell on bass, as they manage to fill up a huge amount of musical space between the two of them. From self-taught Dobbs to university-trained Mitchell, one is the yin to the other’s yang, balancing each other out in the most seamless way imaginable. Their latest album Swampcandy Land has a somewhat distant quality to it, giving the listener a sense that it could have been recorded several decades ago in an old saloon or at a barn dance. You really feel like you’re sitting right there next to the musicians as they are playing each one of their unique jaw-dropping songs.
Combining a fun element with the otherwise somber genre of Mississippi Delta Blues, this band’s latest album Swampcandy Land has a way of working its way into your brain from the first listen. It’s going to be a challenge to gets these songs out of your head, especially “If I Die With My Eyes Open,” which has both infectious lyrics and a riff that is just repetitive enough to get stuck in your head without it being annoying. Adding to the driving beat present throughout the album is Mitchell’s impressive ability to simultaneously play the bass and the kick drum, on which he effectively mimics the sound of a full drum kit. “Drink Whiskey With Me” adds a jazzier, almost klezmer-like, element to the album, featuring a full-on brass section. Getting a little more psychedelic on “Positive Drinking,” somewhat bluegrassy on “Love in My Veins,” and classical and folky at the same time on “Good Day,” Swampcandy sure provided something to please everyone. Dobbs’s voice, though, is perhaps the most striking aspect of the band, covering a wide range of notes with an amazing amount of energy and soul evident in each and every one.
Touring pretty relentlessly last year, playing more than 250 shows throughout the U.S. and the U.K., Swampcandy has deservedly been gaining numerous honors in recent years, having won the 2014 Floydfest “On the Rise” competition and Radio Flag’s Radio Star Award for “Best Artist Fall 2014,” to name just a few. Judging by their latest album, it is easy to see why these awards have been bestowed upon them. Hosting a CD release party on May 22 in Annapolis, MD (with Upstate NY’s very own Blind Owl Band opening up for them), the band will be touring aggressively throughout the rest of the summer, including a stop at The Waterhole in Saranac Lake on August 13, which will definitely be a show not to miss if you happen to be in the area.
If you’re looking for an album with heartfelt lyrics, a pure classic bluesy oldtimey sound, and songs that you won’t mind humming along to all day, then Swampcandy Land is one that you’ll undoubtedly want to add to your collection. Be sure to pick up a copy when it comes out on June 1, and you will get the added bonus of a fun board game to go along with the album. These guys are creative geniuses.
Key Tracks: “If I Die With My Eyes Open,” “Drink Whiskey With Me,” “Swampcandy Land”
It is now Sunday morning and to recap what went down on Saturday at Summer Camp, here’s a play-by-play morning until late night.
10am: wake up after three hours of sleep and sunrise kickball. Feel refreshed, not exhausted. Breakfast of banana, yogurt, life cereal and yerba mate and I am ready to roll.
11am: Head to the church (media area) and get writing my review of Friday.
12pm: Review submitted. I head over to the Camping Stage with camp counselor Nick Stock and catch American Babies. Good stuff, somehow I don’t see them often enough despite playing back in Albany somewhat frequently. Good catching up with Nick too – sometimes you have to meet halfway across the country to hang with your friends.
1:00pm: Field Day. Team Purple with Mer, Mitch, Lisa and two guys from Miami (Ohio) among others. Listened to Orphic during Capture the Flag, Floodwood during Spelling Bee.
3:30pm: Back to the Sunshine Stage for The Floozies. My friend Carrie was talking about them for weeks and for some reason I felt like they were some local/regional band playing hokey rock. This couldn’t have been farther from reality. A drummer and guitarist manning a laptop made for a sick duo ala Big Gigantic. The crowd was in love and rage sticks were everywhere.
4:00pm: Amazeballs Mini-golf! Jason K has an awesome addition to Summer Camp and many other music festivals. In addition to 15 holes you have an opportunity to Make a Difference and win a pair of VIP tickets for Summer Camp 2016. This was a lot of fun.
5:00pm: Back over to Vibe Tent to see how Field Day ended – Red and Yellow were neck and neck, Purple was out of the running but we did clean up the most cigarette butts. Milk n Cookies were playing on the Vibe stage – this is easily the best tent to discover brand new music, especially if you like DJs and EDM.
5:30pm: I meet up with John and head backstage for Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD). Despite numerous opportunities over the past year, I still haven’t seen them. By 7:00pm I’ll understand the hype. Choice covers of “Viola Lee Blues” and “The Eleven” stood out, with Russo leading the charge on drums. This was phenomenal. Stopped and chatted with Scott Hannay from Mister F and Evan from Aqueous before heading up to the Relix tent with Stephen.
8:00pm: Finally back to the site for a short break, time to decompress and change for the night’s music. Washed my face and got some food to prepare for the next six to eight hours. Listened to Victor Wooten’s set from the Starshine Stage (central camping location is perfect for not missing music on four of the seven stages). Wooten’s set seemed a little soft, but then he dropped a few Sly and the Family Stone songs to close it out. I still think his sit-in with STS9 Friday night was a highlight of the fest.
9:00pm: I head to the pit for Umphrey’s. Lighting designer Jeff Waful clears rage sticks from his sightline. There is dude about four rows deep front row keeps singing ‘Party with my dick out’ and no one thinks this is out-of-place. He keeps it up until the lights go down. Umphrey’s opens with “Plunger,” “Pay the Snucka” and “Higgins”. I head backstage for a few, enjoy a couple of beers and catch up with Chicago friends.
10:15pm: Head to pick up my charger at the Relix tent (thank you guys) and try to make it back for The Werks. This band still eludes me. Meet up with Erika, Drew and Phil at the site and head back over for the final set of Umphrey’s.
11:00pm: A “Wappy Sprayberry” opener sets the tone for the rest of the night, “Divisions” has great build and peaks upon peaks, but the encore was the highlight of the night – “Glory > Divisions > ‘Jam for Jesus’/A Love Supreme (for a dude in the crowd) > Divisions”.
12:30am: Beers at the site and then down to Moonshine Stage for moe. I remember a big segue into “Meat”. Saw a few familiar faces from New York in the crowd. The crowd for moe. at Summer Camp is larger than any moe.down I attended. Midwest moe. fans are a fun bunch.
2:00am: I walk to my car to get my rain gear with a forecast of showers during the day on Sunday and Monday. This proved to be a great choice since, as I write this review, a thirty-minute downpour passed by. At least the dust won’t be an issue.
3:00am: Back to the site, I lay down on a bench and listen to a brief shower pass by. This was the perfect way to relax after a long, long day. I am exhausted but beyond excited for Bruce Hornsby, Yonder Mountain String Band and Widespread Panic.
Faith No More has released what is not only comeback of the year, this album so far, is album of the year, speaking of, Sol Invictus makes the first time Faith No More released anything since 1997’s Album Of The Year. Also, this is the first time the band released an album via Reclamation Recordings. What makes this band so fascinating to so many fans of metal is their unpredictability, and the fact they have never released the same album twice. This album is no exception.
Sol Invictus (which means Latin for Unconquered Sun) starts off with the title track. It begins with a beautiful keyboard track from Roddy Bottum over Mike Bordin’s precision drumming. Once you hear that crazy voice of Mike Patton …BOOM! You know that it’s a Faith No More record. The album immediately goes into “Superhero” which may be my favorite song because it’s a fun, groovy, and heavy track with very catchy keyboards blended so nicely into the overall track. Then the satire track “Sunny Side Up” lightens the mood of that album.
“Separation Anxiety” goes polar opposite of the previous track and it begins with a killer bass and drum rhythm that leads to a gloomy and dark atmospheric tone that makes this track a real stand out. Sol Invictus wouldn’t be a Faith No More album without some kind of unpredictable and strange track that makes you scratch you head a little bit and make you think “WTF?” and that track would be the fifth song on the album “Cone Of Shame” because I don’t know what the fuck this track is. The album goes into another strange track but this time you get a really get an awesome range of Patton’s vocals on “Rise Of The Fall” and guitarist Jon Hudson really shines on “Black Friday.”
Going into the tail end of the album, the hilarious but awesome track “Motherfucker” will be playing over and over in your head for days to come. Patton delivers another grand vocal performance on “Matador” before the album ends with “From The Dead” which is an appropriate ending because its upbeat song. Overall, Faith No More delivered a grand and deep album that takes you on an unpredicatable and enjoyable ride. Bassist Billy Gould wrote most of the music on this album as well as produced this masterpiece. With lots of touring ahead, we can only hope that this is just the beginning for the revamped Faith No More. I highly recommend this purchase. You can buy SolInvictushere.
Key Tracks: “Superhero,” “Separation Anxiety,” “Motherfucker,” “From The Dead”
It was a long winter for all of us, especially with Eastbound Jesus in hibernation, dedicated to working on their third studio album, Hollerin, set to drop this weekend. Eastbound Jesus spent the cold days at Edie Road Studio in their hometown of Greenwich, NY with producer/engineer Marc Fuller to bring fans the best sounds of their northern rock music to date. The 10 track album captures the essence of an EBJ live rowdy performance as well as representing a more mature sound. Hollerin features special guests musicians Chris Carey (Sean Rowe, Rodeo Barons) and Lowell Wurster and Jaime Armstrong (Lucid) helping to elevate the jamgrass fusion.
“Conversations” is an immediate attention grabber, with an easy-listening aesthetic perfect for a day spent driving around town. “Building An Army” takes a political stance towards the military functioning and possibly interfering in children’s educational systems—something that Herron is clearly not a fan of. It’s a stance towards freedom of choice and accepting that children usually might not know what they want to do when they grow up at such a young age—making it easier for the high military powers of the country to suck them in to something they really might not want to do.
On May 20, Brit Floyd brought their 2015 Space & Time World Tour to the 
After a brief intermission, Brit Floyd hustled back to stage, eager to give us their all, and started with “One of These Days,” before playing “Louder Than Words” from the 2014 album The Endless River. Ian Catell on bass, locally from Syracuse, brought back some “Money” featuring some sexy Saxophone solos by Marcus Sholar, for his hometown. Soon came “Wish You Were Here” with Bobby Harrison leading the way on acoustic guitar. Warming the hearts of everyone present, the passionate crowd sang along to the words as if each person had written the words themselves. The band then gave introductions, including an intimate speech by Ian to his close friends and family in attendance. To end the set, came an enormous “Comfortably Numb” sang by the bass player.
In a nutshell, Brit Floyd is the next best thing to Pink Floyd themselves. The production and overall show they bring to fans is simply amazing and worth far more than what their tickets cost. They’re currently in the beginning of their world tour and hopefully we can catch them back around Syracuse in the next few years. If you haven’t seen them before nor made it to this show, you can order a copy of their Live at Red Rocks DVD from 2013, filmed in front of a sold out venue.
The lineup is topped with legends like Dr. John, George Porter Jr. and Kermit Ruffins, but also has newer artists like Marc Broussard, Anders Osborne, and Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds that keeps a variety of sounds churning out of this yearly melting pot. Local boys From Good Homes will play the festival for the second time since reuniting in 2009 after a 10-year hiatus and will be sure to pack some heat with their hick-pop sound. Campers will get private Friday performances from the Stooges Brass Band, The Lost Bayou Ramblers and the New Orleans suspects, while on Saturday they will enjoy late-night performances from Samantha Fish, John Papa Gros Band and The Heard.
