Performances: BrownChicken BrownCow StringBand: “Sexy When She Comes” BrownChicken BrownCow StringBand: “She Comes and She Goes” (with Barry Sless) Boris Garcia: “Shady Grove” Boris Garcia: “Walking Barefoot” Boris Garcia: “Point Of Grace” Boris Garcia: “Song of Love” David Nelson Band: “Lochinvar” BrownChicken BrownCow StringBand: “Twilight Swamp” (with Barry Sless)
This episode explores the convergence of traditional folk, gypsy, bluegrass, and Appalachian country music in a live jam setting. It also provides an example of the influence of ancient Scottish and Celtic folk songs, as reinterpreted by Appalachian country and bluegrass artists, on today’s jam bands.
The Flying Other Brothers shared the bill with the David Nelson Band and Stir Fried.
Welcome to the Flying Other Brothers Music Podcast, hosted by Rockument, a podcast channel produced by Tony Bove, the harmonica player in the Flying Other Brothers.
What a weekend — long and occasionally strange, at that! We performed at “May Daze” on May 27, 2005 at Matt and Maria Jefferson’s ranch, Strasburg, CO.
The playlist:
Spitfire (Pete Sears)
Falling In Leaves (Ann McNamee, G.E. Smith)
Blip In The Life (Tony Bove, G.E. Smith)
Gwendolyn (Roger McNamee)
Wise Man in the Desert (Bill Bennett)
Spillin’ The Blues (Ann McNamee, Lou Dog)
Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad (with Bill McKay, organ, vocals)
The Flying Other Brothers are: Roger McNamee, rhythm guitar Ann McNamee, percussion Jim Sanchez, drums Pete Sears, keyboards Barry Sless, lead and pedal steel guitar Bert Keely, guitar and trumpet TBone Tony Bove, harmonica Bill Bennett, bass
In the days before the weekend, we learned a couple of worrisome things: Vince Herman, exuberant front man for the late, lamented Leftover Salmon, had emergency surgery to fuse two vertebrae that were in danger of severing his spinal cord; and Bill Laymon, well-known bassist for the David Nelson Band, found himself in the hospital, baffling doctors with some troubling symptoms.
One result: for the first time in years, Pete Sears took his bass on the road with him. Those who know him as a keyboard player may not recall that Pete held down the low end for Jefferson Starship back in the day, and having played keyboards behind Nelson on many occasions, he was a natural choice to fill in.
So we arrived at May Daze, trailing a cloud of dust as we arrived on Thursday evening for a sound check, only to find that the rigors of building a stage had taken somewhat longer than expected. We went off in search of dinner, at the best BBQ place in Strasburg, CO. OK, the only BBQ place in Strasburg. This may explain why the Nelson crew found us so easily, whereupon followed a finger-lickin’ session of swapping lies, with an undercurrent of real concern for Bill, who was still stuck in San Francisco, awaiting the results from a spinal tap.
Friday night, then, is the show you hear in this podcast — featuring the incomparable Bill McKay from Leftover Salmon on “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad” — and after we did our thing, Pete admirably defined the pocket for the Nelson band. Next thing we knew, it was Saturday afternoon, and we got word that Bill Laymon was en route. He seemed a bit weak when he arrived, but his playing that night was as strong as ever. This, by the way, makes David Nelson one of the very few who has played with both the Dead and the near-dead.
Come Sunday, and with it menacing storm clouds and intermittent rain, when who should appear on the scene but Vince Herman, patched together with the usual baling wire and bubble gum, and with the addition of a very rakish neck brace. We prepared a modified set list when Vince allowed as how he might just join us for our set, and so Strasburg’s May Daze was the venue for the unofficial debut of Vince and the Stiffnecks (having decided that the neck brace was not enough like a clerical collar to support a band called Father Vincent and the Altar Boys). We played into the teeth of a driving rain, it must be added, that ultimately caused the cancellation of the festival’s final set by Stir Fried. We note with great pleasure that Mookie Siegel also sat in with the band on the mighty Hammond, as he had on Saturday. Got that? Right. We returned to the Bay Area with our faith in the healing power of music confirmed once more.
Set list, Friday 5/27
Highway 61 Revisited
Spitfire
Falling In Leaves
Blip In The Life
Gwendolyn
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Wise Man in the Desert
Spillin’ The Blues
Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad (with Bill McKay, organ, vocals)
Set list, Saturday 5/28 (with Mookie Siegel, organ)
Tell Me It’s Okay
Old Brown Shoe
Clueless
Spillin’ The Blues
W. S. Walcott Medicine Show
Arastradero Road
Stella Blue
Nick of Time > Devil’s Kitchen
Set list, Sunday 5/29 (with Vince Herman, guitar, vocals; and Mookie Siegel, organ)
Highway 61 Revisited
Friend of the Devil
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
Euphoria
The Weight
Love Minus Zero
Like A Rolling Stone
Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad
The Flying Other Brothers crew:
Howard Danchik, live engineer Stacy Parrish, studio and live recording engineer Pat Morrow, Road Manager Paul Dulany, crew Dawn Holliday, spiritual advisor
