Elvis playing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Oct. 5 '08

[migdd]

Another blog report:

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/1 ... -bordello/


The final day of the 2008 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival featured a wide array of acts that strained the capacity of the park and pushed the boundaries of the fest’s identity. Watching as thousands of young people bounced and crowd-surfed to the gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello at the Star Stage, it was hard to remember the little one-day festival featuring Hazel Dickens and Dale Ann Bradley that launched just seven years ago. The crowds Sunday would have been large anyway considering the near-perfect weather, but hip acts such as Gogol Bordello and indie-folk artist Iron & Wine brought in thousands of music fans who couldn’t have cared less about Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs. The result was some serious overcrowding that made it difficult to get close enough to see a delightful set by Elvis Costello and his High Whines & Spirits band, and made it impossible to wander easily among the stages as you could on Saturday.

After a late night on Saturday, I got a relatively late start on Sunday, arriving at the park around 2. I thought that would be plenty of time to get a good spot for Elvis’ set at 2:30, but I made the mistake of stopping by the singer-songwriter-oriented Rooster stage first. By the time I got in and out of there, even folks with the coveted Friends & Family passes weren’t being admitted to their inner sanctum near the Star Stage, where Elvis was set to perform. After a few minutes, I gave up and made a tactical retreat to the back of the pack and gradually worked my way up until I could hear well and could catch an occasional glimpse of Elvis and the band if I stood on my toes and craned my neck. Thousands had a worse view than me.

There had been no official announcement on who would be part of Costello’s High Whines & Whispers, but it turned out the band bore more than a passing resemblance to the Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods band that backed him up at the fest two years ago. Like that band, this one featured drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Davey Faragher from the Imposters, Austin de Lone on keyboards, Bill Kirchen on his Telecaster, and Fats Kaplin on everything else, plus a guest appearance from Emmylou Harris. As last time, he performed a Dead cover (”Friend of the Devil,” this time) and a Van Morrison cover (”Wild Night,” this time) and sang “Love Hurts” with Emmylou (much stronger than what I remembered from last time) and ended the proceedings with “Peace, Love and Understanding” and “The Scarlet Tide” (this time with an assist from the Burlington Welsh Male Chorus). New wrinkles: Jim Lauderdale in band, some new songs from his upcoming collaboration with T Bone Burnett, a much shorter time on stage. Anyway, despite all the hassles it was still pretty great, and I even bought the T-shirt. Who knows when we can expect another “High Whines & Spirits” show?

Here’s the set list: The Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes / Uncomplicated / Radio Sweetheart / Wild Night / Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down / Down Among the Wines and Spirits / High Timberline (Lauderdale vocal) / Friend of the Devil / My Three Sons / From Sulfur to Sugarcane / The Crooked Line (I called it “Life’s Companion” last time, but he announced it with this title) / Love Hurts / Peace, Love and Understanding / The Scarlet Tide

There was a half-hour gap before the next set by Gogol Bordello, so I headed over to catch some Iron & Wine, but it was such a mob scene that I gave up before I got close enough to see or hear anything. Looked a lot more like a Dr. Dog crowd than a Doc Watson crowd, though.

Back to Gogol Bordello, where I was able to get into the Friends & Family section and get a decent view of the mayhem. Eugene Hutz & Co. put on one of the most energetic, exciting and insane live acts you will ever see, with fiddle and accordion a-blazing, two dancing girls in minuscule shorts, a manic percussionist/hype man who was climbing the rigging toward the end, and Hutz up front, leading the charge, singing, strumming and banging on a red fire bucket. I didn’t even bother taking notes, but I do recall hearing their anthem, “Start Wearing Purple,” toward the end of the set. Words escape me. Wow.

After that, things mellowed out a bit and it started being more like a kinda sorta typical festival. I caught the tail end of one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Loudon Wainwright III. It had been 15 years since I last caught him, but he still sounded great, with the perfect mix of pathos and biting humor, and hilarious between-song patter (”I’ve got some Bolivian flake cocaine I’ll be selling on the hillside over there after the show”). Great to hear “White Winos” and a cover of Jimmy Martin’s “20/20 Vision” — the only bluegrass song I heard all day. He closed with an uncharacteristically optimistic new one, “Middle of the Night.”

I stayed put at the Rooster Stage to catch Iris DeMent, skipping the traditional final set by Emmylou at the Banjo Stage. DeMent made one of the most auspicious splashes on the folk scene in the ’90s, but she’s kept a relatively low profile of late, and I’d never seen her before. After a crazy day, Iris’ small, sane, lovely songs — delivered in a twangy, quavery voice from behind her piano — sounded wonderful. The smallish crowd got a special treat when Jimmie Dale Gilmore come up to join her on an unrehearsed version of Hank Williams’ “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love With You.” It was the first time those two had ever performed together on stage, and as anyone who has heard their two distinctive voices can imagine, they blended beautifully.

After a couple more songs, I decided to get a head start on the crowd and check on that Red Sox score. Can you believe they lost? What a drag.

Anyway, would love to hear y’all’s thoughts on the fest. What did you like? What did I miss? How did you cope with the huge crowds? Is it getting too big? Are you looking forward to next year already?

[mood swung]

So, which one's Frank and which one's Dexter?

Great Wild Night video.

[scielle]

Lots more pictures of Dexter and Frank training in the family trade here:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=rec&ss= ... llo&m=text



(I hope it's not in bad taste posting these links - after all, they were on stage, so I'm guessing whoever took these figured they were fair game...)

[sweetest punch]

http://nl.zooomr.com/photos/prophead/6045820/

[verbal gymnastics]

Looks like "Take your kids to work day" was good for two kids!

[sweetest punch]

"Jeanlass" is uploading a lot of video's on youtube. They look good and sound great!!
Friend of the Devil: http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=FQSqwTwUyMg&feature=user
Down among the Wines and Spirits: http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=9oMlsUyh3tM&feature=user
Wild Night: http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=ges69GRMKrA&feature=user

Hopefully there's a lot more to come!

[migdd]

The incomparable Jeanlass has uploaded the mighty fine Sulfer To Sugarcane onto youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeahDmvcdAw

[johnfoyle]

http://sfscene.blogspot.com/2008/10/eve ... grass.html

Posted by The Jaded Gay DJ at 8:35 PM

Monday, October 20, 2008
Event Review: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival


(extract)


Okay, I know, it's a little late but, hey, this is what happens when you're busy.

For the second year in a row the boyfriend was one of the onstage recording engineers for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and on Sunday he had the good luck to be working the stage with Ben Kweller, Elvis Costello, and GoGo Bordello, among others. I hauled myself down there in time to catch the end of Kweller's set, all of Costello's, and the very beginning of GoGo Bordello, and I have to say that, after some of the wretched excess of the LoveFest, it was a veritable balm for the soul.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elvis Costello, on the other hand, was the consummate, veteran performer who knew all the moves but came across as slightly empty. On one of the hottest days in San Francisco this year Costello came onstage wearing a hat, a scarf, a vest over a shirt, and a long coat. Though one person commented to me that he looked like The Penguin, I eventually came to think of his outfit as both costume and armor, something he put on to project a persona but was, in the end, something that kept you from seeing what was underneath. He opened up with "Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes" to remind everybody who he was, went through the routine of getting people to clap and sing along with his songs, but then, as he was switching guitars halfway through, he popped off at one of the monitor engineers - it was really quick, only four words said off to the side of the stage, and had I not been standing where I was and able to see the expression on his face, I might not have even noticed it, but it was an instant when I could see past the showman who had named his kids Dexter and Frank so they could be a Vaudeville Act to a rather dyspeptic curmudgeon underneath all those layers.

[Neil.]

Well noted, that person! I've seen Elvis being stroppy with this road-crew and guitar people before - I swear I saw him shove a roadie once, quite agressively, as he handed over a guitar. Not good - just because he's a great artist doesn't give him the right to push people around.

Also agree about his increasing tendency to wear costumes - he's not a country legend or a jazz elder statesman - he doesn't need all these elaborate hats etc - and the sunglasses indoors. Looks cool sometimes, but also seems defensive. Having followed the man for years, he does seem incredibly prickly - one badly-reviewed album seems to make him think that the whole of Britain hates him. I wish he could relax - I think it all stemmed from the Columbus incident: he was so misunderstood by that, that it must still have repercussions.

He's got talent to burn - hope he can relax.

[always dancing]

Elvis is always doing something. You never know where he is going to pop up. He works very hard and as anyone who works long hard hours knows, you can lose your cool. It does look like he has help with the twins as I saw in the pictures each one had a nanny. He probable should slow down a little and take time to get himself in physical and mental shape. Than he will be fresh for each performance --- but than again that wouldn't be Elvis. Maybe his new chewing gum habit is to deal with the stress.

[Neil.]

Gah, the gum-chewing habit. If he thinks it looks tough, along with the shades and hats, he's wrong. He looks great for his age - never looked better in fact. He doesn't need props to prove anything to the youngsters.

Don't get me wrong - he's my musical idol, I'm not slagging him off. It's just that my fan worship means that anything he does that threatens his popularity, I get edgy about (saddo as I am!)

[sweetest punch]

"Tonight the bottle left me down" on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6zYq7xl-Og

[bambooneedle]

I've seen Elvis being stroppy with this road-crew and guitar people before - I swear I saw him shove a roadie once, quite agressively, as he handed over a guitar. Not good - just because he's a great artist doesn't give him the right to push people around.

At the TDM show in Sydney I was struck by how meekly the guitar tech would approach EC and hand him his guitars, like he was scared of him! And EC would grab them and throw the strap over his head without the slightest acknowledgement. It was disturbing.

[migdd]

I've noticed the same thing over the years of attending EC shows. It seemed to be much worse in the old days but the attitude still rears it's ugly head from time to time. On the other hand, when I last saw EC and the Imps (back in May), I noticed that he was almost overly polite to his tech. Maybe he was trying to go easy on a new guy.

[charliestumpy]

Ta for links etc of songs - whilst looking for 'High Timberline' I found this EC version at last year's Merlefest on YT ...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TmibUr4-rP0

[jeanlass]

Hey, thanks for the kind words-- I have to threaten people over at the listserv for comments like that! I've just uploaded a silly version of Uncomplicated to Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/2061635

I've also got a couple of big honkin' MOV or WMV files available for downloading at Mediafire:
http://www.mediafire.com/jeanlass

More soon!
Jean

[sweetest punch]

Hey, thanks for the kind words-- I have to threaten people over at the listserv for comments like that! I've just uploaded a silly version of Uncomplicated to Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/2061635

I've also got a couple of big honkin' MOV or WMV files available for downloading at Mediafire:
http://www.mediafire.com/jeanlass

More soon!
Jean

Thanks for the video's, they are great! Any chance for Elvis and Emmy?

[jeanlass]

Yes, EC & Emmylou up next!

[sweetest punch]

Love Hurts on youtube:
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=LybspQMQcLM
(Thanks Jeanlass!)

[jeanlass]

You're welcome, SP! It's now on Vimeo, too:
http://vimeo.com/2087671
You can download the .mov file there, as well as watch a streaming version.

Cheers,
Jean

[slobin]

I've finally gotten around to posting a few of my pics from this show on Flickr - check them out at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisyearsb ... 543777091/

[Otis Westinghouse]

Nice photos. It's a lovely setting. I'm not used to seeing Elv with a shiny red Rickenbacker, certainly not back in the days earlier this century when he used to play gigs in England. Is this a new thing?

[johnfoyle]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dogmilque/ ... otostream/


Elvis Costello's High Whines & Spirits by dogmilque.
Though I wasn't in love with the music, I really wanted to see Elvis in person. Even if it was a sea of people away. Love the 10x zoom.

[johnfoyle]

....and now the t-shirt -

http://elviscostello.shop.musictoday.co ... &pc=EOCT09

[jmm]

I got one at the show - nice quality