10/19 Check-in

Whoosh...two successive nights of the TTB @ the Beacon last weekend def put a lil' dent in this can of beans...mercy! Both shows were beyond exceptional and featured setlists packed with unexpected covers played with exact precision & feel...classic originals that spanned their entire discography, including earlier solo material...and intense Mad Dogs-like chemistry & energy that allowed them to go from runaway train abandon to pin-drop quiet, raw emotion at the mere glance of a guitarist. Detailed reviews to come, for sure...

Other distractions last week included the 4th sad Sunday in a row on the gridiron for my Steelers...(my?)...which was a swift kick of reality to my balls after such an otherwise magical musical weekend. But the super-psyched yang to that salty yin was the highly anticipated start of the 2022 NHL season. The Pens went 2-0 and scored an unbelievable 12 goals in the process...with Sid netting 2 goals and 6 assists to earn him NHL's first-star player of the week. 

(...i know...we lost last night...and the 'Lers beat Tom Brady on Sunday...its been a real topsy-turvy 48 hours that i'm still trying to process) 

The wife and i have also started the ball rolling this week to finally get a new dog...so my attention and energies have been all over the place these days. Its involved a crazy mix of emotions that bounces from guilt to excitement and from sadness to anticipation at any moment. I still miss Hunter terribly...probably more than i let myself admit...but i don't think that will ever ebb from the shores of my heart. Still, i can't ignore the happy sparks felt at the possibility of what this pursuit will produce at the start of our search.  

I'll be back in a day or two to make good on the promise of tales involving Trucks-ian encounters.  

Till then...might i recommend some music from another, pretty good guitar player that you might have heard before...James Marshall Hendrix. I know that i'm being a total contrarian on this one...but mark my words...that guy is talented and well-worth yr' time! Seriously though...i feel like my turntable go-to's this year have involved a heavy rotation of either funk/soul groovers or obscure, experimental/instrumental filled playlists...with some recent live GD releases & the TBB 4-LP "I Am The Moon" thrown in for good measure. So when i happened upon the few Hendrix records on my shelf this week that have gone woefully underplayed for far too long...i quickly shined up those plastic biscuits and have been spinning them non-stop on the platter ever since. 

1983...goddamn...what an enveloping lysergic symphony of sound that still is to these ears. 

I was introduced to the Beatles too early to realize that what i considered to be their playful, cartoonish style was actually a partial...if not entire...by-product of the progression of their drug experimentation and use. But when I dug into Hendrix as a teen, it was impossible to ignore the obvious Owsley influence on his sound, lyrics and over-all vibe. I was also old enough to know what "high" was by then...but had no personal experience with it (yet). However, i sure-as-shit knew that Hendrix was deeply steeped in "highness"...and my immediate immersion into his cannon would become an important catalyst for me to continue searching for similar musicians that also refused to color inside the lines. Like i said in a previous post...musical connections are cool. 

...but i digress...the list of things to do today has grown as i've typed this...laters. 

A prelude of unexplainable frustration...aka, my intro to Derek Trucks...

I’ve always loved the connections that link musicians and bands together over time. You get hooked on a band…then learn that their keyboard player used to play in this other band before that…you dig into that band…you love it…and eventually find a live recording from 5 years ago that features a sit-in by a guitarist you’ve never heard of before and instantly love…you dig into that person’s back-catalog and learn that they were heavily influenced by a jazz musician you’ve never heard of and also, deeply steeped on the blues records of another artist that you’ve yet to discover…so you dive headfirst into the catalogs of those two musical worlds…and eventually, your head and shelf-space quickly become overpopulated with all of the musical links, side-tangents and rabbit-holes that are now currently bowing every shelf in the house with the weight of their collected recordings. 

For example…

i got hooked on the Grateful Dead in 1994 > then proceeded to nerd-out on other, similar bands from that era & went full-hog into collecting GD bootlegs > got blown away by the cassettes that featured the live GD/Allman Brothers Band-related collaborations of 2/11/70, 6/10/73, 7/28/73, 12/31/73 > saw my 1st ABB concert in 1996, introducing me to Warren Haynes in the process > picked up the new release “Live From Roseland”, by his side-project Gov’t Mule…was absolutely blindsided by his blistering instrumental take on the primal lysergic GD staple “St Stephen” during their extended jam “Trane” that instantly secured the Mule’s permanent place in my personal musical pantheon (it would be another 12-18 months before i got into John McLaughlin/Mahavishnu Orchestra via his work on the historical Miles Davis albums “In A Silent Way” & “Tribute to Jack Johnson”…and realized that the Mule’s “Trane” also featured an eyebrow searing take on Mahavishnu’s “Eternity’s Breath”…pushing my love & respect for this “side-project” band to soaring new levels) > immediately bought tickets to their upcoming local show @ Roseland on 5/13/1998, with another outfit - the Derek Trucks Band - as opener > had my mind liquified by live music all night long and even witnessed Allen’s bass- playing bow the front windows of Rosebud outward with the brute, sternum-shaking force of his low end…setting the bar unbelievably HIGH for the next 50+ Mule shows i’d attend over the years.

But above all else, i was absolutely thrown…and honestly, spooked…by the playing and overall style of the 18 year-old guitarist that opened the show. The combination of youth & skill he displayed that night was something my brain simply couldn’t and flat-out refused-to comprehend. It was like 2 + 2 suddenly equaled 3. He built universes of relentlessly explosive sounds and sinewy melodies, only to tear them apart, flip them upside-down and turn them inside-out to the delight of my puddled brain…all while maintaining the most peaceful, beatific look as he played…eyes closed, body still…essentially shedding his mortal shell to become a conduit...a divine portal almost...thru which transmissions were received from the farthest of galaxies and the highest of spirits. My immediate admiration & respect for him was only matched by my frustration to understand what i just saw. How can he look so young, display such skill, focus so deeply, transport me so far and yet, make it look so GODDAMN easy?!?! Before that night, I had never witnessed a guitarist play with as much fire and passion without also falling into the trope-trap of being an over-emoting cartoon on-stage, assaulting you endlessly with in-your-face flashes of frenetic fret-work fueled more by ego than by soul & spirit. 

And now…it’s almost a quarter-century later…and I’ve yet to figure out what I saw that night…let alone, makes sense of everything else Derek has conjured right before my eyes in the 60+ shows i’ve seen him perform (w/the DTB, ABB & TTB) following that introductory night back in ’98. From that point forward, the strong musical connections that I forged that night - from the GD to the ABB to GM to the DTB - planted the seed for me to become the all-in apostle, ride-or-die disciple, full-blooded fanatic of this amazing guitarist who was 4 years my junior...and who i would also embarrassingly nickname - the manchild - for several years to follow...

(which is only slightly less awkward than the more recently embraced “D-Train” moniker I’ve been using)

(…i’m so sorry, Derek.)

His transitive music has always spoken to me as much as his humble & grounded demeanor has acted as a shining example of humanity and husbandry in the process, continually inspiring me to catch him wherever and as often as I can in the process. The rewards of which have been nothing short of pure joy & satisfaction for my mind/body/soul at every new show I attend. Not to mention, having a few occasions of magic and luck help to color my always wonderful experiences through years of fandom. Two of such examples I'll elaborate on in the next few posts/days to mark & celebrate getting to attend this weekend's Tedeschi Trucks Band shows at the Beacon Theater...so stay tuned!