Primus. Neat, haven't seen em since Jay came back from Ratdog. Cool.

Umphrey's is a good safe call, particularly if they're doing a late night set.

Tea Leaf. Great call, really like Reed & Company..

Del McCoury and Emitt Nershi.. For some inexplicable reason, I like bands that still actually play instruments, and sing rather than push macro buttons on Ableton Live.

All in all, shaping up. Glad to see it won't be a complete Ableton Live sample replay session.

Wherein we learn Bob comes in 2nd to Ableton Live.

Stay tuned for the 2nd round announcements.

This is a first. In all the years I've been doing this, we've never promoted a specific show for a band. However, for those of you attending this year's Yonder Mountain Harvest Fest, this is the ONE set you do NOT want to miss.

I first met The Greencards at SxSW a few years ago. Unlike most of the bands I encounter, I actually met them before I got to see them perform. I picked up Viridian off iTMS and listened to it on the way down to the interview. It was excellent. However it didn't even begin to prepare me for their live show.

Comparisons to Union Station are inevitable, not so much in terms of the songwriting and style, but the sheer perfection of their live delivery. Tight doesn't even begin to describe it.

The chops are insanely ludicrous. Beyond bad ass is an almost miserable failure to do them justice.

Here's a band that's toured with Dylan and Willie, been nominated for not one, but two Grammy's. They have a fairly rabid following in what I tend to call the "golf clap bluegrass" set, yet few outside of that arena have ever heard of them. I find this odd, because they can tear it up with the best of em. Kym Warner (mando and a mess of other stringed widgets) is one of the best mando shredders I've ever heard. Carl Miner won the Winfield International Flatpicking championship some years back, and with good reason. He's so good it borders on ridiculous, and is one of the most consistently outstanding guitarists I've ever encountered. This guy just doesn't have a bad night. Ever. Beyond having devastating fiddle chops. Tyler Andal just drips talent. A while back he entered a flatpicking guitar contest at a festival on a whim (he doesn't even play guitar) and won. And then there's Carol Young. She's brilliant on any number of levels. Her voice will totally melt your face and leave you in a puddle on the ground.

Beyond their formidable musical prowess, they're just wonderful folks across the board. Some of my favorite memories of the last few years have been hanging out with them for post show picks in green rooms, hotel lobbies and living rooms.

They played the main stages at Winfield 7 years in a row, which is probably why most of you haven't seen them, because most of you don't even go into the venue any more. I get that, I only went in once this year and that was for Hot Club of Dogtown. Maybe they need to do a set on Stage 5 next year.

As far as the material goes? It's solid. Well written, clever, tight and polished harmonies, and all over the map from slick grooves with killer hooks to ballads that have an uncanny ability to cut right through to your soul. If you're familiar with the Podank's buddies Milk Drive (they hung out at Winfield last year playing the hell out of Coconut Rum with Thomas Trap) then you've heard Kym Warner's writing. He contributed a couple of his songs (I just love Stepping Stones) to Milk Drive's latest album.

That said, I'm always puzzled as to why most of the people I run into aren't familiar with them. Maybe they just haven't got in front of the right crowd yet.

So that's why I'm so incredibly thrilled that they're playing this year's Yonder Harvest Fest.

They're on the Backwood stage, Friday night, from 6:30-7:45. Most of my favorite bands in the last few years have been discoveries on the Backwoods stage at Yonder and Waka. If you haven't seen them live before, maybe it's time you add them to your personal Backwoods stage discovery list.

Links:

Live Show Photos - I know, I'm way behind on getting current stuff up for these folks.

Cheers.

Wakarusa 2011. For the 3rd year in a row, we've made the June trip to Mulberry Mountain for the annual heat survival test known as Wakarusa.

This year had a great line up, and despite the heat was an awesome time.

I always look forward to Wakarusa, and a big part of that is unlike many other larger festivals, Wakarusa always brings in a great selection of local and regional acts, many of which are every bit as good and often surpass the headliners.

Best new musical finds for 2011: Hoots and Hellmouth and Mountain Standard Time.

We tend to pretty much hang out on the Backwoods stage, and as a result don't catch many of the headliners on the larger stages. Of the bits we did catch, My Morning Jacket put on a killer set, Umphrey's McGee knocked out a great late night set, Grace Potter turned in a decent set, although the stage banter was a bit too contrived for me.

This was the first year we didn't check out any of the food vendors (much to be said for a refrigerator/freezer and stove in an RV) but everyone I talked to said it was all pretty good to really good.

The line getting in was FAR better this year than last year. They're figuring out how to get people on and off the mountain a bit more efficiently which is a very good thing. Last year was a bit of mess.

For some inexplicable reason, the "beefed up" security wasn't firing on all cylinders. Various members of the security teams felt it necessary to force people to pour out their water (in 105 degree heat mind you) with the instructions that they'd be able to "refill" inside the venue. The problem was, there WASN'T any place to refill inside some of the venues. It didn't matter if your bottle was sealed or not, if it was liquid, you couldn't bring it in.

I got into a major confrontation with one of these kids who refused to let me bring in a sealed can of soda (being a diabetic in that heat means I have to have very fast acting carbs with me at all times in this sort of heat).

This was ridiculous, and in fact, dangerous. We contacted various members of the Waka staff in an attempt to get the situation rectified, but it still took the better part of almost 2 days before the control obsessed security staff got their collective cranial rectal inversions attended to.

It wasn't just the attendees who were being harassed about the water either. The security staff handling stage load in on the Backwoods stage was pulling the same maneuver on the bands and the stage crews as well, resulting in the above pic.

There were other minor glitches. The onsite RV dump service was markedly less than competent. I paid $40 to have them dump my tanks on the ground for me, as they couldn't figure out how to securely connect to my drain line, not once, but twice. Maybe the heat had gotten to them.

Wakarusa for the most part has a very laid back crowd. This is one of the reasons it's one of my favorite festivals of the year. Yet, every year there has to be some group of idiots hell bent on spoiling the fun for everyone, and this year was no exception. A group of morons came in with quarter sticks of dynamite and were lighting them off in the porta johns. Over the course of the event, they blew up at least 7 by my count. This was incredibly stupid, and extremely dangerous. Fortunately no one got hurt.

Various shots from each day..

Prior to this, I'd never heard of the KC performance troup Quixotic. Billed in the Waka guide as an extravaganza, this "show" was part music, part Cirque du Soleii, part lightshow, part disco.

While interesting visually, the music component was fairly unremarkable, particularly the vocals and fiddle work, although that wasn't really the point. The gymnastics work was pretty cool, and the light stuff was as well.

The gallery is here:

Wakarusa, Friday. We were so blown away by Hoots and Hellmouth's set on Thursday, we headed back to check out their second set. Despite ridiculous heat, and everyone hanging back under the trees for shade, H&H tore it up again.

The gallery is here:

Enjoy..

Wakarusa 2011. Sunday night. It's all over but the shouting. To me, Dirtfoot is as much an integral part of Waka and the Mountain as anything. The legendary ChompDown sets, spotting Scott help clean up the fields, Dirtfoot just pretty much IS Wakarusa. So it's fitting that they closed the festival this year on the backwoods stage.

And the set did not disappoint. It was full on Dirtfoot madness in the best way. I couldn't think of a more fitting close to and excellent Wakarusa.

The full gallery is here:

Enjoy..

Sunday, Wakarusa 2011. Despite 3 days in pretty rough heat, for the most part we had survived Waka again. Carrie Nation (no strangers to the mountain) cranked out a blistering set.

The gallery is here:

Friday Night, Wakarusa 2011.

Despite an incredibly hot day on the mountain, the crowd out out in force for MMJ's set on the main stage. I've really dug these guys since the first time I saw them in downpour at Langerado several years ago.

There's something about MMJ that just flat owns. They've been playing astoundingly well all tour, and this set was no exception. They rocked the mountain, big time.

The full gallery is here:

Enjoy..

One of the things I've grown to really love about festies at Mulberry Mountain, is looking for the "great new find"..

It was Mulberry Mountain that led me to Mountain Sprout, and as a result of that, BMB, Tchicken, Whistle Pigs, DMF, Dirtfoot, Carrie Nation and most of my other favorite bands these days.

While this wasn't Hoot's and Hellmouth's first trip to the Mountain, due to schedule conflicts in the past, this was the first time I got to check them out.

Astounding. Seriously, these guys kick major hiney. As a result, Hoots and Hellmouth were one of the two "great new finds" of Wakarusa 2011. So much so, we rearranged our schedule a bit the following day to catch their other set as well.

If you find them in your neck of the woods, it'd be well worth your time to check them out.

The gallery is here: