BobLamonta

I'm not a massive Emmit Rhodes fan (which seems to be the size most fans come in) though there are 6 or 7 of his songs that, when they come up on shuffle, I never skip. New album is an impressive continuation of what he started 40+ years ago. The song "Someone Else" is super catchy and does that thing he does so well. Definitely worth checking out.

Got some FREE lawn / GA seats for some mostly good shows if anyone is interested. ST. LOUIS ZZ Top & Gov't Mule (9/18) INDIANAPOLIS Tedeschi Trucks & Los Lobos & NMass (7/27) NASHVILLE Barenaked Ladies (ugh) w/ 80s acts Howard Jones and OMD (sorta yay?!) (7/5) CAMDEN, NJ Brandi Carlile & Old Crow Medicine Show (7/24)

A combination of principal, spite, and OCD led me to spend about 4 hours late last night burning off as many vouchers as I could. The number of times the system crashed or came back with errors is too many to count. However, in the end, I managed to redeem 16 of my 17 vouchers for concerts I will never attend all over the U.S.! I stuck with acts that I like. My plan is to sell them on Craigslist for half their face value, so that I can get some of the cash TM should have paid out to begin with, and hopefully a fellow fan can go see a great band for less than what they would have to pay TM.

The greatest of the greats. Here's all the guitar-driven live boots I've got of The Purple One, most of them personally edited down to reflect my favorite selections. For the uninitiated, this required listening. He was a force nearly without equal. www.mediafire.com/folder/1o9eb7haxe8ws/Prince

I was fortunate enough to get VIP access to the Nashville show, watching a fair bit of the second set from the side of the stage. I never saw the Dead proper. As a teenager in the early 90s, I was far more interested in the then-rising Phish. I'm a casual Dead fan, but even I had to recognize what an amazing gift it was to see so much of the Grateful Dead on one stage, just a few feet away from me. Really cool memory. The show didn't do a ton for me, as the tempos are so slow and there is such wild inconsistency between the players. You've got Mayer and Oteil giving it 100%, plus Chimenti wh

If there are any Mother Hips fans here, compare the similar riff on "Cold Slope" to the instrumental breakdown in the Hips' "Chum." Both songs offer a stone cold jam. Very happy to hear so many fuzzed out guitars on this new album.

Saw on another board that Ford has apparently reached out via twitter to both Rich and Steve in recent days. So maybe the hatchet is on its way to being buried? CR & RR definitely have their money (though multiple divorces couldn't have helped matters), but they are the only ones in the Crowes with songwriting credits. I wouldn't be surprised if even a member as important as Steve was ever given more than a fantastic annual salary from Crowes Inc. If there's a giant pot from which to share, CR, RR, and Angelus are the ones holding the ladle. But beyond money (and I do believe the mone

Haven't heard the rest of Trigger Hippy yet (apart from the songs on the EP), though what I heard so far was a solid Tedeschi Trucks-style endeavor, though not as strong as that band's latest. Love Steve, very happy for him that he's finding so much joy with this new band, but the Crowes aren't done until they are all dead in the ground. Chris, Rich, and Steve will all need the money at some point, and they will definitely need the adoring crowds. Nothing they do apart garners them a fraction of the attention. There may not be a new studio recording until they are truly old men (no money in

Thanks for all the tips, gents (I assume there's no ladies here... safe bet). Look forward to digging into some of the Bruce stuff as he is one of my all-time favorite musicians. I heard one of his covers of Wharf Rat in college and just thought "what the hell is this? This is the greatest thing ever!" Rabbit hole from there. I know he and Jerry got close (Garcia played some nice solos on "Harbor Lights" and "Hot House"), but I mistakenly assumed that their Dead shows together were a mess. Happy to hear the good stuff! The Veneta insight is welcome as well. I figured part of the appeal there

Thanks for all the recs! It's obviously a daunting catalogue, and while I'm familiar with the basic eras, it's nice to have insight from experts. I will make a completely heretical comment and say that when I listened to Veneta '72, I was largely underwhelmed. I know that was a Holy Grail release for many, but to my newbie ears it mostly just sounded like vaguely out-of-tune versions of material that I really enjoyed in their polished state on Europe '72. I realize that for most, that would be missing the point of the Dead entirely, and I get that. But yeah, I remember wanting to love that leg

Seeking recommendations... I'm in my mid-30s and have been listening to the Dead off and on for 20+ years (mostly off). I have all the studio albums (may have skipped a few from the 80s), all the major live albums (e.g. Europe '72, Dead Set, One From The Vault, etc.), and a couple times a year, I'll spend a few weeks with various Dick's Picks or whatever latest release is getting good ink. But I'm still not very well-versed in the strengths of every era. Anyway, I just spent the last month binging on May and Fall '77, and having loved what I found in that rabbit hole, I'm curious to kn

Anyone on the fence about these reissues should get them because A) it puts some money in Gary Louris' pocket and Gary Louris is an American treasure and 2) the sound on Rainy Day Music is vastly superior to the original CD issue, which was crazy compressed and audibly distorted at times. I mean, the brickwall thing has been a problem for a while, but at least it makes a tiny bit of sense for loud rock music or hip-hop or whatever, but clipping and distortion on an acoustic Jayhawks record? Insanity. The new iteration rights a 10-year wrong. H2H and TTGG are undisputed masterpieces, no doub

Saw Rich/Jackie in Nashville last night. Jackie went on first, which was a surprise. He got a solid response, though the crowd only went ape during his Dead covers. Jackie is a very versatile talent, no doubt about it, but little of his material really connects with me. It had more bite live than on record, but my attention still drifted fairly often. I have 9 songs of his on my iPod right now. Unlikely to change anytime soon, though I liked the Trigger Hippy EP more than I expected to. Interested to see how that unit progresses. Rich played a great set as expected, though there were persiste

Love Neal. Got all his records. My first exposure to his work was back in 2004 when he was touted as the new lead guitarist for the Crowes (before mighty Marc Ford returned to the fold). I end up keeping only a handful of tracks from each of his albums, but between his solo output and his stellar work with Hazy Malaze, I've found myself with a ton of Casal on my iPod (not even including his sideman work). A really talented guy and clearly the type of sideman who brings the best out of mercurial talents.

I've been listening to the new CRB far more than I expected. Despite his faux-hippy lyrics and the put-upon "vibe" of it all, I really like the songs and arrangements (Casal's co-writing helps a lot on this one, I think). And Adam's keys are just the right amount of 70s weird for me. CRB has far exceeded my admittedly low expectations from the beginning. Hope he keeps this group up for a while. As for Rich, my personal favorite Crowe, I'm enjoying the new album as I do all things RR, though it's not quite the leap forward that TACS was over Paper. Was hoping for another big step forward. Thi

If that freebie copy of the ABB book is still up for grabs, I'll gladly take it. Like most, the announcement of their impending retirement has renewed my interest a bit.

Further proof of Rich's underappreciated genius. Free track from his forthcoming album. Can't wait. http://www.amazon.com/The-Records-Free- ... ee_p_tnr_1

Rich's voice is obviously his greatest weakness. I'm a super-fan, so my ears are trained to look past it (a la Dead fans and Jerry/Bob/Phil), but there's no doubt that he's an underwhelming singer overall, and when compared to his brother, there's no contest. That being said, Shug is absolutely right. When you listen to Rich solo material, you are listening to the sounds of the Black Crowes everybody fell in love with, minus Chris voice (and I get that this is a big minus for most people). CR&RR wrote all the BC songs together, but until the last album it was always Rich writing every riff

My shoes hurt too, Dad [sniffles] My shoes hurt too. Nice Freudian slip there. Rich is indeed the riff master. But you're right, he's also the rift master as well. Those Robinson boys are hard to get along with!

Neither the BTF/UTF or the CRB material hits me as hard as Holy Trinity Crowes (SHAMC, Amorica, TSAOC), but there are undeniably gems in both. Even though the live CRB is very hit or miss to my ears, I tend to give that band the edge over latter-day Crowes if only because it seems the purest expression of where Chris is at these days (however, faux hippie and slightly disingenuous that might be). I'm a Rich man, through and through, so as much as I enjoy the Cabin Fever stuff, it was always difficult for me to accept his role being marginalized by CR during that time. It's some weird glitch in

I made another round of "best of" compilations, this time from October 2005, which was an especially great month for the band. Chris was in really fine voice. Anyone who is interested, PM me and I'll send you links. Happy New Year, one and all!

Neil Finn is easily one of the finest singers and songwriters of the last 30 years. Anything he does is worth hearing. Can't wait.

Everything you like about '05-'06 is what gives that era a slight edge for me as well. And the fact that it's true stereo separation (Marc on the left/Rich on the right) makes those recordings even more terrific. That being said, Chris sounds pretty rough on a lot of those shows (relatively speaking - he's still a great singer). If you check out 2/17/97 or 2/27/97 or the Furthur shows (I think they have 7/8/97 and 7/22/97 on nugs.net), you'll hear Chris at his absolute peak. I don't care how strung-out they allegedly were or how much they were fighting, etc., the band is unbelievable in that t

Rich has been a major label success since he was like 19 or something. I think it's hard for a guy like him to conceive of going it on his own completely (self-distribution, all that). Both Robinson solo careers, for all their talk of doing things differently than the Crowes and being "free" or whatever, tend to fall back on old music business paradigms because that's what they've been doing since they were kids. The Angelus doesn't fall far from the tree, so to speak.

Looks like my links were deleted (smart robot!). If anybody wants to hear these, PM me. Again, these recordings are no longer commercially available (apart from about six songs out of fifty). I'm a firm believer in supporting the artists first and foremost. Buy tons of shows on LBC.com (as I have!). But you can't get these particular performances anymore, which is a shame. So hopefully my mix can help out those ears who never got a chance to hear these.