Music

I made it in to San Francisco the other night to see Howe Gelb (known as Giant Sand Man in our house) play at Cafe Du Nord. For those who don't know, Cafe Du Nord is a fancy old speakeasy on upper Market St.   read more »  

The phrase "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" must have been inspired by the 90's Austin, Texas band Bad Livers.   read more »  

Mother Hips at the Starry Plough in BerkeleyHere's a basket of pics from this winter...  read more »  

I'm not trying to be a hep music journalist here but since I do have friends that like to keep up vicariously with my music adventures, here are some the things I listened to this year... in no particular order:

Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris

Era Vulgaris is far and away my favorite record this year and I consider it to be at a level of genius on par with the Flaming Lips' Pink Robots album. Some might snark, especially old school Queens fans. My old friends who have gone a little soft are horrified. And even Joshe Homme, the Queens mastermind, would squirm at any hint of pretention.  read more »  

Here it is.... the Hardly Strictly wrap-up. I'm pretty wrecked, probably because I had boys on my shoulders for 8 hours/day all weekend. Highlights and lowlights after the jump...

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Just about anybody who knows me or this blog knows that Danny Barnes has been my favorite musician for 17 years or so. (His band used to be Bad Livers.) During that time, we've become good friends and I also handle his website. He's always gotten the nod from world class musicians (Bill Frisell, John Paul Jones, Tim O'Brien, and many others) but he's remained in relative obscurity to the masses... until this past weekend.

While on tour with Robert Earl Keen and warming up for the likes of Bob Dylan and Dave Matthews Band, turns out that Matthews himself is a huge fan and invited him to play w/ DMB at some Texas shows. You could say it went over BIG!!  read more »  

Our favorite weekend of the year is almost upon us.... the seventh Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

This year, thankfully, doesn't have any crossover superstars that make the scene entirely too crazy (such as Willie Nelson or Dolly Parton) but we still have to make some utterly cruel choices, especially late on Saturday. We get some good rockin' on Sunday morning and Friday's evening program is great too, although we'll miss it! Continue on for a full rundown....   read more »  

Check out this new release from the Skinny Singers, aka Tim Bluhm (of our beloved Mother Hips) and Jackie Greene (Jackie Greene Band, current incarnation of Phil Lesh and Friends). The link below takes you to a stream of audio samples from all 10 tracks.

Rob Brown sends us "Double Vision," the first widescreen 7-minute flick we've seen since he and Lisa (her film debut, she's pretty good) moved to Nashville from Los Angeles.

Do you know what a badger does?

Good news for drummer extroadinaire Wally Ingram... the doc says he's cancer free!

For those not in the know, Wally has played with everyone from David Lindley, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Sheryl Crow, and most recently Stockholm Syndrome. I used to see him duo with Lindley every chance I got. This photo is from Sausalito in 2001, where they played the most epic version of "Sport Utility Suck" ever and genuinely insulted a good portion of the art fair crowd!!

Way to beat it, Wally. It inspires all of us.   read more »