2003-10-16 - 10:04 a.m.
Fritz has us over to his great restaurant, the Connecticut Yankee for lunch on the way to load in. It was great and we were able to watch some of the San Francisco Giants playoff game with some real Giants fans.
I get my first look at the venue after we check into the hotel. The Great American Music Hall may be the most beautiful venue we’ve ever played. It’s an old vaudeville and variety theater that has been meticulously renovated. All the opera booths in the balcony have had the gold leaf re-done perfectly. The sound system is top notch and all seems professionally run. We’re playing this evening with the Hackensaw Boys, who I love and The Old Crow Medicine Show who I don’t know much about except that they’re supposed to be real good. We sound check and head back to the hotel to clean up. The hotel is another price-lined deal within walking distance of the club. It’s cool four star joint with lithos of old microphones on the walls. I dig it. On the way back I stop in to the Virgin Megastore across the street and pick up a CD by J.B. Lenoir. He’s an old Chicago blues master who recorded for Chess back in the fifties. He died young in a car crash. I’d heard his stuff before but wasn’t real familiar with until I saw the Wim Wenders movie that was part of the Blues series put on by Scorcese on PBS. Wenders concentrated on Lenoir and another, older musician named Skip James. I would have bought something by Skip James but his stuff was sold out. Both were amazing, as is the series. It makes me want to break out all my old blues vinyl when I get home!
I get back about half way through Old Crows set. Tony, the bass player/fiddler with the Hackensaw Boys tells me that Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are going to sit in with the Crow boys. I find this amazing so I run and get my camera and sure enough, there they are and Gillian’s playing drums!??!
The Hackensaw Boys are next and they are great as usual. They sound like they come from another era all together. The crowd loves em’ too.
Our show goes great. The crowd is pumped and the Happy Brigade and a lot of Northern California crowd are represented. Yonder Mountain String Band is playing across town and the general sense is that they will hurt our attendance. They have 2 nights so I figure those that really want to see us will see Yonder the other night. Those that choose to see Yonder both nights didn’t really want to see us. Was that an obvious statement or what? Overall our attendance was probably hurt a little but everyone seems satisfied so it’s all good.
We have a real early call tomorrow to make a festival near Santa Barbara so we skip the after party. What a great venue the Great American Music Hall is. I hope we get to come back soon!
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