February 2025 Recap
With Eggy, Cymande, Battle of the Jug Bands, Teague Alexy, and more!
Eggy:
2.2 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Driftwood
Sunday #711 saw Jim Hinkley covering bass duties for the rarely absent Phil. Beyonce and Kendrick had a good night at the Grammys but my vote for best band went to SRB! The night went something like this:
Bertha
Beat It On Down The Line
Loser
Me and My Uncle
Candyman
Happy Birthday, Em!
Tough Mama
II
Foolish Heart
Greatest Story Ever Told
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
Crazy Fingers >
Drums
Space
High Time
Tribute to late drummer Steve Fine during Drums:
Munchie on drums and Brandon of congas:
2.7 The Stretch at Driftwood
with:
Loving Cup
Back on the Train
New Speedway Boogie >
Bird Song
West LA Fadeaway
Wolfman’s Brother
Rock and Roll
2.8 Slippery People at First Ave
The Talking Heads tribute act featuring Joe Dunn of Frogleg and Jimmy Rogers of God Johnson was outstanding on songs such as “Naive Melody” and “Life During Wartime”!
2.8 Eggy at Fine Line
Having seen Eggy in the Entry the pervious year and at Vegas’ Brooklyn Bowl after Phish’s first show at Sphere, I knew Eggy’s funky grooves were not to be missed. So I had to hustle the few blocks down first avenue from the Slippery People show. Big night downtown!
CSNY’s “Southern Cross”:
2.8 WE Collective at Gluek’s
One last show on this tripleheader Saturday night! Will’s Collective had Jon Ross, Doug Christiansen, Scott Yonke, and Jon Miller to greet the post-show crowd.
2.19 Cymande at Varsity Theater
Though the band got started in the early 70’s London soul scene, several of the original members were of Caribbean descent and brought percussive island vibes to their sound. They toured stateside with Al Green and had a couple of hits but have remained largely underappreciated in the decades since, both at home in England and here.
A Spotify playlist of songs that sample the band has over 50 tracks on it,
including The Fugees’ ‘The Score’ which sampled the unmistakable ‘Dove’ without permission, resulting in a lawsuit and eventual royalty payments. (Cymande means Dove in Calypso).
Founding members Patrick Patterson (guitar, vocals, organ) and Stephen Scipio (bass) are still with the band, as are prominently featured percussionist Pablo Gonsales and sax player Derek Gibbs. The sprawling, nine piece current incarnation of Cymande also includes drums, a second sax, trumpet, and keys. The show was highlighted by the aforementioned ‘Dove’ and ‘Bra’, another heavily sampled horn laced jam.
The band played Minneapolis as the 5th of only 10 stops in the US and will play across Europe in the coming months.
The Times had a great story on their resurgence recently:
https://www.nytimes.com/.../music/cymande-renascence.html...
2.22 About To Run at Day Block Brewing
About To Run, Art Hoffman’s superb Phish/Trey Anastasio Band tribute, made their triumphant return to Day Block Brewing in downtown Minneapolis Saturday night, taking on the 2019 Trey Anastasio produced project Ghosts Of The Forest. The ensemble, put together by Trey, included the late Tony Markellis on bass and keyboardist Ray Paczkowski, both of Trey Anastasio Band, as well as two backup singers and two additional keyboard players. Jon Fishman of Phish played drums. Many of the songs on the album have been successfully incorporated in Phish’s repertoire, including one of my favorite songs of the modern era, “Ruby Waves”. That song has now been played by Phish 35 times according to PhantasyTour, including the dazzling version from Alpine Valley 7.14.19 that clocked in at 38 minutes. (Watch it on youtube!) Other songs that have made the leap from GOTF to Phish are the atmospheric title track, “Drift While You’re Sleeping'“, the closing track “Beneath A Sea Of Stars”, the lovely “In Long Lines”, and “About To Run”, the namesake of Saturday’s band.
The evening was split into three sets, the first two of which covered GOTF. Art H, who sang lead and played bass, was joined as always by the talented Art Begley on guitar, Mark ‘Munchie’ Collins on drums and Berek Awend on keys. Newcomers to About To Run Beth Supple and Amanda Lane Awend elegantly handled back-up vocals throughout the first two sets and on “If I Could”, the heavenly ballad that features one of my favorite singers, Alison Krauss, on the studio version. Like Trey, Hoffman has a knack for selecting dynamite musicians to collaborate with.
The lights and fog machines added a degree of psychedelia to Day Block’s tasteful second level event space, which was filled with Phans including several young children who seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. Keep an eye for the next time this collective tackles more Phish material and I’ll see you there!
2.23 Battle of the Jug Bands at The Cabooze
For a $5 suggested donation I got to see 10 of the 18 jug bands play, and was thoroughly entertained throughout my three and a half hours at the ‘Boozer. Classic jug band tunes such as Rawhide, King of the Road, Gimme Some Lovin’, Seven Nation Army, Paint It Black, and Ring Of Fire were all approached with a with a jug sensibility.
The event definitely had a DIY ethic to it, with many of the bands rocking homemade instruments including an upright bass made from a suitcase and an ironing board fashioned into a pedal steel guitar. As many as a baker’s dozen people were on stage at a time, playing a motley assortment of old timey instruments: a shovel, a hacksaw, washboards, accordions, kazoos, horns, violins, 5 gallon pails, and jugs aplenty.
This woman offered a brief Black History Month lesson about jug bands as poor people’s music that originated in the south in the late 1800’s. Jug bands obviously have a long and rich history in the US, and lad the groundwork for the blues, jazz, and rock and roll that would follow decades later. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan played in Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions in San Francisco in the 60’s before forming the Warlocks who would of course change their name to the Grateful Dead.
Seven Nation Army performed by 3 Best Samaritans was a crowd favorite:
Amanda Standalone mentioned that she’s played this thing for 24 years straight:
2.26 Twine at Bunker’s
With Gage guesting on flute and Aaron Pederson and Alex Gelking sitting in on guitar.
2.27 Teague Alexy with Jacob Mahon at 331 Club
I am quick to share with people that I met Teague Alexy in 1999 when he moved to the Duluth area from the east coast and starting working in the produce department of the Whole Foods Co-op. I also happened to be working in that very same produce department at the time, and we’ve been friends ever since. Teague and his younger brother Ian, also a dear friend of mine, played Brianna and I’s wedding in 2010.
The first time I saw Teague play, at the Tap Room (now The Rex) in the basement of Fitger’s Brewery complex, I was 20 years old. He was opening for fellow singer/songwriter Vance Gilbert, who years later I would see open for George Carlin.
Teague opened for Ziggy Marley once, and countless other amazing artists as well.
Teague has been a constant in the Duluth music scene ever since, collaborating with countless musicians in a multitude of projects. After many years, he still holds down Monday nights at Sir Benedict’s on the Lake, rocking his acoustic guitar, harmonica and stomping board with tambourine for a sound that would take several people to recreate.
Soul soothing roots is perhaps the best way I could describe Teague’s music. His songs are an eclectic blend of reggae, rock, hip-hop, blues and folk. His songwriting talents have won him at least one national award, for the fantastic “Good Clean High (Off a Dirt Cheap Bottle of Wine)” that was played this evening. Among the many brilliant couplets, this one’s my fave:
“..And I want to be a one man riot
Raising a big ol’ ruckus in the name of a little bit of peace and quiet”
“Whiskey In The Jar”:
“Gold In The Hills'“:
“Riding On A Ferris Wheel Wearing A Big Hat”:
Teague was accompanied by Jacob Mahon (of Saltydog) for this outing, a longtime collaborator who also plays in Teague and the Common Thread and Teague and the Paddy Wagon. I really enjoyed the duo and the interaction between the acoustic and electric guitars. I hope to see these two again soon! I’ll definitely be checking out Saltydog’s residency at Hook and Ladder Theatre (starting off in the Mission Room) Thursdays in March!
Teague and The Paddy Wagon will be playing at the Aster Cafe on Saturday, March 15th and I’ll be there to hear some traditional Irish tunes. Teague also mentioned a new album due out in the next few months so be on the lookout for that as well!
Another 10 shows this month, at nine different venues. Let’s go Spring!