Jeff Tweedy’s two-night stand in Portland, Oregon was a special event, with Tweedy continuing the tour tradition of adding a unique cover to each night’s encore. At the March 31st show, Tweedy played what he called “the quintessential Pacific Northwest tune of all-time.” After a beat, he added “we won’t play this one again either.” Continue reading »
Jeff Tweedy is currently on-tour with his band (which includes his two sons), promoting his triple-album, Twilight Override. Each night, during the encore, Tweedy likes to include a cover. (Recent shows have seen The Doobie Brothers‘ “What a Fool Believes,” and The Go-Go’s “Our Lips are Sealed.”) At a tour stop in Ventura, CA this past weekend, Tweedy’s choice cover was Neil Young‘s classic “After the Gold Rush.”
The song started with keyboardist Sima Cunningham picking out the melody of the song, to be joined by Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals. The rest of the band slowly joins in. (Though drummer Spencer Tweedy doesn’t play, he adds harmonies.) In the video below, you can watch the cover, which is then followed up with a rare version of the Uncle Tupelo song, “The Long Cut.”
Tweedy has one more month of shows on this tour before playing a few solo gigs in Chicago. Meanwhile, Wilco (Tweedy’s other band) hits the road shortly after that.
The Tedeschi Trucks Band returned to The Beacon Theater in New York for the second week of their ten-night residency, and for night five, added a few special guests for a few covers. After covering Junior Wells‘ “Little By Little,” and Bob Dylan‘s “Down in the Flood,” the band was joined onstage by Wilco guitarist Nels Cline for a cover of The Rolling Stones‘ classic “Loving Cup.” Continue reading »
The Outlaw Music Festival tour hit the road with its most recent leg last week, featuring performances by Willie Nelson, Wilco and Bob Dylan. During Dylan’s set on July 29th in Virginia Beach, Bob added a few new wrinkles to his setlist. On the 29th Dylan busted out his “Highway 61 Revisited” for a tour debut. But more interesting for our purposes was the 16th song in the set. For the first time since 2002, Dylan covered “Searching For a Soldier’s Grave.” Continue reading »
In Memoriam pays tribute to those who have left this world, and the songs they left us to remember them by.
It seems only fitting that a band known as the Grateful Dead would have so many songs about death. In fact, whenever a member of the Dead universe passes, there’s no shortage of songs to pay tribute to the one newly departed.
Such was the case with the passing of Phil Lesh on October 25, 2024. In the hours and days afterwards, many bands took to the stage with heartfelt tributes to the Dead’s bass player. Perhaps most notable was the jamband Phish, who, that same night, performed a cover of “Box of Rain,” a song co-written by Lesh and Robert Hunter.
The song holds the distinction of being the last track the Grateful Dead ever performed live before the passing of Jerry Garcia. Lesh added it to the band’s July 9, 1995 setlist at Soldier’s Field because he felt the song “Black Muddy River,” another song about death, was too melancholy to end the show and the tour on.
While Lesh will first and foremost always be remembered for his time in the Dead as one of the most innovative rock n’ roll bass players of all time, it’s what he did in the 29 years after Jerry’s passing that might be his greatest legacy.
Lesh kept the spirit of the Dead’s music alive by playing and collaborating with multiple generations of musicians. He helped ensure that not only would the Dead’s music live on, but that there would be many great musicians to play the music in the band’s open-ended style.
“I continue to seek out multiple musical partners, in a quest for that elusive chemistry that comes and goes as it wishes,” Lesh wrote in his 2005 memoir. “Sometimes ‘it’ happens onstage, or sometimes in rehearsal, but it always leaves me breathless and wonder-struck.”
At Friday night’s Yo La Tengo show at Chicago’s Metro, fans got a surprise when the trio covered Wilco’s “If I Ever Was a Child” as the third song in their first set. Fans got a much bigger surprise a set and a half later when all six members of Wilco, on an off night in their own local residency, joined Yo La Tengo on stage for four more (non-Wilco) covers. Continue reading »