An interview on Time.com I recently read, with author and musician Elijah Wald being questioned on his recently released book How The Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll, got me thinking about the state of the musical record albums. Albums are fairly new, in the context of the history of music, and the creation of such has become an art form in itself.

Here is an Elijah Wald quote from the Time article:

The Beatles were the first superstar pop group to simply cease to exist except on record. As late as the 1940s, pop music was what bands played when people went out dancing. The records were just what you listened to at home. The Beatles were the first group to realize that pop had become records, and that they never needed to step on a stage again in their lives. That’s a huge shift, and [although] I think it would have happened without them, they were the catalysts.

So, now we are in a world where there is another huge shift. Artists are struggling to profit from record sales. Even the best artists. In today’s economy with the technology available to us free music downloading is becoming fairly standard. Yes, randomly we hear about someone getting fined for hundreds of thousand of dollars by the RIAA, but for the most part there is little to no threat against illegal downloading.

For the first time in about 40 years artists are faced with the situation where the album once again is supporting the live performance. No longer can artists solely record albums and expect to make a living. The question now becomes whether the art form of making an album will be lost, and the focus of artists will shift to live performances or artists will continue to focus much of their efforts on making the best studio albums possible in hopes of boosting touring attendance and revenue? And what of artists with limited live appeal (but perhaps brilliant albums), do they get weeded out in this tough economy? It seems only time will tell for many of these questions as we progress into a new age of popular music.

Delfest 2009 in Cumberland, MD

I was extremely impressed with how much the festival seemed to be geared towards the fan experience. The longest line I waited in was about 10 minutes for coffee each morning. Prices were completely reasonable, only two bucks for a bag of ice, or a cup of coffee! My feeling is that the prices were kept low to keep people from leaving the fairgrounds and keeping traffic in and out of the festival to a minimum. Of course, I was told that most festivals make it impossible to leave and come back, so being able to come and go as I pleased was a convenience.

The Main Stage Delfest 2009

Most importantly, the staff was not a comprised of robots, but rather understanding people who were allowed the flexibility to make the weekend run smoothly. There were multiple instances in which an employee following a strict set of rules may have put a sour taste on the weekend, but I instead was pleasantly surprised at the manner in which I was treated.

My fears of waiting in line for hours to get in, and my will call ticket not being found were relieved when we made it into the Allegany County Fairgrounds with relative ease on Friday afternoon. We went and set up camp in some tall grass (rookie mistake) in the 90 degree midday heat just in time to drink a few brews and head over to the main stage.

Original Campsite

The first band we saw was the The Infamous Stringdusters. The Nashville-based sixtet seemed odd to me, it looked they were putting absolutely no effort into their playing, yet the music coming out was energetic. They had some well written songs, with good vocals and some nice tradeoffs with their leads.

The Infamous Stringdusters

Next up was the Del McCoury Band. It was hard not to be impressed by Del McCoury, a bluegrass legend who even played rhythm guitar for Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys back in 1963. McCoury is a true performer with palpable charisma. I was fortunate enough to walk by Del as he was riding his cart out of the main stage area and see him joking and talking with all his fans walking by. His smile and stories are charming, and his Friday night set became a sing-along for his longtime fans.

Railroad Earth closed out Friday night with a fun and energetic set. Railroad Earth is one of my favorite bands out there today, writing great songs and combining that with great live jamming and interplay. Their songs are truly classics, they ooze with passion and very American themes of freedom, hard work the simple life. I’ll save my thoughts on their improvisational abilities for their late-night set on Saturday.

After Railroad Earth we decided to move the campsite to some well-groomed grass near the baseball fields. We must have looked a little strange carrying fully set up tents across the campgrounds at midnight or so, but it proved worth it later in the festival when we have some shelter from the storm to come. Too tired and worn out to make the late-night set, we hit the sack and called it a day.

Camping at Delfest

We woke up Saturday morning to more heat and sun, and decided to go play some frisbee on the baseball fields. After this a friend and I headed down to the Potomac, which runs right along the campgrounds. We decided that we’d try our hand in some crayfish hunting, something neither of us had done since childhood. With some limited success we ended up swimming around for a while before going back to the campsite.

Around 11 a.m. we made our way back to the mainstage for The Lee Boys. Save for Roosevelt Collier, their brilliant 12 string pedal steel guitarist, I find their rock / soul to be fairly generic. The set was enjoyable, like some Sunday morning gospel rock.

Sam Bush

After The Lee Boys we headed back to the campsite for a few hours. Our friend Jeremy of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong fame (yeah, he opened for Ludacris) started playing some acoustic guitar for us, and upon hearing the guitar, a friendly stranger came by and joined with his steel guitar. Jeremy and our new friend got down to some serious pickin’.  Here’s a short video I got of a traditional bluegrass song.

Saturday afternoon we went to see Sam Bush at the main stage. While Sam Bush has some great songs, and that polished sound of a well-practiced band, what I really dig is the jamming. Bush has the rare and special ability to hit those notes that transcend standard improvisation and elevate jams to new heights. We were all thoroughly enjoying the music and sunshine when the rain came. It started slowly, though even from the very beginning each raindrop was noticeably large and freezing cold. About 10 minutes later the skies opened up into one of those storms where you wonder if it would actually be possible to rain any harder.

Thunderstorms

Looking back, the storm seems like a blur. We went through about half an hour of hail, flash-flooding and tornado-like winds. In an area near our campsite that was completely dry before the storm there resided a 15-foot wide river. Tent and canopy pieces were scattered across fields, and the parking lots had turned to mud and water.  Two of our tents were destroyed, while Alan (a former boy scout) proudly boasted about the miraculous survival of his tent. Our cookies had been transformed to cookie soup (delicious…) and campsites and vendors everywhere at the festival had been completely ravaged.

Hail at Delfest

As we learned later, winds hit 80 mph, two people got struck by lightning but refused medical attention (I for one had no idea that it is possible to survive lightning, let alone be conscious enough to refuse medical attention) and the main stage had been so torn apart by the storm they had to move shows to the late night stage temporarily on Saturday night. Originally I was a little peeved that there was no warning, but I recently came across this excerpt from the Del McCoury Band forums answering why there was no warning for the storm:

“None of us knew of the storm until it was right on top of us. The forecast was clear with widely scattered showers. The storm that hit just couldn’t make it over that mountain and it kept feeding off of the Potomac and circling back around to the Fairgrounds. It took everyone by surprise!! I was in the merchandise tent along with Del’s wife Jean and his daughter Rhonda and their manager Stan and many others. Everyone was working together just to hold the tent down and ride out the storm. Like I said..it took EVERYONE by surprise. I have heard that there hasn’t been a storm like that in the area for over 55 years! It was just an ‘Act of God’…and we’re glad that no one was seriously hurt.”

Mud on Sunday Morning

After Del McCoury played his Saturday night set at the indoor late-night stage while the main stage was being rebuilt. They finished their repairs just in time for Leftover Salmon to play their set. While they played with a remarkable energy, Leftover Salmon played a short set without too much jamming. A highlight was “Rise Up,” a fan favorite. From that point on, anyone could shout “rise up” to be greeted with a resounding chorus of “wake and bake!”

After Leftover Salmon we went to see Railroad Earth’s late night set. They played so much differently than their Friday night set it was hard to believe it was the same band. Hardly using any song structure at all, they took the audience with them into a bluegrass trance world. It was as spacey as I’ve ever seen bluegrass. Here’s a video from one of their late night jams.

On Sunday afternoon I saw my last show of Delfest, Cornmeal. One of my favorite bands heading into the festival, I was extremely impressed with their set. Allie Kral plays one of the best leads out there, on fiddle no less. Honestly, I don’t remember anyone else at the festival being able to top the energy of Cornmeal’s peaks when Allie took the lead. It’s not as if Cornmeal is one dimensional though, both “Wavy” Dave Burlingame on banjo and Kris Nowak on guitar are more than capable taking the lead themselves. Cornmeal was the perfect way to send me on my way, a long 10-hour drive to Rochester, NY.

Cornmeal

An event like Delfest 2009 brings people together. I don’t know if it’s human instinct to unite in the face of danger or it’s just the nature of having a uniquely shared experience. Personally I believe that we know no matter how much we write or talk about an experience, only those there will truly understand, and in this way we are bonded. For those of us who stayed Saturday night into Sunday you could sense the closeness. Delfest 2009 was truly a remarkable experience for all those involved, and I for one am looking forward to the third annual Delfest next summer.

"Artwork"

Coffee Bean Brown

You may question why a rock/jam band known for their high-energy live performances would choose perform acoustically. Consider that one of the aspects of Tea Leaf Green that sets them apart from their jam-band contemporaries is their songwriting ability. Yes, they have their share of compositional jam-type songs, but the majority of their extensive catalog (over 200 originals and counting) is comprised of folksy songs that you will find yourself singing along to. If you don’t believe my word that this band can pull off an exceptional acoustic performance, check out their legendary acoustic performance at Cafe Du Nord in 2005 here. Or check out this video of their 2007 acoustic performance of “Earth and Sky” that takes at about the 2:40 mark:

Anyway, if you live in the Baltimore / DC metro area, consider yourself lucky. There have only been a handful of acoustic Tea Leaf Green shows since the original 2002 Coffee Bean Brown performance, and none since 2007. There are also no more accoustic dates scheduled any time in the future. I almost forgot to mention, Tea Leaf Green (the electric version) has blown the roof off of the 8×10 every single time they’ve played there. They love the venue, and keep coming back even though it is admittedly small for them. Hope to see you all there!

Following Trey’s Drug Court Graduation there has been an abundance of speculation about a possible Phish reunion in the near future. The rumors appear to be somewhat legit, for once, as both Trey and Page McConnell have spoken (Trey actually only hinted in an interview with Rolling Stone) of a Phish reunion. Page recently said in a statement:

“Given that I might not even see some of the guys for the next six months, I would say that the announcement of a reunion is premature. However, later this year we hope to spend some time together and take a look at what possible futures we might enjoy. In fact the only real decision that has been made is that when we do get together, it will only be the four of us, hopefully with no distractions. I am really looking forward to that.”

While nothing is imminent yet, the prospect of Phish having tour dates in the next year or so is a real possibility and, at least to one hopeful fan, seems fairly likely at this point.

Also, be sure to check out Phish 93.7 FM, a recently converted country radio station based in Burlington, VT (Phish’s hometown), which claims on its website that “Something phishy’s coming to 93.7 FM Tuesday, July 1st 2008 at 12 noon.” They are in the meantime broadcasting Phish for free, streaming on their website (us937.com).

To read Page’s statement click here.