Hartwood Acres hosted a heck of a show on Sunday night.
Unfortunately, I was rather fried after sitting in the blazing sun that afternoon, suffering through another Pirates game. (They lost, of course.) So I didn't make the drive to see Robert Randolph and the Family Band.
I knew I'd be missing a good performance. Randolph plays a mean pedal-steel guitar, taking it to full throttle in contrast to the rather subdued, whiny tones of the instrument on your typical country-and-western song. I have some recordings of him with his own band and with an aggregation called The Word (with members of the North Mississippi Allstars and Medeski, Martin & Wood), and they make for listening, particularly when he tears up Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)."
Anyway, my fellow journalist, music aficianado and IUP graduate Alan Wallace made it a point to get there, and he said that, yes, I missed a good one:
"First time I've seen him and jeez, I'm majorly impressed. ... smokin' band, not much emphasis on vocals, lots of emphasis on jams, played beyond 10 p.m. (10:15 p.m.), which is rare for Hartwood (about 2 hrs, 23 min total) ... big, big crowd ... interesting covers, too: 'Jesus Is Just Alright,' 'Billie Jean" (yep, the Michael Jackson song, which I never would have thought anyone could make cool) and, in the encore, a healthy chunk of 'War Pigs' (Black Sabbath) ... the bass and drum players are his cousins, and during the encore, they all played each other's instruments ... really loud, really high-energy. Definitely worth checking out.
"During the fourth song, they let about 50 girls up to dance onstage while the band played; they brought some kid up from the audience to play a guitar solo on another song; and they let some other kid try to sing on 'Billie Jean' ... let's just say he ought to keep his day job if he ever manages to land one ... but that's hardly something to criticize the band for. These guys know how to rock the house, HARD ... I get chills just thinking of what this band would have been like at Graffiti, had they been around while that venue still existed."
Well, I guess I'd better clear my calendar next time Robert Randolph comes to town.
Unfortunately, I was rather fried after sitting in the blazing sun that afternoon, suffering through another Pirates game. (They lost, of course.) So I didn't make the drive to see Robert Randolph and the Family Band.
I knew I'd be missing a good performance. Randolph plays a mean pedal-steel guitar, taking it to full throttle in contrast to the rather subdued, whiny tones of the instrument on your typical country-and-western song. I have some recordings of him with his own band and with an aggregation called The Word (with members of the North Mississippi Allstars and Medeski, Martin & Wood), and they make for listening, particularly when he tears up Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)."
Anyway, my fellow journalist, music aficianado and IUP graduate Alan Wallace made it a point to get there, and he said that, yes, I missed a good one:
"First time I've seen him and jeez, I'm majorly impressed. ... smokin' band, not much emphasis on vocals, lots of emphasis on jams, played beyond 10 p.m. (10:15 p.m.), which is rare for Hartwood (about 2 hrs, 23 min total) ... big, big crowd ... interesting covers, too: 'Jesus Is Just Alright,' 'Billie Jean" (yep, the Michael Jackson song, which I never would have thought anyone could make cool) and, in the encore, a healthy chunk of 'War Pigs' (Black Sabbath) ... the bass and drum players are his cousins, and during the encore, they all played each other's instruments ... really loud, really high-energy. Definitely worth checking out.
"During the fourth song, they let about 50 girls up to dance onstage while the band played; they brought some kid up from the audience to play a guitar solo on another song; and they let some other kid try to sing on 'Billie Jean' ... let's just say he ought to keep his day job if he ever manages to land one ... but that's hardly something to criticize the band for. These guys know how to rock the house, HARD ... I get chills just thinking of what this band would have been like at Graffiti, had they been around while that venue still existed."
Well, I guess I'd better clear my calendar next time Robert Randolph comes to town.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home