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In fits and starts, though.

Lockn’ was reduced to three weekends with one stage, no screens, and only a few bands, but the JRAD/Slip/Medeski+Martin (and Surprise Me Mr. Davis when Nathan Moore joined in with The Slip and Marco Benevento) shows were excellent even though the weather played havoc with the schedule. JRAD made up most of the missed performances on Friday and Saturday nights with daytime shows on Saturday and Sunday (including Pink Floyd and Allman Brothers sets) and finally got a full 3-hour show in on Sunday night. Ironically Sunday was supposed to be the stormiest day of the weekend but there was hardly any rain at all.

The Lockn’ folks graciously made it up to the JRAD attendees by allowing us to return for either the Goose weekend or the Tedeschi Trucks Band (TTB) weekend for free. A long drive again but worth it to see Tedeschi Trucks (full band including the horn section), Marcus King, Gabe Dixon, and Jon Batiste; Lettuce had to cancel due to a positive COVID test. The TTB show on Saturday night was cut short by thunderstorms. The Sunday night show would also have been cut short but it started an hour earlier than on Saturday so they got the full show in about 15 minutes before the lightning and thunder and rain rolled in.

Bonnaroo was cancelled not due to COVID but due to rain from Hurricane Ida.

New Orleans Jazz Fest was cancelled due to COVID but it looks like some clubs shows will still take place.

SweetWater 420 Festival is going to try again next April after having cancelled for both 2020 and 2021. Many of the acts for 2020/2021 played the Peach Festival in Pennsylvania this summer but that was a bit too far for me to travel. Fortunately many of the bands are scheduled again for SW420 for next year, including Oysterhead, Trey Anastasio Band, JRAD, plus String Cheese Incident, Umphrey’s McGee, Spafford, moe., Goose, Oteil and Friends, Turkuaz/Jerry Harrison/Adrian Belew, etc.

Also really enjoyed the four-night online club performances by the Rocky Mountain Grateful Dead Revue in April, featuring the DSO “reunion” of Rob Eaton and John Kadlecik, plus Skip Vangelas, Rob Barraco, Jay Lane, and Jake Wolf. About 90 songs over the four nights. Just saw that the same lineup is performing again over Halloween weekend with Melvin Seals joining in, but no streaming option as of mid-October.

I support COVID vaccines and masks if you want (hey, I don’t want to catch COVID even in the likely event that I would recover), and I understand the requirements for COVID vaccinations or negative tests for indoor shows but I’m not sure why they are necessary for outdoor shows. Especially since other recent large outdoor events (for example, Lollapalooza, college and pro football, etc.) have not resulted in COVID spikes. I understand those requirements for the bands and the crews and staff but they don’t really come into close contact with most of the attendees. Ah, well, better safe than sorry, I guess.

And there was a Phish Live Bait Vol. 17 in July. Plus a new Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon album.

Will outdoor festivals and indoor concerts return by this fall? The Sweetwater 420 Festival originally scheduled for April of 2020 was rescheduled to April of 2021 and has now been canceled. The only major outdoor festival that is still happening this year may be the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, rescheduled to October.

Indoor concerts and performances have also been postponed, to 2022 in many cases. Some indoor music venues are open but with limited seating and mostly local or “tribute band” acts. Maybe “herd immunity” will be declared by the end of the summer and things can start getting back to normal.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. 30 Days of Dead 2020 nearing the end. Will there be a Phish Live Bait Vol. 17 this year or will the Dinner And A Movie series be the 2020 version?

I’m still hoping for a return to outdoor festivals in the Spring, starting with the Sweetwater 420 Festival in late April, and I’m hoping that I will still be here to enjoy them. Stay safe.

So all the concerts I mentioned in the last post have obviously been cancelled or rescheduled. Haven’t even done as much couch surfing as I had hoped, although nugs tv has been streaming weekly shows from moe., JRAD, Phish, Bob Weir & the Wolf Brothers, Tedeschi Trucks Band and Widespread Panic, plus others including Billy Strings and Daze Between Jerry Garcia celebration. Sweetwater 420 plans to be back in April of 2021 with many of the acts that were scheduled for 2020.

Less than two months to Sweetwater 420 so I need to start streaming some of the “down ticket” bands (like “Kingfish” Ingram) to draft out a daily schedule.

Very glad JRAD will play two sets this year – last year’s single set was almost washed out. And a Marc Benevento “solo” set, too.

Phish fans should enjoy the warm-up for their concerts this summer at Piedmont Park with the Trey Anastasio Band and Oysterhead sets.

Looking forward to other spring concerts – Real Estate, Steve Gunn/William Tyler/Mary Lattimore, maybe Marty Stuart and the Secret Sisters. Have to do some research on The Wood Brothers and The Mavericks.

Also enjoying Nugs TV stream of Melvin Seals JGB with John Kadlecik concert at Ardmore from 10/17/19 (with George Porter, Jr. Trio opening).

Disappointed to miss Interstellar Echoes at Red Clay this week because I think that’s a great venue and they are a very good PF tribute band, but looks like they will be playing more shows in the area, including another show at Variety Playhouse at the end of May.

23 days into the 2019 30 Days of Dead. Going back over previous years to create date-recorded order playlists to better identify the “band version” (Pigpen/Godchaux/Mydland/Welnick).

In a few short years I’ve gone from a Music Midtown fan (Atlanta-based) to a Shaky Knees fan to a SweetWater 420 fan. Maybe Shaky Knees is drifting more towards mainstream than indie or maybe I’m drifting more towards “jam bands”. Good memories of Noel Gallagher, Real Estate, The War and Treaty, Courtney Barnett, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, David Byrne (a fantastic show – tempted to see American Utopia in New York), etc. at SK but really enjoyed the lineup at the 2019 SW420 Festival. Anyway, looking forward to the 2020 SW420 Festival with only the headliners announced so far – Oysterhead, Trey Anastasio Band, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, etc.

Finally added a basic theme.

Recent music listening preference has been live performances by the Grateful Dead (including Dave’s Picks 2019 and 2018 30 Days of Dead), Jerry Garcia Band (Nicky Hopkins 1975 plus Don’t Let Go), Mike Gordon (live 2016-2018), Phish (Live Bait 12, 14, 15), Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (2018 Live Oak and 2019 Port Chester), and Umphrey’s McGee (Live at the Murat and Back at the ‘Nac).

Live concerts music performers over the past few months have included Mike Gordon, Anders Osborne and Samantha Fish, excellent tribute bands for Pink Floyd and Jerry Garcia Band, and “couch tour” of Sweetwater 420 Fest live stream, including Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, John Medeski’s Mad Skillet, Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass, Everyone Orchestra, Claypool Lennon Delirium, Widespread Panic, etc.

Listening to Moby Grape…

Just checking in…Listening to new Steve Gunn, Guster, Kurt Vile, and Grateful Dead Dave’s Picks Vol. 29

Still working to get back to this and fix the theme and formatting.

More songs to add – “I’ll Cry Instead”/The Beatles/45 single, “Positively 4th Street”/Bob Dylan/Greatest Hits