Tag: Lockn Festival

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Playing through it: Derek Trucks talks perseverance after loss ahead of Lockn’ gig

Derek Trucks (with wife/co-bandleader Susan Tedeschi) has gone through a series of losses in recent years, but Tedeschi Trucks Band continues to dig deep and find solace in new musical journeys. They play Lockn' this weekend. Publicity photo by Ian Rawn

There were moments, Derek Trucks admits, that he wondered how Tedeschi Trucks Band—the electrifying 12-piece Southern roots outfit he leads with his wife, powerhouse blues vocalist Susan Tedeschi—could continue. In February, the band’s keyboardist/flute player Kofi Burbridge passed away after battling heart disease, and a couple months prior, longstanding bassist Tim Lefebvre had left the group to pursue other projects. Two years earlier, Trucks, a former member of the Allman Brothers Band, also lost his uncle, ABB’s drummer Butch Trucks, and the band’s leader, Gregg Allman, who both died in 2017. Ultimately, the ace guitarist, who’s also toured with Eric Clapton, persevered: “The only way we know how to deal with things like this is to play through it,” Trucks says, during a recent phone chat from his home in Jacksonville, Florida.

On February 15, the same day Burbridge died, Tedeschi Trucks released its fourth studio album, Signs, a dynamic roots-driven effort shadowed by grief. The group had also just finished headlining its fifth straight Wheels of Soul Tour, an amphitheater trek featuring a rotating cast of like-minded artists. This weekend, the band tops the bill on Saturday night at Lockn’, where they will be joined by Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, who in kind will welcome Trucks for a set with his solo band on Friday.

C-VILLE Weekly: You just finished Wheel of Souls for the fifth straight year. What do you enjoy about the collaborative tour?

DT: It’s good for the band to see how others operate. When you go out for six weeks, you really get to know people. The first few years it was mainly people we were really familiar with—Doyle Bramhall, a close friend, and Los Lobos. This year I didn’t know the Blackberry Smoke guys or Shovels & Rope very well, so before we started the tour in Jacksonville we had a big cookout at the house. We ended up having great chemistry. There was zero drama, which is usually impossible with 60 people on the road for that long. The sit-ins were really good, and I think we made some lifelong friends.

Signs, understandably, has heavy- hearted moments that address your recent losses. Has playing the songs live this summer helped with the healing?

We got ultimately tested the day the record came out, which is the day Kofi passed away. That’s the closest we ever came to canceling a gig. Playing has been super therapeutic and cathartic, but also really hard. There are certain tunes, every single night, where I’ll remember a part that he wrote or not hear his flute in a certain place, and then it really hits hard. You can hear it in the whole band, and notice when someone on stage is having a Kofi moment.

For such a large unit, the band sounds really unified on the record, and you and Susan give the other members moments to shine. After a decade, has it gotten easier to figure out how to showcase your deep talent pool?

It gets easier, but then it gets harder, when you lose someone. When Kofi got sick, [keyboardist] Gabe Dixon stepped in with a beautiful mindset, and the band had to mentally recommit, and everybody pulled really tight together. It’s shocked me how far the band has come this quickly and how healthy it feels, musically. Everyone is digging a hell of a lot deeper, because there’s a new sense of purpose.

Is there anything you learned playing with Gregg Allman or Eric Clapton that you apply to your role as a bandleader?

I’ve learned that if there’s anything keeping the engine from running clean, you have to confront it and clear the air. Things don’t have to be perfect personally, but if you’re not in it for each other, there are hang-ups that prevent you from exploring and playing your best shit. You have to create a space where people feel comfortable. In this band when something doesn’t feel right we wear it on our sleeves, and that makes it easier to fix.

You’ve become regulars on the Lockn’ lineup. What keeps bringing you back?

At first it was the family reunion vibe—running into Phil Lesh, Jimmy Herring, and my brother (Duane Trucks of Widespread Panic). We don’t do a ton of festivals on purpose, but familiar faces always made this one feel good. Then when we did Mad Dogs with Leon, and that was just a magical few days; it was a heavy lift to learn all that material, but it was one of those collaborations that exceeded expectations and really felt like it mattered. I heard from a lot of people that it was an important reconnection for Leon, since it was near the end, and it felt good for us to be a part of history being passed down. That wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the festival.

And this year you’ll be swapping sit-ins with Trey Anastasio. What do you admire about his guitar playing?

Trey is a really thoughtful player, and he listens. I like playing when you get to a place when you’re thinking intelligently, almost like working on a puzzle, and Trey is great at finding those places. I’m looking forward to finding that space, where the playing almost has a playful dialogue. There are a lot of good ideas bouncing around, and everybody on both sides thinks this is going to be really fun.

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ARTS Pick: Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians

Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians play Lockn' Festival Friday, August 23. Publicity photo by Todd Crusham

Starry nights: Edie Brickell rejoins her band the New Bohemians for a string of festival dates, including a slot at Lockn.’ Though Brickell and the band have been on-and-off since rising to fame in 1988 with the album Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars and it’s inescapable hit “What I Am,” they’ve maintained a fanbase so rabid it’d put “a smile on a dog.” Brickell’s spent her off-tour years raising children with hubby Paul Simon, and collaborating with Steve Martin on the Tony-nominated Broadway musical Bright Star.

Friday, August 23. $69-299, 4:15pm. Infinity Downs Farm, 1500 Diggs Mountain Rd., Arrington. (424) 252-2540

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ARTS Pick: Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow takes the stage Sunday evening at Lockn' Festival at Infinity Downs. Publicity photo

In 1994 Sheryl Crow followed her breakout smash single “All I Wanna Do” by asking, “Are you strong enough to be my man?” Soon after, the private life of the former high school beauty queen became as popular as the numerous hits from the 50 million albums she sold. Crow has been linked romantically to Owen Wilson, Kid Rock, Lance Armstrong, and Eric Clapton but never let gossip distract from a career that began with singing backup for Michael Jackson. Her musical hookups are the real story with dozens of collaborations that include The Rolling Stones, Prince, Luciano Pavarotti, and Willie Nelson. The fiercely independent rock star has also fought battles with breast cancer, a brain tumor, stood up for political and social causes, and never skipped a beat.

$139-279, 5:25pm. Lockn’ Festival, Infinity Downs Farm, 1510 Diggs Mountain Rd., Arrington.

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The Doctor is out: George Clinton stops by on the road to retirement

George Clinton, who announced he will retire in 2019, makes one of his final concert appearances at Lockn’ Festival on Friday. Publicity photo

George Clinton is back. George Clinton is leaving.

In April, just three months after releasing “I’m Gon Make U Sick O’ Me,” a single from Medicaid Fraud Dogg, the first Parliament record in 38 years, Dr. Funkenstein announced he’ll retire from touring in spring 2019.

It marks the final phase of a career spanning five decades, two chart-topping bands, and a successful solo career. Clinton’s dabbled in movies and television along the way, and his music has influenced countless hip-hop, R&B, and soul musicians. His samples are ubiquitous.

Ahead of his August 24 gig at Lockn’, the Prime Minister of Funk talked to C-VILLE Weekly about drugs, touring, and our funk-free POTUS.

C-VILLE: So you’re pretty familiar with the Charlottesville area, right?

GC: We used to play there all the time—right near the university. What’s the group’s name that’s from there?

Dave Matthews Band.

Yeah, Dave Matthews. We used to play together all the time. I remember we played there the year Virginia and Florida State played. I’m from Florida—I live in Tallahassee.

Any wild stories from hanging around C’ville?

Oh, that was back in my crazy days. But the shows were always good. All I can remember is that it used to be really icy and snowy. We was all up in the snow.

Speaking of your crazy days, you’re sober now, yes?

My last eight years. Well, I got my medical marijuana card and my pipe, my papers. I keep that handy. But I’m 77 now.

How has the creative process changed for you since you got sober?

I got an album that just came out, Medicaid Fraud Dogg, and I definitely wrote that one sober. The one before that was First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate. That was while I was getting sober. But this one was completely sober. It actually feels just like the old days, back in the Mothership days. The response we’re getting from people about the album and the video has been amazing.

Can the Lock’n crowd expect new music or classics?

The last couple years we’ve been doing the new stuff, but you’ll see some of the old stuff. I just look at the people and figure it out right from the stage. We never have a set list. We have so many different people come to shows, different ages, nationalities, genders. You have to look at the audience and say, “they look like they’re feeling this way.”

So, we can improvise—we can play old hit records and jam ’em at the same time. It’s like a funky Grateful Dead.

Do you enjoy playing festivals like Lockn’?

Is that the one with Widespread Panic? Those are our boys. We love it. We’ve been doing it for years, back to the early days of Lollapalooza with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I feel like it’s getting better nowadays. The only good shows for a while were electronic music. Now I feel like there are a lot of bands that are coming back to the festivals.

How do you feel about the way music, specifically black music, has changed over the years?

You know, we did that record with Kendrick, To Pimp a Butterfly. He’s one of my favorites of the new style. I’m still into like Scarface and Ice Cube. But mixing it up with Kendrick was good. Right now, I also like Cardi B and a lot of the Atlanta music. I’m down with that because we did a lot of stuff in the ’90s with Outkast, and that seemed to be an outgrowth of the P-funk thing. Funk is in the DNA of hip-hop.

What is it about Kendrick that you like?

He’s artsy fartsy, like Prince did with rock ‘n’ roll, like Beyoncé with what she do. Kendrick is one of those perfectionists. He works night and day trying to get better. You can tell he puts work in and studies his craft.

Kendrick is also overtly political, and that was never really your thing.

We did it humorously. We were able to get away with a lot of things other people couldn’t because it looked like we were joking. I wasn’t preaching. I was just saying, “here is another point of view.” I tried to mirror the world around me. But I was non-partisan, too. I don’t want to lead nobody down the road and find out something different later on. You realize how much shit you don’t know when you get behind that microphone.

Any thoughts about the current state of politics or President Trump?

I don’t think about that dude. Any day now he gonna dance his way out of there. I just believe in the funk, and he ain’t got no funk.

What’s next for you after you retire from touring?

By the end of next year, I’ll be 78. But the band is in tip-top shape—they got it without me being there. I’ll still be recording, in the studio, keep recording the group, and doing TV and movies and stuff. Fishing.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the Lock’n crowd?

Tell ‘em I said bring two booties, cause I’m gonna make them sick of me.

George Clinton & P-Funk

Lockn’ Festival

August 25

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Ten Things I Love About Tom Petty

Tom Petty co-headlined the Lockn' Music Festival in 2014. Image: MaryEllen Matthews

(To honor the passing of Tom Petty, we are reposting this excerpt from a cover story in September 2014.)

Lockn’ co-headliner Tom Petty has been forging original rock with his band the Heartbreakers for more than 38 years. The Florida native recently talked about the influence of his friendship with George Harrison in an NPR interview: “It was like having an older brother that had a lot of experience in the music business, someone who I could go to with my troubles and questions,” he said.

Now a mentor in his own right, as he approaches his fifth decade as a frontman, Petty finds himself atop the throne of rock ‘n’ roll with a new TPHB album at the top of the charts.

Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood tells a great story. His vivid lyrics about the underbelly of the modern South often detail shady characters or rural economic plight — delivered through the force of the band’s distorted guitar attack. While enduring many personnel changes in his group’s 18 years, Hood and main songwriting foil Mike Cooley remain bonded constants — sounding as vital as ever on the spring-released album English Oceans.

Ten things I love about Tom Petty

by PATTERSON HOOD of Drive-By Truckers

Limiting it to 10 things is hard on Tom Petty, as I’ve loved The Heartbreakers and Tom since I first heard “Breakdown” in that terrible movie FM (he even had a cameo) in the eighth grade.

Here goes the first 10 things that come to mind in no particular order:

1. The Heartbreakers! I could list them all separately and that’d be fine, but collectively, including Tom, they are easily one of the top five greatest bands of all time. Taken on their own they are easily one of the top two or three greatest backing bands of all time. Individually they include one of my top two favorite living guitarists, a top five keyboardist (of all time), two of my favorite drummers (I love Steve Ferrone and I loved Stan Lynch). Loved both bass players too. Love Scott Thurston. A simply unbelievably incredible band.

2. No matter how big they became, they remained underrated.

3. Southern accents. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers always utilized their southernness without ever being bogged down by it or letting it use them.

4. “Southern Accents.” If he’d never written another song “Southern Accents” would be enough to make him one of the world’s finest songwriters. Fortunately for all of us he did write another song or two.

5. Stubbornness. Tom Petty can hold his own with anyone when it comes to sticking to his guns, no matter what. Part of his continued success is he always stuck to it and never backed down. Hell I think he wrote a song about that too.

6. He fought for what he thought was right. Always. Guess that sometimes fell under stubbornness, but deserved its own number. He fought for his independence in ’79 and they bankrupted him. He won anyway. He followed that up with “Refugee.” He fought against the raising of list price in ’81 and won. Then they raised them anyway. And burned his fucking house down. He wrote some great songs about that too. (Let Me Up, I’ve Had Enough is one of his two great underrated albums). They told him that his first solo album wasn’t commercial enough. It had fucking “Free Fallin’” on it.

7. He wrote “Free Fallin.’” They were already telling him he was past his prime. That was 1989. If he’d never written another great song after that—he did. Hundreds more great songs, but “Free Fallin’” is truly one of the great songs of all time.

8. He’s made consistently good to great albums in five decades now. Who else has ever done that? Some have been more successful than others, but there has never been a bad one. Not even a truly mediocre one.

Echo, which he says he can’t even listen to, has some amazing songs and some of The Heartbreakers best playing on it. “Swinging” and “Billy the Kid” deserve to be considered all time TPHB classics. Everyone who was big in the ’70s, sucked in the ’80s. Tom Petty was bigger and better than ever. Everyone who was big in the ’80s sucked in the ’90s. Tom Petty was cooler than ever in the ’90s. This year he had a No. 1 album and is still a huge touring draw. Tom Petty rules!

9. There’s never been a bad Tom Petty show. I challenge anyone to show me otherwise. Sure, some are better than others. I’m sure he’s been sick and there’s been issues and blah blah blah, but has anyone ever actually seen a bad one? When we toured with them, Mike Campbell collapsed from the 100-plus degree heat, on stage, during the set. They literally carried him off (with the guitar still clutched in his hand). They came back on a little while later and finished the set. They were fantastic.

10. He fired The Replacements on stage in Nashville, Tennessee. I was there. The Replacements were my favorite band at the time (still one of my all time faves). They deserved it. TPHB then went out and played extra songs (‘Because We Care!”) and blew everyone out there away. It was an unbelievably amazing show. Then Tom Petty wrote a song about a burned out wasted pop star and used one of The Replacements lines in it (The “Rebel without a clue” line in “Into the Great Wide Open”). It was kind of an asshole move, but very rock ‘n’ roll and very appropriate considering that The Replacements used to cover “Breakdown” drunkenly during TPHB’s opening slot and considering that they had played that last show wearing Tom Petty’s wife’s dresses that they had stolen off of Tom Petty’s bus that afternoon.

I could go on, but won’t. I would also use No. 10 if I was making this list about The Replacements. Nothing is better than a great story.

READ MORE

 

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Ann Wilson on inspiration and ways to agitate

Rock legend Ann Wilson of Heart performs with Gov’t Mule at Lockn’ on Friday. Photo by Jess Griffin

Ann Wilson has been pushing boundaries since the release of Heart’s debut album, Dreamboat Annie, in 1976. Wilson joined the band in the early ’70s at the age of 22, and her younger sister, Nancy, soon followed suit. Between Nancy’s guitar virtuosity and Wilson’s killer vocals, the two changed the face of music, reframing preconceived notions of who and what rock stars could be. Songs like the opening track on Dreamboat Annie, “Magic Man”—which peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart—marked a significant shift in rock lyricism to the female perspective. By channeling her lived experience through songwriting, Wilson echoed the feelings and experiences of a wider array of female listeners, solidifying her place as a pioneer in a male-dominated industry.

“When I first started out in music, I was answering a call to be a musician,“ says Wilson. “I was raised by a mother who just said, ‘Well, you can do whatever you want, why not?’ So I really took that to heart. I never once stood away and looked in at myself and said, ‘Oh, you’re a pioneer.’ I was just looking from the inside out and went, ‘I’m doing this!’ But the net effect is that younger people or women or whoever have watched me and others and gone, ‘Well, yeah, if she can do it, I can do it.”

While women have come a long way in the industry—in no small part because of Wilson—they still have a ways to go.

“I think that young women today probably are working with a lot of the same issues that women of my generation were.” Ann Wilson

“I think that the glass ceiling still exists; it’s just a matter of knowing where it is,” Wilson says. “I think it tends to raise up and up and up. You bust through it and then you find that it’s gotten a little higher, so you have to keep going. I think that young women today probably are working with a lot of the same issues that women of my generation were.”

One noticeable change in the industry came with the advancement of technology. When Wilson got her start, she had to earn her chops, replicating whatever she sang in the studio on stage. Now, singers have a plethora of tools at their disposal when recording.

“The Auto-Tune thing is, I think, the enemy of singers,” she says. “For one thing, when you tune all the imperfections out of the human voice, it sounds totally anonymous and you just start hearing all these voices that sound robotic and don’t have any identity. And so much of the soul is taken out. So much of those little imperfections, those little inflections that are all about storytelling that really make you feel the emotion are all gone. It’s just completely sanitized. …But having said that, if you do a fantastic performance in the studio and there’s one little glitch where you just sound like hell for one note, I’m not above just tuning it slightly to make it not hurt your ears if the whole rest of the thing is beautiful. I just don’t like it when they take mediocrity and try to make it sound good.”

Wilson is in the middle of a solo tour, billed as the Ann Wilson of Heart tour, and will make a pit stop at Infinity Downs Farm to sit in with Gov’t Mule during its set at the Lockn’ Festival. While she and Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes are still working out the setlist, she’s spent this tour performing Heart hits along with a selection of songs by the likes of Peter Gabriel, The Black Crowes and Jimi Hendrix. When narrowing down the covers, she says she picked songs that she not only loves, but that have a message still relevant today. She believes music should provide a commentary on the state of the world.

“I think that artists should be participants,” says Wilson. “They shouldn’t sit back and worry that they’re gonna piss fans off or piss listeners off. They should always serve as a gentle reminder or as a loud voice to always keep it in the front of people’s minds what’s going on—or at least ask them to listen. To agitate, agitate, agitate is the role of what music can do. You have a bully pulpit.”

Wilson has also been performing a batch of new songs. Although she’s been making music for more than 40 years, she finds no shortage of inspiration.

“My husband and I are doing touring differently now,” Wilson says. “We’re not staying in any hotels or flying in any planes. We bought a Coach and customized it to live in, and we’re driving to all the shows and then after the show we go and camp and spend the night out in the woods somewhere and wake up and have our coffee in the woods and then go to the next show. And so I’m getting a lot of inspiration now from being outside and being among folks. When you do it the other way, big hotels and planes and all that kind of stuff, you live in a bubble and it’s harder to get ideas.”

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Beginning stages: Five acts making a Lockn’ debut

CREDIT: Jacob Blickenstaff - Brooklyn, NY - October 5, 2015 - The Record Company (Alex Stiff, Chris Voss, Marc Carzorla)

The Lockn’ Festival returns to Arrington this week, bringing four days of music to Infinity Downs Farm from Thursday through Sunday. The jam-friendly festival is largely returning to its foundational roots, with headlining slots featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic, The String Cheese Incident and Gov’t Mule, which will perform a special collaborative set with Ann Wilson of Heart (see page 39). Looking deeper, the festival’s roster has plenty of new faces—bands from a range of genres that will bring touches of bluegrass, country, folk and blues to the big improvisational rock party. Here are five acts appearing at Lockn’ for the first time.

The Avett Brothers

It was a bit of a surprise that The Avett Brothers decided to forgo their near-annual sellout at the Sprint Pavilion in favor of a set at the jam-centric Lockn’. But the high-energy outfit, led by brothers Scott and Seth Avett, has demonstrated an affinity for the Grateful Dead. Notably, last fall the group joined guitarist Warren Haynes to play a full show of Jerry Garcia tunes at an arena in northern Virginia. At Lockn’ the band will also likely play the Dead, as its Sunday headlining set will feature a guest appearance by Bob Weir.

Since forming in the early 2000s, the group has expanded from a primal acoustic trio, known for heartfelt, ragged harmonies, into a seven-piece folk-rock machine that has headlined huge rooms, including Madison Square Garden. The Avetts have stated in recent interviews that they’re currently working on a follow-up to last year’s Rick Rubin-produced, Grammy-nominated album True Sadness.

Margo Price

Margo Price (left) turned heads in 2016 with the stunning debut Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, which blended reverence for vintage country with hearty, soulful grit. A longtime working-class singer-songwriter in Nashville, Price’s solo debut, full of intensely honest songs like the standout single “Hands of Time,” was released on Jack White’s Third Man Records and soon after catapulted her on stage with the likes of Kris Kristofferson and John Prine. Ahead of her highly anticipated next record, Price dropped a surprise EP, Weakness, last month. The new effort offers a nice sample of Price’s honeyed voice moving between lonesome ballads, old-school honky-tonk and rowdy rockabilly. In between tour dates with Chris Stapleton and Willie Nelson, she’ll perform with her band on the Lockn’ main stage on Sunday.

Marcus King Band

At just 21 years old, blues-rock wunderkind Marcus King has already hit enough musical milestones to make most veteran players jealous. Last year’s eponymous debut by his Marcus King Band was produced by Warren Haynes and features a guitar assist from Derek Trucks. This past Saturday, King and his crew opened for Haynes’ band, Gov’t Mule, at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The weekend prior at the Peach Music Festival in Pennsylvania, King participated in an all-star tribute to Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks, two founding members of the Allman Brothers Band who both passed away earlier this year.

At a time when many Allman Brothers fans are feeling a void, King, who plays the Blue Ridge Bowl stage at Lockn’ on Friday, is a refreshing new face. As the son of a South Carolina blues man, the young musician has fierce guitar chops and a husky, soulful voice—talents he uses to lead his band through a mix of experimental R&B, Southern rock grooves and country porch songs.

The Record Company

Fast success has been found by this Los Angeles-based power trio (pictured above) that delivers full-throttle blues-rock. Lean-and-mean arrangements propel the songs on the band’s 2016 debut, Give It Back to You, which notched a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album. At times, the group channels the minimalist thunder of recent predecessors The White Stripes and The Black Keys, but lead singer-guitarist Chris Vos occasionally dips into a clean falsetto that gives songs like “Off the Ground” an R&B-pop heart. After a recent stretch opening for John Mayer, the band leads off the main stage lineup on Sunday.

Greensky Bluegrass

This year the Lockn’ lineup is a little light on the acoustic side of the jam scene, so anyone seeking a bluegrass fix should catch the Saturday set by this adventurous quintet. Now into its second decade, the Michigan-formed group uses nimble string picking to embark on psychedelic tangents, but that’s only part of the band’s musical equation. The group’s de facto frontman, mandolin player Paul Hoffman, sings like a wise and weathered troubadour and has a knack for writing insightful lyrics. Both anchor the impressive roots-based songs on the band’s latest album, last year’s Shouted, Written Down & Quoted, which was produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos. Beyond originals, the band likes to showcase an impressive array of covers in the live setting, offering inventive, acoustic takes on tunes by Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and Pink Floyd, among many others.

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ARTS Pick: Rockn’ to Lockn’

Adar is one of 12 bands that will battle it out for a spot at the Lockn' Festival. Publicity photo

From the Avett Brothers to Widespread Panic, this year’s annual Lockn’ Festival lineup is a who’s who of dusty rock music, but it’s not just household names. Since the festival’s inception, the Rockn’ to Lockn’ battle of the bands has made it possible for Virginia acts to make their Lockn’ debut. Twelve bands, including local favorites Will  Overman Band, Sun-Dried Opossum, Kendall Street Company and Adar, will duke it out for a chance to take the big stage.

Friday, April 21. $7-10, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 245-4980.