Hot Tuna w/ Steve Earle 7/23/10 Shubert Theater New Haven

Show started promptly at 8pm. Entered to Steve Earle doing Devil's Right Hand. Geat set with inter-song banter from Earle. He certainly has been around the block and back. Stints in jail, multiple failed marriages, heroin addiction et.al., you get his meaning when he says to be genuine as a folk singer, you have to live the songs. Pancho and Lefty off the the 2009 Townes release was great. Galway Girl, Nashville Blues, Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain, and the poignant Poor Boy Fighting A rich Man's War were all superb. Earle played much harmonica, some bozouki, and mandolin.

Veteran Bay-area rockers Hot Tuna breezed through the setlist that could have been written on a napkin in 1971. No complaints though as we got to view Hesitation Blues, I Know You Rider and some other Tuna jams. G.E. Smith, Jorma, Barry Mitterhoff, Casady, and Skoota Warner rounded out the band. Show ended promptly at 11pm. I'm hoping that Shubert policy was the cause for no encore and not the graying rockers. Didn't Hot Tuna play at Winterland until 4am?

The Low Anthem 7/18/10 Green River Festival

Providence RI band that plays either really soft or really loud. Standup bass, duelling clarinets, foiled cellphone loop, shaker made of pill bottles, pump organ with a cancel Columbus Day sign on it. This band is truly artistically original. One tune had a bowed saw and another had a mini tuba thing. Bass dude had a great hat made from a coffee burlap bag

David Wax Museum 7/18/10 Green River Festival

Eclectic americana in the dance tent. Caught the last couple songs from their set. They hopped off stage and sang in an impromptu circle an old spiritual number which was great

The Felice Bros. 7/18/10 Green River Festival

Booze-aura soaked rockers from upstate New York are hard-livin hard-tourin outfit that smell like a hangover. Popular release Yonder is the Clock has some pretty good cuts. Whiskey in his whiskey?

Unit 7 7/18/10 Green River Festival

Old timey rockers in the vein of Squirrel Nut Zippers, this band had horns , singers and dancers. Baritone sax dude had a baritone voice to match. Frontman singer looked like Tom Waits

Calexico 7/18 Green River Festival

Tuscon rockers who have played with Iron and Wine, house band for the I'm Not There soundtrack. Feast of Wire and Carried to Dust are two great releases by this band. The sound is hard to describe because it varies from folk to soundtracky to mariachi. Being a muticultural Arizona border band, they voiced their dismay with the recent political skirmish over imigration policy that has appeared in their state.

Cake 7/18/10 Green River Festival

Snarky Sunday So-Cal closer to this great festival in Greenfield MA. Smart jams with trumpet and rockin guitars. These guys have been around a while and look to go back to small label autonomy which hopefully doesn't equate to oblivion. Nice end to a hot day with their signature War Pigs cover. Why doesn't anyone cover Diary of a Madman or Blizzard of Oz?

Daryl Hall Meadowbrook 7/16/10

Was it a dose of blue-eyed soul, Private Eyes, Sarah Smile, Rich Girl, One on One or the fact that Hall ruled the charts in the 70s. Oate-less on this occasion, Hall has been touring so long he seems like an alien with good hair. Hall sang backup for Todd and does a vocal track on the outtake disc of Fripp's Exposure......really.

Nat Reeves Allstars Bushnell Park 7/12/10

Monday night free Hartford Jazz Society show. Unfortunately missed the Fela tribute band opener. Standup bass Hartford jazz stalwart Reeves is a local jazz prof who fronted some young lions for this show. Weather held nicely and event was well attended. Bass, trumpet, sax, piano, and drums were in full swing through some standards. Got a close look at expert drum solo. You can make a living playing jazz

Burkina Electrc 7/01/10

Burkina Electric hail from the West African nation of Burkina Faso. They blend African rhythms and dance with drums and electronics. Held on a beautiful evening at Wesleyan's CFA courtyard, it was quite a spectacle. Sound artist Lucas Ligeti of Festival in the Desert fame seems to be the driver of this high energy band. He played a theremin-type set of sticks channelled through a laptop. This "instrument" used infra-red light that was bothered by flash photography. Who knew that songs about chickens and saying hello could be so lively.